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Maddie Oatman

@moatmanjourno.bsky.social
435 followers 44 following 24 posts

Writer and Editor / Senior Editor at Mother Jones

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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you read one piece on Min Jin Lee's new novel American Hagwon, make it @inaeoh.bsky.social 's: "To hear Lee condemn the racial stereotyping of Asian Americans with such blunt rigor, in a living room sumptuously bedecked with books, was deeply satisfying." www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...
motherjones.com
The education of Min Jin Lee
In her latest book, the novelist tackles dislocation and familial sacrifice to ask: Is elite schooling always a passport to a good life?
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Reposted by Maddie Oatman
Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Moms build MAHA. Ofc the men of MAGA have taken it over and turned it into some fragile masculinity project www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Women built MAHA. MAGA bros have taken it over.
Forget regulating food—manly MAHA cares about meat, testosterone, and erectile disfunction.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Department of Meatheads: The MAGA Bros who have coopted MAHA and made it all about protein, testosterone, and erectile dysfunction. @jillfilipovic.bsky.social digs in for our latest in a partner series with @fern.org www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Women built MAHA. MAGA bros have taken it over.
Forget regulating food—manly MAHA cares about meat, testosterone, and erectile disfunction.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Zach Lahn is running for Iowa governor on MAHA-backed promises to bust up Big Ag and hold pesticide companies accountable. But some farmers wonder if he’s for real. Our collab w/ @thefern.org www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Zach Lahn is MAHA’s great farm country hope. Is he the populist hero he claims to be?
He’s running for Iowa governor on promises to bust up Big Ag. But some farmers are questioning his authenticity.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
"We are at a tipping point": A debate about an ICE warehouse provided “an opening in areas where doors are not usually open to Democrats.” @msjpauly.bsky.social on the scene www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
How the threat of an ICE detention center galvanized a Trump-country coal town
“We do deserve better than a plethora of data centers, detention centers, warehouses, biosolids processing plants, massive landfills.”
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Ever wonder how @motherjones.com got its name? Or why car companies wouldn't advertise with us for decades? @monikab.bsky.social traces the groundbreaking magazine's roots in this essay commemorating our 50th anno www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...
motherjones.com
Exploding cars, office monkeys, Watergate: The origins of Mother Jones
Fifty years of journalism by and for “the rest of us.”
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
"The burden of expectations, the sense of disappointment…You start to understand, in some small way, what it feels like to play for England." @timothypmurphy.bsky.social on the weight of committing to cooking or eating a dish for every World Cup country www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
My half-baked attempt to cook through the World Cup
One family's three-month feast, from Group A through chipa guazu.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
"When I buried my father, a man who bequeathed me his entire face but very little of his time, I turned to words from Jesmyn Ward," writes @jamilahking.bsky.social , who interviewed Ward about the unusual word at the center of her new essay collection.
motherjones.com
The obscure word that helped novelist Jesmyn Ward process her grief
“Maybe using that word was the first step out.”
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
“As a child who grew up in a homeless shelter…Johnny Appleseed became a personal hero. A patron saint.” Following in his footsteps—across an America no longer made for walking—was no easy task, @isaacfitzgerald.bsky.social discovered: www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...
motherjones.com
Hunting for Johnny Appleseed in the backroads of America
The true story of John Chapman is much more complex—and booze-fueled—than the history books had led me to believe.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
How glyphosate got its groove back: Scientists are wary of Roundup. MAHA hates it. But it's now being sprayed all over state and national forests, our investigation reveals www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
We are bombarding America’s forests with Roundup
Scientists are wary of glyphosate. MAHA loathes it. And our investigation shows California is spraying it everywhere.
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Reposted by Maddie Oatman
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 07/04/2026
“You are taught from childhood that there is one way to go to heaven, and that way is to perform as a wife and a mother.”
motherjones.com
Trad wife horror story
In Caro Claire Burke's new novel "Yesteryear," an influencer gets stuck in the era she fetishizes.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
She's Been a Trad, Trad Girl: The alternative headline for my interview with @caroclaireburke.bsky.social on her thrilling new novel "Yesteryear"—which sends an influencer back into the 1800s, and is loads of fun. www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...
motherjones.com
Trad wife horror story
In Caro Claire Burke's new novel "Yesteryear," an influencer gets stuck in the era she fetishizes.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Workers in Colorado have effectively shut down the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley with the largest strike in decades. As usual, @genoways.bsky.social is on the scene and wrote a deft dispatch @thefern.org www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Workers in Colorado have shut down one of the nation’s biggest meatpacking plants
It’s the largest strike in decades. Who wins if meat prices keep rising?
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Vincenzo Latronico's slim and unsettling "Perfection" was the top 2025 novel I managed to read this year. Check out why and read my colleagues' top picks www.motherjones.com/media/2025/1...
motherjones.com
The 24 best books we read in 2025
New nonfiction and fiction titles we loved, plus some older ones that were just right for the moment.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
“We were afraid, because what we are feeling these days is Immigration is everywhere.” Veteran criminal justice reporter @samanthamichaels.bsky.social on the effects of the shocking and fearful police presence in Memphis www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
I'm a veteran criminal justice reporter. I've never seen anything like ICE-occupied Memphis.
“It’s about as sad as you can possibly imagine."
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
DOGE cuts/Trump's policies have come as an assault on farmers—especially small farmers. “It would seem like they’re trying to create fewer farms.” Our partner piece with @thefern.org delves into what it could mean for rural communities as we know them. www.motherjones.com/food/2025/05...
motherjones.com
Trump’s assault on small farmers
And what it could mean for rural communities as we know them.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
On Earth Day, don't miss @jackiefmogensen.bsky.social 's story about a rare salamander at threat of extinction from climate chaos, sprawl, and Trump—and the passionate biologists determined not to let us turn our backs on it www.motherjones.com/environment/...
motherjones.com
Legend has it this salamander came from hell. We’re about to send it back.
Climate disasters, human sprawl, and now Trump: This is how extinctions happen.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
@MotherJones is hiring our next class of Editorial Fellows! Learn about investigative reporting by fact-checking for our most ambitious and impactful reporting, with guidance from crack editors/reporters and the amazing @ruthcmurai motherjones.com/careers/fellowships/
motherjones.com
The Ben Bagdikian Fellowship Program
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
After seeking asylum in US and being recruited by the world's largest meatpacker, Haitian workers faced squalid living conditions, backbreaking line speeds, and injuries like "claw hand." Now Trump wants to deport them. Our investigation with @thefern.org www.motherjones.com/food/2025/03...
motherjones.com
They fled Haiti and work America's most dangerous jobs. Trump plans to deport them.
After being recruited by the world's largest meatpacker, they faced grueling conditions on the line. Is the worst yet to come?
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Mi colega @melvisacosta.bsky.social explica la "Habla Inglés" orden de Trump—en español www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd4C...
youtube.com
Trump’s “Speak English” Order Explained—in Spanish
YouTube video by Mother Jones
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Trump's mantra: *They* ruined America; *we* have to take it back. The “theys”, of course, are immigrants, whistleblowers, trans people, journalists, Democrats, civil servants. Hear how they are fighting back, in their own words, in our new cover package www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Trump's targets
He promised revenge. Here’s who’s first on his list—and how they’re fighting back.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
“I was hoping America to be better than back home,” says Haitian immigrant Tchelly Moise. “Someone needs to be held accountable for this, because this is not okay anywhere.” This week's @reveal, a collab w/ @FERNnews, meatpacking workers speak out www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
This week's episode of Reveal: Immigrants on the line
Haitian meatpacking workers are in the crosshairs of Trump's mass deportation agenda.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
“How can you so fully misunderstand basic human biology and then legislate about it?” @msjpauly.bsky.social talks to biological anthropologist @kateclancy.bsky.social about Trump's insane definitions of "male" and "female" www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Trump’s definitions of "male" and "female" are nonsense science with staggering ramifications
"How can you so fully misunderstand basic human biology and then legislate about it?"
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
In one of the most powerful essays we've run in recent months, @eminietfeld makes a brave, incisive case for rethinking the popularity of "The Body Keeps the Score" www.motherjones.com/media/2024/1...
motherjones.com
What the most famous book about trauma gets wrong
People kept telling me to read "The Body Keeps the Score." I was shocked at what it actually says.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
“Trump has basically said he is waging war on science and scientists," as a source told @jackiefmogensen.bsky.social Plenty of them are now anxious about their jobs and their research; here's what several had to say www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
“Waging war on science”: Researchers worry about their jobs under Trump 2.0
"There are a lot of days where I feel very much like just quitting all of this."
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Reposted by Maddie Oatman
Amy Littlefield @amylittlefield.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Stop everything you're doing and read this @julialurie.bsky.social story on adoptions right now. And next time you hear someone talk about "making adoptions easier," remember this is what that can look like. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
She was pregnant and needed cash. Utah's thriving adoption industry was happy to help.
"It's like you're…baiting them in," said one adoptive mother.
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Maddie Oatman @moatmanjourno.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Mining the critical metals that we need for everything from EV batteries to solar panels and wind turbines is a dirty, dangerous business. What are the alternatives? @VinceBeiser explores www.motherjones.com/environment/...
motherjones.com
A $60 billion-a-year climate solution is sitting in our junk drawers
In rich nations, just a fraction of trashed electronics is mined for critical metals. We’re going to have to up our game.
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