Maggie Astor
@maggieastor.bsky.social
Reporter at The New York Times writing about the intersection of health and politics, especially in marginalized communities. NYT Guild steward. No, not one of those Astors.
Pinned
Maggie Astor
@maggieastor.bsky.social
· Aug 14
Homeless and Burning in America’s Hottest City
www.nytimes.com
ICYMI: My dispatch from Phoenix about extreme heat's toll on unhoused people.
People are passing out from dehydration, getting third-degree burns from the sidewalk, being hospitalized for heat-related illness and more. One woman was in an accident and the ground burned her foot down to the bone.
People are passing out from dehydration, getting third-degree burns from the sidewalk, being hospitalized for heat-related illness and more. One woman was in an accident and the ground burned her foot down to the bone.
Life goals
Inky says NO THANK YOU to this chilly, snowy day. 🛌
November 23, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Life goals
Can Android please give me the ability to mass block all numbers with a given area code + exchange, to thwart the spammers who call repeatedly from (presumably spoofed) numbers with just the last four digits changed
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Can Android please give me the ability to mass block all numbers with a given area code + exchange, to thwart the spammers who call repeatedly from (presumably spoofed) numbers with just the last four digits changed
Trader Joe's cashier: Lots of frozen foods, wow
Me: Haha yeah I hate cooking
Cashier, a minute later: Man, really stocking up
Me: No, seriously, I REALLY HATE cooking
Me: Haha yeah I hate cooking
Cashier, a minute later: Man, really stocking up
Me: No, seriously, I REALLY HATE cooking
November 23, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Trader Joe's cashier: Lots of frozen foods, wow
Me: Haha yeah I hate cooking
Cashier, a minute later: Man, really stocking up
Me: No, seriously, I REALLY HATE cooking
Me: Haha yeah I hate cooking
Cashier, a minute later: Man, really stocking up
Me: No, seriously, I REALLY HATE cooking
My doctor was harping on my weight gain at my recent physical and telling me my bloodwork was probably going to show I was prediabetic, but my A1C actually went down from last year and I've never felt so smug in my life
November 22, 2025 at 5:26 PM
My doctor was harping on my weight gain at my recent physical and telling me my bloodwork was probably going to show I was prediabetic, but my A1C actually went down from last year and I've never felt so smug in my life
Once in elementary school I was playing a trivia game with a friend, and she scoffed at a card and said "this is too easy: are tasmanian devils real?" But I didn't know and was mortified, so I tried to laugh it off and said "oh that is too easy, pick another, not fair for me to get such an easy one"
If anyone tries to laugh off a question for being too simple, the appropriate thing to ask is “don’t you know the answer?” And if they won’t tell you, ask them why. If they say it’s too easy, ask them why they wasted all this time deflecting and to give you an answer
November 20, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Once in elementary school I was playing a trivia game with a friend, and she scoffed at a card and said "this is too easy: are tasmanian devils real?" But I didn't know and was mortified, so I tried to laugh it off and said "oh that is too easy, pick another, not fair for me to get such an easy one"
I will not look before my doctor calls I will not look before my doctor calls I will not look b
November 19, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I will not look before my doctor calls I will not look before my doctor calls I will not look b
Reposted by Maggie Astor
NEW:
In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.
She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.
Then she died.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.
She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.
Then she died.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.
www.propublica.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:08 AM
NEW:
In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.
She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.
Then she died.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.
She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.
Then she died.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
Just remembering the time I was writing about a long-shot candidate and attended church with her and everyone was told to hold hands with the people next to them, and she grabbed my hand and I stood HORRIFIED trying to figure out if I could let go without being rude and obsessed about it for a week
November 18, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Just remembering the time I was writing about a long-shot candidate and attended church with her and everyone was told to hold hands with the people next to them, and she grabbed my hand and I stood HORRIFIED trying to figure out if I could let go without being rude and obsessed about it for a week
Reposted by Maggie Astor
SCOOP: CDC officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.
(Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...
(Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...
C.D.C. Links Measles Outbreaks in Multiple States for the First Time
www.nytimes.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:28 AM
SCOOP: CDC officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.
(Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...
(Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...
Haven't seen such an explicit, shameless statement of the power dynamics of sexual harassment since Dennis's "the implication" scene in It's Always Sunny www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
November 17, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Haven't seen such an explicit, shameless statement of the power dynamics of sexual harassment since Dennis's "the implication" scene in It's Always Sunny www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
New from me + @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social: Many people are using AI to try to fill gaps in the medical system, from rushed appointments to lack of doctor access to dismissal of symptoms. The gaps are real. So are the risks of AI hallucinations and sycophancy (yes, the sodium bromide case is here).
Frustrated by the Medical System, Patients Turn to A.I.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 7:06 PM
New from me + @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social: Many people are using AI to try to fill gaps in the medical system, from rushed appointments to lack of doctor access to dismissal of symptoms. The gaps are real. So are the risks of AI hallucinations and sycophancy (yes, the sodium bromide case is here).
Reposted by Maggie Astor
“One of the things that really gives me joy is the fact that there are so many amazing, brilliant, creative disabled people out there. But part of my rage — and it’s a very real rage — is that most people don’t really know about them.”
Obit:
Obit:
Alice Wong, Writer and Relentless Advocate for Disability Rights, Dies at 51
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:09 PM
“One of the things that really gives me joy is the fact that there are so many amazing, brilliant, creative disabled people out there. But part of my rage — and it’s a very real rage — is that most people don’t really know about them.”
Obit:
Obit:
Some days it feels good to be statistically literate, and other days you see a claim that pets with a particular company's pet insurance "are twice as likely to live longer"
November 15, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Some days it feels good to be statistically literate, and other days you see a claim that pets with a particular company's pet insurance "are twice as likely to live longer"
Just did a terrible thing for my mental health and searched Bluesky for a particular person in the news, posts about whom would definitely piss me off, and no results came up and I was like ????? and then remembered I muted the name last year. Amazing job 2024 Maggie, saving 2025 Maggie from herself
November 15, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Just did a terrible thing for my mental health and searched Bluesky for a particular person in the news, posts about whom would definitely piss me off, and no results came up and I was like ????? and then remembered I muted the name last year. Amazing job 2024 Maggie, saving 2025 Maggie from herself
ah, the cycle where you manage to squeeze your article down to the allotted word count and then the editing process adds an actually quite useful section and then you manage to squeeze it back down and then the editing process adds an actually quite useful section and then you
November 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM
ah, the cycle where you manage to squeeze your article down to the allotted word count and then the editing process adds an actually quite useful section and then you manage to squeeze it back down and then the editing process adds an actually quite useful section and then you
Reposted by Maggie Astor
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
November 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Me: go to sleep
My brain: did you ever notice how the streetlight coming through the gaps at the top of the curtain makes it look like there are eyes glowing at you from the wall
My brain: did you ever notice how the streetlight coming through the gaps at the top of the curtain makes it look like there are eyes glowing at you from the wall
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Me: go to sleep
My brain: did you ever notice how the streetlight coming through the gaps at the top of the curtain makes it look like there are eyes glowing at you from the wall
My brain: did you ever notice how the streetlight coming through the gaps at the top of the curtain makes it look like there are eyes glowing at you from the wall
This would be a perfect post if the text on the photo were "The Penny, 1793-2025"
The American penny died on Wednesday in Philadelphia. It was 232. The cause was irrelevance and expensiveness, the Treasury Department said. Nothing could be bought any more with a penny, as the cost to mint the penny had risen to more than 3 cents. nyti.ms/48bFd5K
November 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
This would be a perfect post if the text on the photo were "The Penny, 1793-2025"
How fascinating that they don't say what the *results* of the clinical study of these supplement ingredients were
November 12, 2025 at 5:19 PM
How fascinating that they don't say what the *results* of the clinical study of these supplement ingredients were
When you have never been to New Jersey
November 12, 2025 at 3:42 PM
When you have never been to New Jersey
NYC human, despite entire lifetime spent in Northeast, agrees
November 12, 2025 at 12:10 AM
NYC human, despite entire lifetime spent in Northeast, agrees
OK I don't mean to be hyperbolic but this might affect conservatively 65% of my diet
Italian pasta exports to the U.S. could be 'virtually wiped out' by proposed 107% tariffs
The U.S. has hit 13 Italian pasta exporters with an anti-dumping tariff of 92%, which would be added to the Trump administration's 15% blanket E.U. levies.
www.nbcnews.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:03 PM
OK I don't mean to be hyperbolic but this might affect conservatively 65% of my diet
Just got a pitch email about a member of the boy band that sang one of my middle-school anthems hawking supplements, in case anyone was wondering whether we live in hell
November 11, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Just got a pitch email about a member of the boy band that sang one of my middle-school anthems hawking supplements, in case anyone was wondering whether we live in hell
I'm a former political reporter and a former copy editor, so I think it's fair to say I'm pretty knowledgeable about both US politics and the English language, but I've spent the past five minutes trying to parse the second sentence here and I'm still not 100% sure I've done so correctly
The shutdown deal includes a ban on hemp products that none of its negotiators debated in public.
Disappointing that only 24 senators voted against killing an amendment to strike that ban.
www.senate.gov/legislative/...
Disappointing that only 24 senators voted against killing an amendment to strike that ban.
www.senate.gov/legislative/...
November 11, 2025 at 3:48 AM
I'm a former political reporter and a former copy editor, so I think it's fair to say I'm pretty knowledgeable about both US politics and the English language, but I've spent the past five minutes trying to parse the second sentence here and I'm still not 100% sure I've done so correctly
Reposted by Maggie Astor
As expected, Canada has lost its measles-free status because of the long-running outbreak there. With it goes the #measles elimination status of the entire zone of the Americas, the only division of the #WHO to ever have achieved measles elimination. www.statnews.com/2025/11/10/m...
Canada loses measles elimination status — as does the entire Americas region
Canada has formally lost its measles elimination status, the country’s public health agency announced, triggering the loss of that status throughout all of the Americas.
www.statnews.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:49 PM
As expected, Canada has lost its measles-free status because of the long-running outbreak there. With it goes the #measles elimination status of the entire zone of the Americas, the only division of the #WHO to ever have achieved measles elimination. www.statnews.com/2025/11/10/m...