Angela Watercutter
@waterslicer.bsky.social
Senior Editor, Special Projects @ WIRED
Signal: AngelaWatercutter.95
Signal: AngelaWatercutter.95
“I think I can speak for most of our employees when we say now more than ever, employees are feeling somewhat betrayed by the federal government as federal employees because of what we're navigating and the length in which we're navigating it.”
www.wired.com/story/social...
www.wired.com/story/social...
Social Security Employees Grill Management During Tense Shutdown Meeting
WIRED obtained notes from a Social Security Administration management meeting, where employees pressed leadership on plans for the agency.
www.wired.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:49 PM
“I think I can speak for most of our employees when we say now more than ever, employees are feeling somewhat betrayed by the federal government as federal employees because of what we're navigating and the length in which we're navigating it.”
www.wired.com/story/social...
www.wired.com/story/social...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
Hey everyone, thank you so much for the outpouring of support.
I need to pay rent, and I launched a GoFundMe spot.fund/LahutRentFund
I need to pay rent, and I launched a GoFundMe spot.fund/LahutRentFund
Click here to support Jake Lahut's story *LahutRentFund
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spot.fund
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Hey everyone, thank you so much for the outpouring of support.
I need to pay rent, and I launched a GoFundMe spot.fund/LahutRentFund
I need to pay rent, and I launched a GoFundMe spot.fund/LahutRentFund
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
This is a really hard day and I want to just add as WIRED's politics editor -- WIRED's politics reporting isn't going anywhere. We are very much here and won't stop.
Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.
Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.
The key thing to watch here: they fired a Wired political reporter. That’s the title doing the most effective, pointed work. Teen Vogue’s stuff was culturally impactful, but less focused on investigating the administration. Within the Condé portfolio, Wired and the New Yorker are the canaries.
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 PM
This is a really hard day and I want to just add as WIRED's politics editor -- WIRED's politics reporting isn't going anywhere. We are very much here and won't stop.
Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.
Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.
Yes, Makena, yes!
Zohran Mamdani's Campaign Figured Out How to Channel Fandom
The Zohran Mamdani campaign ran a competent social media program, yes. But it's the fandom it fostered that transformed Mamdani into a digital (and IRL!) phenomenon.
More here:
www.wired.com/story/zohran...
The Zohran Mamdani campaign ran a competent social media program, yes. But it's the fandom it fostered that transformed Mamdani into a digital (and IRL!) phenomenon.
More here:
www.wired.com/story/zohran...
Zohran Mamdani's Campaign Figured Out How to Channel Fandom
Much of the content about Mamdani online hasn't come from his campaign, or the dozens of political influencers invited to cover it. It's also come from fans.
www.wired.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Yes, Makena, yes!
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
here is my story about how Zohran's focus on community amid the loneliness epidemic helped young people connect their politics to an organizing infrastructure, that interviewed ZM, and does not use the NYT's framing of "they don't know how to make friends" :-) and also ran 4 days before NYT's lol
Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People
“What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”
www.teenvogue.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:14 PM
here is my story about how Zohran's focus on community amid the loneliness epidemic helped young people connect their politics to an organizing infrastructure, that interviewed ZM, and does not use the NYT's framing of "they don't know how to make friends" :-) and also ran 4 days before NYT's lol
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
Mere months ago, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social was polling at 1 percent—right next to “Someone Else.” Tonight, he was elected New York City’s newest mayor.
www.wired.com/story/the-bi...
www.wired.com/story/the-bi...
November 5, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Mere months ago, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social was polling at 1 percent—right next to “Someone Else.” Tonight, he was elected New York City’s newest mayor.
www.wired.com/story/the-bi...
www.wired.com/story/the-bi...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
It's been a year since Trump was elected. Have Democrats figured out the internet yet?
“I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells @makenakelly.bsky.social:
“I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells @makenakelly.bsky.social:
It's Been a Year Since Trump Was Elected. Democrats Still Don't Get the Internet
“I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells WIRED.
www.wired.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
It's been a year since Trump was elected. Have Democrats figured out the internet yet?
“I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells @makenakelly.bsky.social:
“I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells @makenakelly.bsky.social:
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
alt hed: How Much Antisemitism Is Too Much AntiSemitism? Nick Fuentes Has Thoughts
read @davidgilbert.bsky.social on a really interesting schism happening in the GOP right now:
read @davidgilbert.bsky.social on a really interesting schism happening in the GOP right now:
The GOP Civil War Over Nick Fuentes Has Just Begun
Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes has led to a major reckoning in the Republican party.
www.wired.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:06 PM
alt hed: How Much Antisemitism Is Too Much AntiSemitism? Nick Fuentes Has Thoughts
read @davidgilbert.bsky.social on a really interesting schism happening in the GOP right now:
read @davidgilbert.bsky.social on a really interesting schism happening in the GOP right now:
If you need 10 minutes of distraction today, please do read this story about the time mathematician Georg Cantor made a smarty-pants plea to the Catholic Church
www.wired.com/story/book-e...
www.wired.com/story/book-e...
The Mathematician Who Tried to Convince the Catholic Church of Two Infinities
In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor believed his new theory could help the Church understand the infinite nature of the divine. He miscalculated.
www.wired.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:06 PM
If you need 10 minutes of distraction today, please do read this story about the time mathematician Georg Cantor made a smarty-pants plea to the Catholic Church
www.wired.com/story/book-e...
www.wired.com/story/book-e...
Netflix's new true-crime doc 'The Carman Family Deaths' is based on an epic @wired.com story from 2021. Watch the new trailer here: www.wired.com/story/the-ca...
Premiere: Netflix’s New True Crime Doc Dives Into a Mother’s Mysterious Disappearance
“The Carman Family Deaths,” based on a 2021 WIRED story, chronicles what happened after a son was rescued following a boat accident off the New England coast.
www.wired.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Netflix's new true-crime doc 'The Carman Family Deaths' is based on an epic @wired.com story from 2021. Watch the new trailer here: www.wired.com/story/the-ca...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
NBA stars, mobsters, and marks with fat wallets.
I dove inside the seedy underbelly of private high-stakes poker games, how they can be cheated, and how alleged scams like the "Billups Games" take shape.
For @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/inside...
I dove inside the seedy underbelly of private high-stakes poker games, how they can be cheated, and how alleged scams like the "Billups Games" take shape.
For @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/inside...
Inside the Star-Studded, Mob-Run Poker Games That Allegedly Steal Millions From Players
NBA stars, mobsters, and marks with fat wallets are all part of an alleged ring of rigged poker games. Here’s how these games are assembled, who attends, and how the purported cheating happens.
www.wired.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:46 PM
NBA stars, mobsters, and marks with fat wallets.
I dove inside the seedy underbelly of private high-stakes poker games, how they can be cheated, and how alleged scams like the "Billups Games" take shape.
For @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/inside...
I dove inside the seedy underbelly of private high-stakes poker games, how they can be cheated, and how alleged scams like the "Billups Games" take shape.
For @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/inside...
NEW: I had a very interesting talk with Guillermo del Toro about Frankenstein, AI, tech bros, and whether Mary Shelley really kept Percy Bysshe Shelley's charred heart after he died.
Also, GDT says he hopes to start shooting 'The Buried Giant' next year. (!!!)
www.wired.com/story/guille...
Also, GDT says he hopes to start shooting 'The Buried Giant' next year. (!!!)
www.wired.com/story/guille...
Guillermo del Toro Hopes He’s Dead Before AI Art Goes Mainstream
The “Frankenstein” director tells WIRED the real Victor Frankensteins are tyrannical politicians and Silicon Valley tech bros.
www.wired.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:44 PM
NEW: I had a very interesting talk with Guillermo del Toro about Frankenstein, AI, tech bros, and whether Mary Shelley really kept Percy Bysshe Shelley's charred heart after he died.
Also, GDT says he hopes to start shooting 'The Buried Giant' next year. (!!!)
www.wired.com/story/guille...
Also, GDT says he hopes to start shooting 'The Buried Giant' next year. (!!!)
www.wired.com/story/guille...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
A @wired.com milestone for me today, if you'll excuse a slightly sappy thread for a sec:
It's been one year since I asked @leahfeiger.bsky.social if she was sitting down when I relayed to her what I was hearing. Hours later, we published this story www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
It's been one year since I asked @leahfeiger.bsky.social if she was sitting down when I relayed to her what I was hearing. Hours later, we published this story www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
Workers Say They Were Tricked and Threatened as Part of Elon Musk’s Get-Out-the-Vote Effort
America PAC door knockers were flown to Michigan, driven in the back of a U-Haul, and told they’d have to pay hotel bills unless they met unrealistic quotas. One was surprised they were working to ele...
www.wired.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:35 PM
A @wired.com milestone for me today, if you'll excuse a slightly sappy thread for a sec:
It's been one year since I asked @leahfeiger.bsky.social if she was sitting down when I relayed to her what I was hearing. Hours later, we published this story www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
It's been one year since I asked @leahfeiger.bsky.social if she was sitting down when I relayed to her what I was hearing. Hours later, we published this story www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
Scoop: In digging into the AI slopification of the White House, I’ve learned that the president of the United States is capable, from time to time, of posting generative AI videos on his own, per a senior WH official.
More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...
More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...
Donald Trump Is the First AI Slop President
How do AI videos end up on Donald Trump’s social media accounts? WIRED investigates.
www.wired.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Scoop: In digging into the AI slopification of the White House, I’ve learned that the president of the United States is capable, from time to time, of posting generative AI videos on his own, per a senior WH official.
More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...
More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
"According to a senior White House official, there are times when Trump will come across a video he finds particularly funny or amusing—either on Truth Social or through other unspecified channels—save it to his camera roll, and release it into the world. Most of the time, though, it’s staffers..."
Scoop: In digging into the AI slopification of the White House, I’ve learned that the president of the United States is capable, from time to time, of posting generative AI videos on his own, per a senior WH official.
More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...
More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...
Donald Trump Is the First AI Slop President
How do AI videos end up on Donald Trump’s social media accounts? WIRED investigates.
www.wired.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:10 PM
"According to a senior White House official, there are times when Trump will come across a video he finds particularly funny or amusing—either on Truth Social or through other unspecified channels—save it to his camera roll, and release it into the world. Most of the time, though, it’s staffers..."
"...with the casino-ification of the economy, the breakdown of a meaningful regulatory apparatus to rein in all of the above—well, it has all come just in time to give novice investors a vehicle to sink their savings into the vague promise of superintelligence."
www.wired.com/story/ai-bub...
www.wired.com/story/ai-bub...
AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All
I talked to the scholars who literally wrote the book on tech bubbles—and applied their test.
www.wired.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:23 PM
"...with the casino-ification of the economy, the breakdown of a meaningful regulatory apparatus to rein in all of the above—well, it has all come just in time to give novice investors a vehicle to sink their savings into the vague promise of superintelligence."
www.wired.com/story/ai-bub...
www.wired.com/story/ai-bub...
Y'all. It's a HUGE day here on the ol' @wired.com because we have a giant package of stories on AI. Like deep, dark reporting on everything AI is doing to our world. I'll call out some favorite stories on subsequent posts, but for now—pick a card, any card
www.wired.com/ai-issue/
www.wired.com/ai-issue/
AI of a Thousand Faces
What happens now that AI is everywhere and in everything? WIRED can’t tell the future, but we can try to make sense of it. Behold: 17 readings from the furthest reaches of the AI age.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Y'all. It's a HUGE day here on the ol' @wired.com because we have a giant package of stories on AI. Like deep, dark reporting on everything AI is doing to our world. I'll call out some favorite stories on subsequent posts, but for now—pick a card, any card
www.wired.com/ai-issue/
www.wired.com/ai-issue/
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
In a given week, OpenAI estimated that around .07 percent of active ChatGPT users show “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania” and .15 percent “have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.”
Here's How Many People May Use ChatGPT During a Mental Health Crisis Each Week
OpenAI released initial estimates about the share of users who may be experiencing symptoms like delusional thinking, mania, or suicidal ideation, and says it has tweaked GPT-5 to respond more effecti...
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:08 PM
In a given week, OpenAI estimated that around .07 percent of active ChatGPT users show “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania” and .15 percent “have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.”
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
Alpha School, which promises to educate kids using an "AI tutor" in two hours a day, is a budding national empire and a darling of the Trump administration.
According to some parents who spoke to @wired.com for this investigation, it's had nightmarish effects on their kids.
According to some parents who spoke to @wired.com for this investigation, it's had nightmarish effects on their kids.
Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out
In Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school’s methods—surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers—to be an education in and of itself.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Alpha School, which promises to educate kids using an "AI tutor" in two hours a day, is a budding national empire and a darling of the Trump administration.
According to some parents who spoke to @wired.com for this investigation, it's had nightmarish effects on their kids.
According to some parents who spoke to @wired.com for this investigation, it's had nightmarish effects on their kids.
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
OpenAI says more than half a million people a week tell ChatGPT they are having a mental health emergency
Over 2 million are telling ChatGPT they have suicidal ideations
www.wired.com/story/chatgp...
Over 2 million are telling ChatGPT they have suicidal ideations
www.wired.com/story/chatgp...
October 27, 2025 at 5:49 PM
OpenAI says more than half a million people a week tell ChatGPT they are having a mental health emergency
Over 2 million are telling ChatGPT they have suicidal ideations
www.wired.com/story/chatgp...
Over 2 million are telling ChatGPT they have suicidal ideations
www.wired.com/story/chatgp...
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
🎇New package alert @wired.com! This one has been in the works for months. If WIRED was going to tackle AI -- something we cover daily -- we had to go big. So here are 17 different stories about the way AI is changing us, even as the technology itself keeps moving www.wired.com/ai-issue/
AI of a Thousand Faces
What happens now that AI is everywhere and in everything? WIRED can’t tell the future, but we can try to make sense of it. Behold: 17 readings from the furthest reaches of the AI age.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:21 AM
🎇New package alert @wired.com! This one has been in the works for months. If WIRED was going to tackle AI -- something we cover daily -- we had to go big. So here are 17 different stories about the way AI is changing us, even as the technology itself keeps moving www.wired.com/ai-issue/
Reposted by Angela Watercutter
Subscribe just to compensate Angela for having to hear me talk about the difference between the birdshot and buckshot ammunition used on Berkley protesters in the 1960s (among other wild phone convos I had for this story in the office)
The things @jakelahut.writes.news's reporting does to my blood pressure...
Experts in civil unrest don’t think a civil war is around the corner. But they’re still nervous about what happens next: “The fabric of what binds America together at this point is basically on its final thread,” one source tells WIRED.
October 22, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Subscribe just to compensate Angela for having to hear me talk about the difference between the birdshot and buckshot ammunition used on Berkley protesters in the 1960s (among other wild phone convos I had for this story in the office)