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Maggie Mertens

@maggiemertens.bsky.social
610 followers 731 following 478 posts

Journalist Author: BETTER FASTER FARTHER, 2024, @algonquinbooks.bsky.social Radio Host: The Forecast Seattle's Weekly Women's Sports Show www.kvru.org/shows/the-forecast/ Co-Founder: www.talkscratch.com Professional laugh-er Contains Multitudes

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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Given all of the news and all of the reporting I've been doing lately, I had a lot of thoughts about what we mean when we say "protect" women and women's sports and what Title IX is really for. maggiemertens.substack.com/p/do-womens-...
maggiemertens.substack.com
Do Women’s Sports Need “Protecting”?
And who is really being protected by our current status quo?
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Really grateful to @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social for inviting me on this morning to talk about this important story, and the general state of "protecting" women's sports. You can hear the whole interview here.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Is there anything better than MAIL!??!?! Go check out the first @talkscratch.bsky.social MAILBAG! in inboxes now. We delved into the secret (?!?) world of Literary Scouts, and the age-old question of how to craft writing that *satisfies* www.talkscratch.com/scratch-read...
talkscratch.com
Scratch Reader Mailbag: What Does a Literary Scout Do?
We’re bringing you craft book recommendations and the basics of lit scouting.
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Jessica Luther @jessicawluther.com · 30/09/2026
I’m always in favor of a collective reckoning around gendered violence but also, it’s fucking exhausting. The sheer tsunami of stories of harm. The desperation from women and survivors that men listen, for once, and learn and change. The force of the righteous and correct anger. Phew.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thanks @thefrankiedlc.news !!!
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thank you!!! @juliekliegman.com
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When a college beach volleyball program in Texas was cut in spring 2025, several players filed a Title IX suit to save it. What happened next was shocking, and, a perfect explanation for how the "save women's sports" crowd is looking in all the wrong places. My latest: slate.com/culture/2026...
slate.com
She Was a College Beach Volleyball Star. Then She Was Abruptly Kicked Off the Team. The Real Threat to Women’s Sports May Be to Blame.
Republicans have made women’s sports a signature issue. What’s really happening shows how cynical that is.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This feels like a big moment for @talkscratch.bsky.social. @deeshaphilyaw.bsky.social is not only a phenomenal writer, she was so generous with her time w/ @latriagraham.bsky.social and so open about survival... financial and otherwise. So many gems here! www.talkscratch.com/the-scratch-...
talkscratch.com
The Scratch Interview #8: Deesha Philyaw on Committing the Cardinal Sins of Publishing, Part I
“So despite short stories ‘not selling,’ I just found other things so that I could keep writing my short stories.”
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I think this is why it's so important to be building new independent media right now... even if the models are not quite working or we have no blueprint ... there will need to be new things stepping in as these institutions crumble.
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 08/09/2026
Was really glad to be able to chat with Madison while she was reporting this story. I knew she'd knock it out of the park, and she did. I'm glad mainstream outlets are finally exposing Sey for the grifter that she is.
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 03/09/2026
NEW: wrote about why it’s so problematic that many of the new women’s basketball documentaries are erasing Black women’s names, greatness, labor, & contributions from the history of the sport.
thefrankiedlc.news
the basketball documentaries erasing black women from the sport
this trend is a real problem
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
We love having @avapwhl.bsky.social on the show. Especially when she helps us understand complex things, like wth life insurance is and what it has to do with the PWHL 😂
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Rahawa Haile @rahawahaile.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Speaking of @coyotemedia.org, we’ve officially launched our long-awaited merch page! You, too, could have a great hat! coyote-media-collective-shop.fourthwall.com
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 26/08/2026
“‘The biggest freaks in the world for me are my favorite people, like you, like me,’ she told Andy Warhol and Maura Moynihan in Interview magazine in 1984. She rejected Dolly exceptionalism and we should try to as well…”
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 27/08/2026
I was interviewed for this piece on right-wing extremism & the WNBA, which aired on NPR's All Things Considered today. You can listen here:
npr.org
Amid rising threats, a WNBA team calls in experts on violent extremism
The WNBA's popularity has risen in recent years, but so have threats and abuse directed at its players. One team is taking a novel approach to this, by partnering with national security specialists.
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Dolly Parton lived with a gay man for years. She was a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ folks and a philanthropic champion of childhood literacy and education, vaccines, and the black people in her community. "We don't know what her politics were"? Please. She lived them. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/a...
nytimes.com
Dolly Parton’s Cautious Politics Resulted in Widespread Affection
Bipartisan tributes demonstrated the success of the singer’s long-running effort to stay out of party politics in a sharply divided country.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Was gonna call @rahawahaile.bsky.social "Scratch's resident Appalachia expert" to introduce this piece, but really Scratch is such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to our backgrounds and things we care about and cover. In any case, read Rahawa on Dolly because it's beautiful.
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I always liked that she chose to be her unapologetic self in the face of a classist, sexist culture that pathologizes and humiliates women who look like her
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
that's it, isn't it?
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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
When the Gatlinburg Wildfires happened in 2016, Dolly gave impacted families $1,000/month to help them get back on their feet. This included my father-in-law, who lost everything in the fire. Dolly gave children in TN free books each month, from birth to the age of five. She was a goddamn saint.
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Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.
Sorry, I can’t type that.
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Elizabeth Preston @inkfish.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Headline says "at least 1 in 4" but the finding was NINETY-ONE PERCENT of NFL players' brains donated from 2016–2021 had CTE. Presumably people were more likely to donate if they had known dementia, so the real number is hard to extrapolate. But, horrifying. 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/u...
NYT headline: "Study's Alarming Finding: At Least 1 in 4 N.F.L. Players Gets Brain Disease"
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 25/08/2026
This reporting is a love letter to my community, & to the skill & thought that organizers bring to every action. I come from a movement & organizing background, before I was ever a journalist. I think you can see shadows of that in this story. 💕
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
this is so so sad
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
What could go WRONG!?!?!?!?!?!
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
If JKR is so anti "men in women's sports" why is Quidditch co-ed?????????
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
why can't we just let people live???
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
wish i were in nyc for this @juliekliegman.com !
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
"You don't want to protect or promote women's sports, you just think trans women are men if they want to participate alongside cisgender women. That's what these columns boil down to." Yes, @sydney-bauer.com !!!! www.sydney-bauer.com/just-call-me...
sydney-bauer.com
Just call me a man already and get it over with
I'm angry. I hate writing when I'm angry. I think it makes me too emotional, too attached to copy and most importantly makes my brain move too fast having ideas pop up and die before I can even get t...
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
if you're looking for some seattle sports and culture media from... another source... player.captivate.fm/episode/41e2...
player.captivate.fm
Real Conversations About Washington State Initiative I-638
Quickly and easily listen to The Forecast for free!
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Quit asking Reo to explain shit to you on your show (unpaid) and just go listen to their show. K? K.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Apropos of literally all the discourse, the latest ep of The Forecast is out today. We dove into WA state ballot initiative 638 - and took the time to interview multiple folks about the possible consequences should it pass: player.captivate.fm/episode/41e2...
player.captivate.fm
Real Conversations About Washington State Initiative I-638
Quickly and easily listen to The Forecast for free!
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 19/08/2026
Turning Point USA aligning themselves with Cunningham should answer any lingering questions abt the impact of her statements & the groups who are rallying behind her. Somehow, I still don't think people will wake up to the reality bc transphobia is still an acceptable form of bigotry to most people.
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham @mauracunningham.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"I’m not mad about the gendered way a woman’s (nearly) invisible labor has resulted in the aggrandization of yet another Great Literary Man (OK, maybe I’m a little mad). What I am is jealous. Because I, like most women writers, will never have an Ina." — @maggiemertens.bsky.social at the new Scratch
talkscratch.com
I Want a Literary Wife
But the economy won't support it.
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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
how do you even reform this shit www.chron.com/news/article...
chron.com
DHS taunts detained Padres coach in fiery social media post
"NOBODY is above the law, and he will remain in ICE custody pending removal."
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
you guys... The Mariners.... You guys..... Why is there no mercy rule in MLB?
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Bradford William Davis @bwd.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
also HALF the women drafted into the new women's baseball league ain't been paid, don't have contracts, have barely heard from the league they're supposed to play for
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The very rocky start to the WPBL has been so frustrating as a baseball fan, women's sports fan, and journalist. So glad @thefrankiedlc.news and @jenramose.online got to report on this: defector.com/the-new-wome...
defector.com
The New Women's Pro Baseball League Offers Hope—And Frustrations | Defector
For most women who play baseball in the United States, playing America’s pastime in a professional league has been little more than a dream. Yet for a select group of women, that dream is becoming a r...
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This part. This is the part. Instead of bringing research assistant wives out of the shadows and made this a paid work position we just decide the next *genius* will come along eventually... maybe when the economy changes and wives can afford not to work again.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This thread is so so so nice 🥹
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I wrote about wanting a wife like Ina Caro. (actually a book industry that actually works). If this resonated with you, sign up for @talkscratch.bsky.social We're building something there that we're really proud of and we think the world needs right now. www.talkscratch.com/i-want-a-lit...
talkscratch.com
I Want a Literary Wife
But the economy won't support it.
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Jessica Luther @jessicawluther.com · 19/08/2026
The Cunningham piece and the Briles piece both dropping today show the problem with access in (sports) journalism. The problem isn't that either person was interviewed. It's that journalists them didn't press them hard at all, on anything. Which is why they were allowed to ask questions.
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Rahawa Haile @rahawahaile.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Today at Scratch, @maggiemertens.bsky.social sits with whose writing ambitions get to see the light of day and the often gendered labor that makes it possible.
talkscratch.com
I Want a Literary Wife
But the economy won't support it.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This is so freaking beautiful. Thanks for writing it @juliapoe.bsky.social . "I need those in the middle of the road to understand something. The people leading this charge don’t want to protect girls in sport. They want trans people to be gone."
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Am really obsessing over this show right now... even if it is giving me v disturbing dreams.
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Mikki Halpin @mikkipedia.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The real predators in sports are coaches, parents, and brands
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Is anyone like... making money these days? Anywhere? Anyhow? Asking for... well no, I'm asking for me. But also, bc @rahawahaile.bsky.social just really made some excellent points here. www.talkscratch.com/legacy-media...
talkscratch.com
Legacy Media Wants to Hire You (No, Not You)
Not me either, but that's OK.
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
We're going there (there is the job boards...)
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Maggie Mertens @maggiemertens.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
ME TOOOOOO
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Eva Holland @evaholland.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Kim is a gem, and this interview is lovely:
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