Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 12/09/2025the Japanese edition arrived! it's a family :) 0111
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 27/05/2025in 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 074
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 15/05/2025The 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 151
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 29/04/2025in the early 1900s, American border officials deported anyone whose bodies didn’t conform to their strict definitions of male and female intersex and gender nonconforming people were labeled economic risks who couldn't assimilate to the gendered labor system thebaffler.com/latest/testi... 045
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 27/04/2025truly had the time of my life losing the LA Times Book Prize 040
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 28/03/2025one of my favorite anecdotes is that, in 1971, when Irvine incorporated as a city, the company was so powerful that an official accidentally called the city itself "Irvine Co" 010
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 27/03/2025the CEO of the Irvine Company, Donald Bren, is the richest real estate magnate in America but he has worked to keep a low profile for himself and his wealth even the former mayor of Irvine never met him, except for one memorable interaction: 130
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 27/03/2025the 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 161
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 26/02/2025this takes us back 100 years, when sex surveillance was a violent staple of immigration enforcement in the 1910s, US immigration officials explicitly strip-tested new immigrants (esp immigrants of color) in order to expel people who might fit a definition of trans or intersex 000
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 24/02/2025must-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-... 1239
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 19/02/2025so 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) 270
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 31/01/2025unfortunately they don't make graves like they used to 080
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 17/01/2025tellingly, states that have passed these sports laws have followed them up with legislation to redefine what it means to be a man and a woman along purely natalist lines banning trans kids from sports is step 1 060
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 14/01/2025it's also striking to compare this bill to the original 1936 debates about medical exams in women's sports — the idea was not even popular in the 1930s! 051
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 09/01/2025here’s a telling statistic: in general, you can’t get a credit card until you’re 21, unless you have a co-signer yet racial disparities in credit scores are already present among people in their late teens 020
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 08/12/2024There’s a whole industry of companies buying and selling the rights to license a dead celebrity’s voice and image — and it involves retailers, private equity, and more: 030
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 01/12/2024today is a perfect mail day: the meeting minutes from a radical 1930s debt resistance group (that is almost entirely forgotten today) have finally arrived 070
Michael Waters @michaelwaters.bsky.social · 18/11/2024hi friends, making my debut on this website with an announcement: I’m writing another book!!!! it’s a story about the history of financial surveillance — from private detectives to Black Power activists to, ofc, the invention of a credit scoring system that mediates our access to jobs, housing, etc 6150
