Michael Waters
@michaelwaters.bsky.social
writer, THE OTHER OLYMPIANS (out now!)
American cities and towns regularly turn to private investors to raise funds for schools and basic infrastructure and on the private bond market, the rich ones win and the poor inevitably lose wrote about the long arc of municipal debt for @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
American Suburbs Have a Financial Secret
Municipal bonds have become an unavoidable part of local governance—and their costs divide rich towns from poor ones.
theatlantic.com
I've read this book and can confirm it's fantastic. The gorgeous cover is only the beginning—you're not going to want to miss it. Pre-order here: bookshop.org/p/books/my-b...
Hugh Ryan@hughryan.bsky.social · 10mo agoIt's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...
"No one knows what will come to replace the international system that is currently collapsing around us, but any political system that prioritizes punishing those who protest genocide rather than stopping the killing has clearly exhausted itself." www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The destruction of Palestine is breaking the world | Moustafa Bayoumi
The rules of the institutions that define our lives bend like reeds when it comes to Israel – so much that the whole global order is on the verge of collapse
theguardian.com
Hi btw!! I was on The Brian Lehrer show last week talking about Palantir — what it actually is, what it's working on, kicking me out of their conference booth/threatening to call the cops on me last week, etc. Here's a link to the segment: www.wnyc.org/story/the-se...
The Secretive Tech Company Working With the Trump Administration | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC
WIRED reporter Caroline Haskins talks about President Trump's plan to employ the tech company Palantir to compile data on America citizens.
wnyc.org
tomorrow: I'm so excited to be in conversation with the great @paisleycurrah.com at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble! come join us at 7 pm! stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/978006...
Michael Waters discusses & signs THE OTHER OLYMPIANS with Paisley Currah
Join us for an in-store event, Michael Waters discusses & signs THE OTHER OLYMPIANS with Paisley Currah, on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.
stores.barnesandnoble.com
I wrote for @theatlantic.com about how archivists are contending with our digital detritus — whether we'll be able to save emails, texts, Discord chats, etc, and what that means for how we tell history: www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
Archivists Aren’t Ready for the ‘Very Online’ Era
The challenge: how to catalog and derive meaning from so much digital clutter
theatlantic.com
this is tonight @ 7pm!! come pick up a paperback copy of The Other Olympians and enjoy my presentation on Sexually Active Popes
Michael Waters@michaelwaters.bsky.social · last yr.in one week: to celebrate the paperback of The Other Olympians, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on our research obsessions hear about historical love affairs, sexually active popes, and much more June 3 @ 7 pm! register here: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh
i'll be giving a brief oral presentation here tomorrow about the most batshit insane nineteenth century love triangle in history ive ever encountered. do come through if you have the time
Michael Waters@michaelwaters.bsky.social · last yr.in one week: to celebrate the paperback of The Other Olympians, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on our research obsessions hear about historical love affairs, sexually active popes, and much more June 3 @ 7 pm! register here: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh
cannot wait for this beautiful and inevitably horny event
Michael Waters@michaelwaters.bsky.social · last yr.in one week: to celebrate the paperback of The Other Olympians, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on our research obsessions hear about historical love affairs, sexually active popes, and much more June 3 @ 7 pm! register here: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh
in one week: to celebrate the paperback of The Other Olympians, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on our research obsessions hear about historical love affairs, sexually active popes, and much more June 3 @ 7 pm! register here: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh
The biggest mistake I see in discussions of trans people's healthcare is the idea that hormones and the like are some special service just for us when really all kinds of people access the same health care for all kinds of reasons but they are *withheld* from us because we are trans
I can’t wait to 1) celebrate @michaelwaters.bsky.social’s THE OTHER OLYMPIANS, 2) share my obsession with Robert Bonner, a Black saloon owner in the early 1900s who had an intense few years in Brooklyn, and 3) hear the amazing research of @leahtigers.bsky.social & @sabs.bsky.social ! lu.ma/lnnvrmoh
Gay Research Outtakes: An Other Olympians Event · Luma
The Gay Research Outtakes: An Other Olympians Event Not every great story makes it to print. What do writers do with the queer figure they became totally…
lu.ma
The Other Olympians is coming out in paperback on June 3, and to celebrate, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on research obsessions that never made it to print come for wine and light debauchery, and maybe even a photo-op RSVP: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh
“In the summer of 1936, Wilhelm Knoll, an influential sports doctor and a Nazi who wanted to purge ‘unsuitable elements’ from sports, began lobbying for sex screenings. This time, he channeled his panic solely onto gender nonconforming women.”
Testing Grounds | Michael Waters
Sex screenings are back in vogue in the realm of sports. The right won’t stop there.
thebaffler.com
I wrote for @thebaffler.com about a century of right-wing fanaticism for bodily screenings, from immigration to prisons to sports — and why what we’re seeing today is different: thebaffler.com/latest/testi...
Testing Grounds | Michael Waters
Sex screenings are back in vogue in the realm of sports. The right won’t stop there.
thebaffler.com
truly had the time of my life losing the LA Times Book Prize
Why have trans people been so vulnerable to political attacks from the right (and scapegoating from the left)? My take in @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol...
Why Are Trans People Such an Easy Political Target? The Answer Involves a Surprising Culprit.
Making a whole group of people this vulnerable does not just happen overnight.
slate.com
Here are 5 books I chose to help one think deeply about the Olympics. It was tough to pick only five! I include works from Caster Semenya, @michaelwaters.bsky.social @davidgoldblatt.bsky.social @jeffersonlenskyj.bsky.social & more. For @shepherdbooks.bsky.social shepherd.com/best-books/t...
The best books to help you think deeply about the Olympics
Jules Boykoff shares the 5 best books on think deeply about the Olympics. Have you read The Other Olympians?
shepherd.com
in the network state scene, Irvine is sometimes mentioned as an aspirational example of a planned city - worth knowing more about!!! www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
The Secretive Billionaire Behind America’s Most Corporate City
Irvine is a seemingly normal place to live—except it’s a radical experiment in what happens when America’s richest real estate developer is virtually the only landlord in town.
bloomberg.com
Michael Waters@michaelwaters.bsky.social · last yr.the Irvine Company owns 75% of the apartments in Irvine, along with most of the city’s commercial and office real estate — giving it a nearly unprecedented amount of control over a mid-sized city it is also behind iconic properties like the MetLife Building in New York
so excited to finally share my investigation for @bloomberg.com into the Irvine Company—the landlord that built the city of Irvine, California—and the highly secretive 92-year-old who runs it www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
The Secretive Billionaire Behind America’s Most Corporate City
Irvine is a seemingly normal place to live—except it’s a radical experiment in what happens when America’s richest real estate developer is virtually the only landlord in town.
bloomberg.com
it took no time at all for the recent bans on trans women in sports to turn into an effort to simply bar trans women from entering the U.S. at all these policies were never about sports — they're ideological cover to sideline trans women out of society www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
US threatens permanent visa bans on trans athletes based on sex markers
Exclusive: State department memo directs officers to bar those deemed to misrepresent birth sex on applications
theguardian.com
must-read piece from @sabs.bsky.social on the news coverage of Sam Nordquist and the meaning of a hate crime: defector.com/who-gets-to-...
so so thrilled to share that THE OTHER OLYMPIANS is a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize!!!!! and alongside so many brilliant historians! (everyone join me in praying I get a Getty Image watermark out of the ceremony)
“All autocracies attempt to control the past in order to control the future.” incredible piece from the always brilliant @hughryan.bsky.social on how we should confront the deliberate erasing of trans people from queer history: slate.com/news-and-pol...
The Trump Administration Just Deleted Part of American History. If They Get Away With It, We Could Be Headed to a Very Dark Place.
This is far more serious than the loss of a few letters.
slate.com
Really good post from @michaelwaters.bsky.social . defector.com/the-trans-sp...
The Trans Sports Ban Portends Something Much Darker | Defector
On Jan. 14, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban trans girls and women from every level of sport, in every state in America. The text of the cynically titled “Protection of W...
defector.com
unfortunately they don't make graves like they used to
I wrote for @defector.bsky.social about the federal bill to ban trans girls from school sports, the history of surveillance in sports, and why this legislation is part of a much bigger, more violent project: defector.com/the-trans-sp...
The Trans Sports Ban Portends Something Much Darker | Defector
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban trans girls and women from every level of sport, in every state in America. The text of the cynically titled “Protection of Wo...
defector.com
