Michael Leibel

“These were puzzles that had served as beacons in the darkness, calling and challenging and inspiring us for decades. On average, the model took just three hours’ worth of computation to dispose of each of them.”

“There’s but a hair’s breadth between slop and goop.”

I can’t believe it. Both the Canes and Knicks in their finals. Wow.

There should be more horses involved in journalism

They should allow Gary, Ron and Keith to drink in the booth

A request for “breaching equipment”—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings—was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

This is a big one. Stellar reporting from Sarah Fitzpatrick. To call it a must-read is an understatement: www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

oh no he’s got Mr Marbury www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Cash hasn't killed caring or quality in college ball. My latest after that stunner of a @ncaa.bsky.social Sweet 16, looking forward to #FinalFour www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

I will read everything Cullen Murphy writes, obviously, and this one is particularly lovely. Not to be missed: www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

"For all of the economic evolutions in the NCAA, the qualities of a championship team haven’t changed," @sallyjenx.bsky.social writes

Tottenham Hotspur owners Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis turned a mid-table football team into a European heavyweight. Now the partnership is collapsing spectacularly — just as the club faces being dumped from the Premier League. Read more: bloom.bg/4bVPG5Z 📷: AMA/Corbis via Getty Images

MARCH

The wisdom of the 5:30 am diaper package. Take note, UNC Athletics.

“The pattern is everywhere: Condition people to rely on the system. Erode their vigilance. Then, when something breaks, point to the terms of service and blame them for not paying attention.”

Last year, The Atlantic gave me $10,000 to gamble with. What started as a journalistic gimmick turned into something more... unnerving. My cover story on the online betting boom that's warping sports, culture, politics, and the psyches of millions of young men: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

In which @elcush.bsky.social explains why scarcity is in demand for companies (and uses variations of the word “drop” 23 times in doing so):

Exclusive: HSI, a branch of DHS that usually investigates drug cartels and human-trafficking networks, is probing the 2020 election results in Arizona, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Sarah Fitzpatrick, and Nick Miroff report.

Wrote about the central lie of prediction markets. How they are the perfect technology for a low-trust society, simultaneously exploiting and reifying an environment in which believing the motives behind any person or action becomes harder. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Trump is burning through missile stockpiles as if the inventories were endless. And they aren’t. And China and Russia are watching. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

While he was detained at Dilley for over four months, 13-year-old Gustavo Santiago said he felt as if he would “never get out.” “I just ask that you don’t forget about us,” he told ProPublica in a video call.

This is actually a fun all-star game

Normalize Heelys

Testing something www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

This @tyrangiel.bsky.social story has everything: the importance of the BLS, the one tech leader that worried CEOs will talk with candidly, and the deepest challenge AI poses outside of jobs

This is a great piece by my colleague spencer on the bad bunny helftimeshow but of course there’s never been a more divisive idea in American history than all of us being American, we fought a civil war over it and Trump is nothing if not manifest opposition to it www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

The Bad Bunny halftime show immediately chased by the AI slop Svedka ad was incredible whiplash

Only one who got the ball into the end zone was Bad Bunny

Starting him young

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

BREAKING Greg Bovino has been removed as Border Patrol "commander at large" and will return to El Centro Calif, where he is expected to retire soon. A stunning turnaround after Pretti killing. Bovino's traveling blue city crackdown is over www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Hell yeah

Incredible paragraph in Robert F. Worth's excellent reporting from Minneapolis: www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

I’m at the hospital I’m at the cafeteria I’m at the combination hospital and cafeteria

We have a goalie fight! Sergei Bobrovsky skates all the way down to challenge Alex Nedeljkovic (h/t @msmambo.bsky.social)

In December, I traveled to Montgomery to visit the Legacy Museum, which traces the story of Black America from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration. I wanted to understand how the museum & its affiliated sites were operating in a moment where so much of the history they present is under attack.

Caleb Williams makes a play that no one has ever seen before every two-three weeks

They named him Owen because the Bears were 0-2 when he was born... WHAT 😂

@jonbois.bsky.social you know what to do

“If audiences haven’t been enjoying sex scenes, well, maybe that’s because most sex scenes haven’t been doing their job.”

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG... www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

So proud of my Carolina Panthers

The protein-maxxification of America has gone too far