Daniel Engber

Public-health advice is pretty clear that children are especially at risk of heat-related illnesses, but actual heat-related-illness data seem to tell a different story, @danengber reports: theatlantic.com/science/2026/0…

Psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Peter Gray were once allies in the fight against the ONE BIG THING that is destroying children's lives. Then they had a disagreement over which THING, exactly, is the BIGGEST THING of all... from @kait_tiffany theatlantic.com/technology/202…

In the past five years, Americans’ fervor for injections has reached new heights—even as a wariness about vaccines persists, @danengber argues. He examines what this selective preference for needles may reveal about the country’s approach to wellness: theatlantic.com/health/2026/05…

I missed this piece by @danengber when it came out, but it's fascinating. On the contradictions of MAGA's "animal nationalism." theatlantic.com/science/2026/0…

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Remember the "disappearing scientist" uproar of 2002, in the midst of the anthrax scare, when a bunch of microbiologists died mysteriously over a few months? (It turned out not all were microbiologists, the deaths were not mysterious, etc etc etc) nytimes.com/2002/08/11/mag…

@NickClairmont1 Not sure I agree on Lyme but some conspiracy theories do end up proving out. ('Missing scientists' isn't likely to be one of them.)

Mildly frustratingly, he uses as an example in a minor aside in the piece the one batshit sounding conspiracy theory I think has an odds on chance of being correct, about Lyme disease. But hey, I could be wrong.

In which @danengber looks into the story of the missing scientists and determines it is a Summer of the Shark kinda thing theatlantic.com/science/2026/0…

@Katie_Dozier Feel free to reach out!

@danengber I loved your article and am wondering if I could please be DMed an email address to contact you on a very related matter. Thanks!

This is completely fascinating, by @danengber: theatlantic.com/books/2026/04/…

Donald Trump's administration has taken a more active approach to animal welfare than any other president's in recent memory—which hints at something more widespread in right-wing, nationalist politics, @danengber writes: theatlantic.com/science/2026/0…

Trump is, of course, a man whose rise to power has been fueled by his denigration of people for being animal-like. The same politician who describes his political enemies as “vermin”—⁦@danengber⁩ theatlantic.com/science/2026/0…

I don't love how every story just turns into a media criticism story now - often by people who only read headlines. I've been writing about the risk of vaccine myocarditis in the Atlantic for years. theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Is there any lower form of journalism than the "holiday debunker"? Here I inaugurate a new series of holiday-debunker debunkers. First up: DON'T BELIEVE THE MYTH ABOUT THE MYTH ABOUT THE 'TURKEY COMA'

Last year, the Canadian government ordered a flock of ostriches to be killed after some contracted bird flu. The movement to save the birds became a right-wing cause célèbre—and sparked a standoff with authorities, @danengber reports: theatln.tc/myO2ARqE