Sophie McBain
@sophiemcbain.bsky.social
Award-winning features writer and book reviewer for the Guardian, the Times and New Statesman magazine. Portfolio & contact info: sophiemcbain.com
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Sophie McBain
@sophiemcbain.bsky.social
· Nov 20
‘Look, they’re getting skin!’: are we right to strive to save the world’s tiniest babies?
The long read: Doctors are pushing the limits of science and human biology to save more extremely premature babies than ever before. But when so few survive, are we putting them through needless suffe...
www.theguardian.com
In the UK the no. of babies who survive after being born at just 22 weeks tripled in one year. This wasn’t due to a new treatment, but something much simpler.
My first @theguardian.com long read is on the science & complex ethics of care on the cusp of viability www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
My first @theguardian.com long read is on the science & complex ethics of care on the cusp of viability www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
Reposted by Sophie McBain
Well worth a read on the impact of AI on critical thinking and education
"Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?"
By @sophiemcbain.bsky.social
"Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?"
By @sophiemcbain.bsky.social
Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?
From brain-rotting videos to AI creep, every technological advance seems to make it harder to work, remember, think and function independently …
www.theguardian.com
October 19, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Well worth a read on the impact of AI on critical thinking and education
"Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?"
By @sophiemcbain.bsky.social
"Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?"
By @sophiemcbain.bsky.social
Boston recovering from a big weekend
October 20, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Boston recovering from a big weekend
@lindastone.bsky.social Hi Linda, I'm a journalist for the Guardian and tried contacting you via your website without luck - I wondered if you might have a few minutes to chat for a piece I'm working on? Can explain more via email - sophie dot mcbain at gmail dot com. Thank you!
September 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
@lindastone.bsky.social Hi Linda, I'm a journalist for the Guardian and tried contacting you via your website without luck - I wondered if you might have a few minutes to chat for a piece I'm working on? Can explain more via email - sophie dot mcbain at gmail dot com. Thank you!
Loved interviewing Kiran Desai for @theguardian.com
Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’
Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’
Since winning the Booker prize, the Indian author has spent two decades writing a follow-up. She talks about being longlisted again — and the immigration raids creating fear in her New York neighbourhood
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Loved interviewing Kiran Desai for @theguardian.com
Such a touching belated birthday gift…
July 27, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Such a touching belated birthday gift…
This piece is gut wrenching www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
“The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River.”
The July 4 Texas flooding ripped our Kerr County home from its pillars, pulling us into the water and into the night. Then morning came.
www.texasmonthly.com
July 12, 2025 at 2:06 AM
This piece is gut wrenching www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
These kinds of pieces are so important - terrifying and very upsetting to think of how much scientific and medical progress is being set back by Trump’s cuts, the lives that could have been saved and now won’t be
Harvard scientists paved the way for a pioneering cancer immunotherapy that has added years to patients' lives.
Now their work is under an all-out assault, after the Trump administration cut nearly $3 billion in research funding to Harvard.
Now their work is under an all-out assault, after the Trump administration cut nearly $3 billion in research funding to Harvard.
He had six months to live. Then came an experimental cancer treatment launched by Harvard researchers. - The Boston Globe
The hunt for a medical breakthrough has been caught up in the Trump administration's political assault on the university.
trib.al
July 9, 2025 at 11:56 PM
These kinds of pieces are so important - terrifying and very upsetting to think of how much scientific and medical progress is being set back by Trump’s cuts, the lives that could have been saved and now won’t be
I haven't been able to post this because have been forced off-line thanks to concussion, but I was thrilled to make the cover of @theobserveruk.bsky.social 's The New Review with this piece on miracle survivor stories
July 8, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I haven't been able to post this because have been forced off-line thanks to concussion, but I was thrilled to make the cover of @theobserveruk.bsky.social 's The New Review with this piece on miracle survivor stories
Sometimes parenthood is realising that you, once a self-respecting and relatively normal individual, now move around the house alone humming "move it like a mango, party like a pear" to yourself
June 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Sometimes parenthood is realising that you, once a self-respecting and relatively normal individual, now move around the house alone humming "move it like a mango, party like a pear" to yourself
Reposted by Sophie McBain
This state only exists in the morning, in the shower, when you remember that thing you said decades ago.
Yeah. You know what you said.
Yeah. You know what you said.
June 18, 2025 at 1:44 AM
This state only exists in the morning, in the shower, when you remember that thing you said decades ago.
Yeah. You know what you said.
Yeah. You know what you said.
@evaholland.bsky.social hey Eva - I'm working on a story and it made me think of your book Nerve, I wondered if you might be free for a v brief interview about it? Please could you DM me or email sophie dot mcbain at gmail dot com? Thanks so much!
June 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
@evaholland.bsky.social hey Eva - I'm working on a story and it made me think of your book Nerve, I wondered if you might be free for a v brief interview about it? Please could you DM me or email sophie dot mcbain at gmail dot com? Thanks so much!
Reposted by Sophie McBain
Our rates have increased across the board. For the autumn issue, we've just commissioned a feature for £1,000.
SEND US YOUR BEST IDEAS
We're commissioning for our autumn and winter issues. Do you have a five-star feature in your locker? Have a read of the pitch guide and get in touch with us at editorial@the-fence.com. First-time writers are, of course, especially welcome.
www.the-fence.com/about/pitch-...
We're commissioning for our autumn and winter issues. Do you have a five-star feature in your locker? Have a read of the pitch guide and get in touch with us at editorial@the-fence.com. First-time writers are, of course, especially welcome.
www.the-fence.com/about/pitch-...
June 15, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Our rates have increased across the board. For the autumn issue, we've just commissioned a feature for £1,000.
This story is completely chilling
June 13, 2025 at 12:19 PM
This story is completely chilling
Reposted by Sophie McBain
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202... 💥 EXC: For my first edition of the New Statesman as editor, I went on the road with Keir Starmer, discovering a man far more emotional than I expected, struggling to articulate his deepest feelings — and those of the country he leads👇
What Keir Starmer can’t say
The Prime Minister believes he will heal Britain – but can he find the words?
www.newstatesman.com
June 12, 2025 at 6:18 AM
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202... 💥 EXC: For my first edition of the New Statesman as editor, I went on the road with Keir Starmer, discovering a man far more emotional than I expected, struggling to articulate his deepest feelings — and those of the country he leads👇
The eight year old, a propos of nothing: “when I am famous I’m going to have a strict rule of not signing body parts”
June 4, 2025 at 10:59 PM
The eight year old, a propos of nothing: “when I am famous I’m going to have a strict rule of not signing body parts”
Reposted by Sophie McBain
“There are no monsters, and all of them are real.” I talked with @sophiemcbain.bsky.social about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY - about #StarTrek, astrobiology, an #18thCentury “Irish giant,” race, nation, tech, and more. 1/2
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #SFF #monsters #politics #HAMH
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #SFF #monsters #politics #HAMH
Humans: A Monstrous History
Podcast Episode · Intelligence Squared · 17/02/2025 · 39m
podcasts.apple.com
May 25, 2025 at 6:15 PM
“There are no monsters, and all of them are real.” I talked with @sophiemcbain.bsky.social about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY - about #StarTrek, astrobiology, an #18thCentury “Irish giant,” race, nation, tech, and more. 1/2
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #SFF #monsters #politics #HAMH
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #SFF #monsters #politics #HAMH
Reposted by Sophie McBain
For @theguardian.com I spoke to the novelist Yiyun Li whose new memoir, about losing both of her sons to suicide, might wind you with its emotional force. Some conversations will stay with you always, and this was one of them www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
‘My sadness is not a burden’: author Yiyun Li on the suicide of both her sons
As her memoir of losing her sons is published, the author talks about radical acceptance, and how writing fiction helped her to prepare for tragedy
www.theguardian.com
May 17, 2025 at 4:29 PM
For @theguardian.com I spoke to the novelist Yiyun Li whose new memoir, about losing both of her sons to suicide, might wind you with its emotional force. Some conversations will stay with you always, and this was one of them www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
Had to fill out 26 - TWENTY-SIX! - forms for my daughters to attend five half-days of summer camp. Can it really be essential to know the date they last had covid, the dates of all international travel in the past 12 months etc. to supervise some t-shirt tie-dyeing and a few games of tag?
May 22, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Had to fill out 26 - TWENTY-SIX! - forms for my daughters to attend five half-days of summer camp. Can it really be essential to know the date they last had covid, the dates of all international travel in the past 12 months etc. to supervise some t-shirt tie-dyeing and a few games of tag?
This is one of the finest pieces of journalism you’ll read
My father was a Nazi hunter, until he was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, when I was four. Now, a man will stand trial for the crime. What does it mean, after nearly forty years, to seek justice for the crimes of history? My new cover story for the Times Magazine: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/m...
My Father Prosecuted History’s Crimes. Then He Died in One.
www.nytimes.com
May 20, 2025 at 8:03 PM
This is one of the finest pieces of journalism you’ll read
Reposted by Sophie McBain
My father was a Nazi hunter, until he was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, when I was four. Now, a man will stand trial for the crime. What does it mean, after nearly forty years, to seek justice for the crimes of history? My new cover story for the Times Magazine: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/m...
My Father Prosecuted History’s Crimes. Then He Died in One.
www.nytimes.com
May 20, 2025 at 3:24 PM
My father was a Nazi hunter, until he was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, when I was four. Now, a man will stand trial for the crime. What does it mean, after nearly forty years, to seek justice for the crimes of history? My new cover story for the Times Magazine: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/m...
For @theguardian.com I spoke to the novelist Yiyun Li whose new memoir, about losing both of her sons to suicide, might wind you with its emotional force. Some conversations will stay with you always, and this was one of them www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
‘My sadness is not a burden’: author Yiyun Li on the suicide of both her sons
As her memoir of losing her sons is published, the author talks about radical acceptance, and how writing fiction helped her to prepare for tragedy
www.theguardian.com
May 17, 2025 at 4:29 PM
For @theguardian.com I spoke to the novelist Yiyun Li whose new memoir, about losing both of her sons to suicide, might wind you with its emotional force. Some conversations will stay with you always, and this was one of them www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
….
8 year old: *sigh* “mothers, they can be as vicious as a lion or as docile as a cat”
8 year old: *sigh* “mothers, they can be as vicious as a lion or as docile as a cat”
May 8, 2025 at 10:15 PM
….
8 year old: *sigh* “mothers, they can be as vicious as a lion or as docile as a cat”
8 year old: *sigh* “mothers, they can be as vicious as a lion or as docile as a cat”