Jenisha Watts

‼️This still feels surreal but I’m writing a book. Thank you to @TheAtlantic for giving me the space & time to write in first place. 🥹

I’ve written about the backlash to Adult Braces: “I do feel great sympathy for Lindy West. How was she to know that the great omertà of Millennial Feminism—that we had to take whatever people said about their life stories at face value—had broken?”

“Is it possible to be emasculated by Nate Silver? Apparently, yes.” Brilliant piece, as ever, by @mckaycoppins

Last year, The Atlantic gave me $10K to gamble with. What started as a journalistic gimmick turned into something more... unnerving. My cover story on the online betting boom warping sports, culture, politics, and the psyches of millions of young men: theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

Super interesting chat w/The Atlantic’s @elainejgodfrey earlier. We covered the Texas primary, and recent reporting on MAGA women, culture wars, and the Democratic coalition. She told me how excited voters on the ground were to hear Talarico talking about education👇

“The hospital couldn’t deny her care, but we understood the tightrope you walk when you don’t have money. All she could afford to be was grateful.” @JenishaWatts on the predicament of the millions of Americans without health insurance—including her aunt: theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

The Impossible Predicament of the Uninsured | Jenisha Watts My aunt couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. She ended up there anyway. theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

The Cruz family spent years building a life in New York, Caitlin Dickerson writes. Then the risks of staying became too great. Why a mixed-status family chose to leave the United States behind rather than risk being separated by deportation: theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

The American mortgage—long the cornerstone of wealth building—is vanishing, Annie Lowrey reports. She examines what this may mean for the financial security of the American middle class—and the young people who face a future as perpetual renters: theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/…

Jasmine Crockett’s team called The Atlantic’s @elainejgodfrey a “top-notch hater”—then armed guards escorted our reporter out of a rally. Listen to the audio here: theatlantic.com/politics/2026/…

Online, the Texas primary has gotten ugly—but that drama was far from the minds of the voters @elainejgodfrey spoke with, who seemed to like both of their options. “Rather than policy, their preferences came down to style—and not much else,” she reports. theatlantic.com/politics/2026/…

“The hospital couldn’t deny her care, but we understood the tightrope you walk when you don’t have money. All she could afford to be was grateful.” @JenishaWatts on the predicament of the millions of Americans without health insurance—including her aunt: theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

Best part of writing this was interviewing a little girl who is already 10x funnier than I’ll ever be

This is the kind of essay you read and remember forever. Please make time for it. @ebruenig is so talented: theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/…

We all fell in love with journalism through the Post. I interviewed in 1977 and i was shaking; there they were, all the titans. I got rejected and while it was depressing I got to meet my idols. What a time...

“Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse.” theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/…

Trump Admin confirmed its new Gaza plan to me: "Alternate Safe Communities." Palestinians approved by Israel will relocate to temp. housing on Gaza's IDF occupied side. Israel's military told the U.S. that people who move in can't go back to where 98% of Gaza's population lives.

There is no one more fun to read than @caityweaver theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

@elainejgodfrey You are such a great reporter and writer. The details in this profile. 👏🏿 “The lock screen on her phone is a headshot of herself.”

Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.

The Trump administration will pay to incinerate enough food to feed 1.5 million children for a week. When the packets burn, their labels will read: THIS PRODUCT IS A GIFT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 500 tons, from us, to no one.