Julie Beck
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julieebeck.bsky.social
Julie Beck
@julieebeck.bsky.social
940 followers 150 following 130 posts
staff writer covering relationships @theatlantic.com / writing book on friendship in the age of hyperindividualism / creator of The Friendship Files / newsletter: https://julieebeck.beehiiv.com
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Julie Beck @julieebeck.bsky.social · Feb 27
hello bluesky! this is a pinnable intro skeet

I’m a staff writer at @theatlantic.com, where I write about relationships

I’m writing a book about friendship, specifically what’s happening to it in an age of hyperindividualism

and I have two perfect cats, Cherry and Ginkgo
A Publisher’s Marketplace deal report that reads: Category: Non-fiction: Politics/Current Affairs THE FRIENDS WE MADE ALONG THE WAY By Julie Beck Imprint: Thesis March 22, 2024 Creator of The Friendship Files and staff writer at The Atlantic Julie Beck's THE FRIENDS WE MADE ALONG THE WAY, an examination of the state of friendship in American culture, identifying the structural forces that push us away from authentic connection with others and what we can do to fight back, to Niki Papadopoulos at Thesis, by Kerry Sparks at Levine Greenberg Rostan (world). Two perfect angel cats stare at you. They’re white and fluffy with pale pink ears, snuggled together on a hardwood floor. The larger male has one blue eye and one green, he’s lounging, leaning against his sister. She has two green eyes and a scrunglier face than her brother.
julieebeck.bsky.social
I really enjoyed Stephen Fishbach’s novel Escape!—as a Survivor fan, and as someone who thinks way too much about how the desire for narrative shapes our lives
www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
A ‘Survivor’ Contestant’s Empathetic Reality-TV Novel
Stephen Fishbach mines the drama of competition shows to write a cautionary tale about trying to edit down the mess of life.
www.theatlantic.com
February 2, 2026 at 3:04 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
a tribute to everyone who hasn’t forgotten how to love their neighbors 💙

www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...
Americans Love Their Neighbors
Statistics say this is a time of disconnection. Minnesota’s response to ICE shows otherwise.
www.theatlantic.com
January 31, 2026 at 2:17 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
two journalists arrested for practicing journalism—Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort
January 30, 2026 at 5:41 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
essential essential essential life-giving, hopeful piece of writing
adamserwer.bsky.social Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 22d
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...
Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.
January 27, 2026 at 9:12 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
legalize teens!!!
www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...
Can We Just Let Teens Exist in Public?
When malls ban unaccompanied minors and when cities enact curfews, they restrict adolescents’ ability to participate in society.
www.theatlantic.com
January 26, 2026 at 3:15 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
the funny thing about everyone memorializing 2016 on social media is that at the time, people famously hated that year, to the point that everyone was constantly posting "Fuck you 2016" on social media and John Oliver burned the numerals in effigy on TV

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
'Fuck You, 2016'
On blaming a year for the things that happen in it
www.theatlantic.com
January 20, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Julie Beck
ajcousins.bsky.social
"“They specifically asked me if I knew where the Hmong families lived on my street & in the neighborhood.” Lugert-Thom responded, “I don’t know anything about that” & she said they then asked, “Well, what about the Asian families?”"

"“I was a bit shaken & a bit shocked of what I was asked to do.”"
chicagotribune.com Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · Jan 13
A St. Paul resident says federal officers knocked on her door and asked her to identify Hmong and Asian households in her North End neighborhood last week.
ICE in St. Paul: Man roughly detained at gas station, Border Patrol chief jeered in Midway Target
Videos and photos show a prevalence of federal agents in St. Paul recently.
trib.al
January 13, 2026 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Julie Beck
damonberes.com
We are not letting this go

If there is no red line around AI-generated sex abuse, then no line exists.

by @cwarzel.bsky.social and @matteowong.bsky.social
Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This
If there is no red line around AI-generated sex abuse, then no line exists.
www.theatlantic.com
January 14, 2026 at 12:08 AM
julieebeck.bsky.social
thank GOD @faith-hill.bsky.social wrote about heated rivalry www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
A Romance That Actually Takes Sex Seriously
Heated Rivalry understands how relationships develop through physicality.
www.theatlantic.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Julie Beck
theatlantic.com
Renee Nicole Good was killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis—now her family has to cope not only with their loss “but with a campaign designed to justify her killing,” Adam Serwer argues:
First the Shooting. Then the Lies.
The Trump administration has perfected the smear campaign.
bit.ly
January 12, 2026 at 2:45 AM
julieebeck.bsky.social
I just verbally said "all the best, Julie" while leaving a voicemail for my pharmacy.... send help
January 12, 2026 at 3:31 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
when did people become so weird about friends venting to each other?

www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...
The Common Friendship Behavior That Has Become Strangely Fraught
A theme keeps popping up in relationship advice: Don’t vent so much.
www.theatlantic.com
January 8, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Julie Beck
abigbagofkeys.sickonedude.com
You alright man? I keep seeing small damage numbers coming off you
July 8, 2024 at 7:00 AM
julieebeck.bsky.social
She’s taken physical form for edits
December 29, 2025 at 8:15 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
Caught Stealing is A Simple Favor for men
December 10, 2025 at 3:51 AM
julieebeck.bsky.social
seeing a few fashion diapers on this list, I'm just saying... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/s...

www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/...
The 67 Most Stylish People of 2025
www.nytimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
waxahatchee
the mountain goats
bleachers
death cab for cutie
taylor swift
kevinmkruse.bsky.social Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Nov 27
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen multiple times

R.E.M.
OutKast
Radiohead
Beastie Boys
The Roots
chuckwendig.bsky.social Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · Nov 27
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen —

NIN
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Soul Coughing
Poe
Tom Morello
November 28, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Julie Beck
dirtysexyhistory.bsky.social
I need everybody to read this and understand what’s going on. These are spouses of US citizens in the country legally. They have entry clearance and green cards, they’ve passed background checks and have no criminal records. ICE is taking them anyway.

Gift link:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Julie Beck
theatlantic.com
How do you cheat at a conversation? That is the question behind a new AI tool called Cluely, which promises to augment all kinds of communication. But when @julieebeck tried it out, she found that it just makes interactions worse:
How to Cheat at Conversation
A new AI tool promises to improve social interactions but instead makes them worse.
bit.ly
November 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
sometimes I think about the day Apple announced the iPad, and everyone in my college dorm laughed and laughed, and said things like "what's next, iTampon?", certain this waystation between phone and computer with a silly name would never be a meaningful cultural force

anyway now we have iPad kids
November 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
tough to live to see such times, but at least we still have @sophiegilbert.bsky.social to say the plain simple truth so I feel slightly less insane

www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
President Piggy
This is what consequence-free misogyny looks like.
www.theatlantic.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:38 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
I tried out AI that augments conversation, whose founders want you to "cheat on everything." (If this takes off, one expert told me, "everyone who we meet could be a kind of deepfake")

I can confidently say: when it comes to connection, effort is all there is.

www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/...
How to Cheat at Conversation
A new AI tool promises to improve social interactions but instead makes them worse.
www.theatlantic.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:10 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
ginkgo on ginkgo
November 17, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Julie Beck
adamserwer.bsky.social
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
julieebeck.bsky.social
there is one question that will tell you whether you are meant to be a journalist and it is: how much do you like reading PDFs?
November 13, 2025 at 4:50 PM