159. Michael Powell and the Permeability Between Worlds

Nancy here. One of the super-cool things about being a journalist is that you can contact people whose work amazes you and say, “Come on my podcast!” and they almost always say, “Sure!”

As did Michael Powell, one of my favorite journalists working today, currently at The Atlantic and previously at The New York Times, where, during the height of our national meltdown (aka 2020 to 2022), Michael took on subjects many of his colleagues and others in media would not touch: DEI, Title IX, and using identity as a scythe to cut down those deemed not the right color or gender or whose whose views were opportunistically seen as problematic. “We lost our bearings,” says Michael, who kept true to course, and to say his clear-eyed work made me feel less crazy is an understatement.

Of deep value and delight is also his 2019 book, Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation. I felt as though I were living inside the work as I read, and I cannot wait to see Rez Ball, the movie it inspired and which opens September 27.

Also discussed:

* The explosive DNC protests that weren’t

* COVID would cool down the culture wars, right? [Insert laugh track here]

* The “scurrilous piece of journalism” in the Daily Beast by a writer Nancy now admires*

* The firing of veteran New York Times science reporter Donald McNeil Jr.? “Not the best moment of the New York Times, at all.”

* The tenderness and importance of Jihad Rehab (now retitled The UnRedacted) and the shame of Abigail Disney

* “Hey Michael, you’re white…”

Plus, the permeability between worlds that you start to see when hanging in the Native world, the politician Michael always thought of as “a clown,” some high-tone hot boxes, and much more!

Want to become a paid subscriber? Skoden!

*Max Tani, now at Semafor

Cross-posted at Make More Pie

Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation, by Michael Powell

“Star New York Times Reporter Donald McNeil Accused of Using “N-Word, Making Other Racist Comments,” the Daily Beast piece that Michael calls “scurrilous” and which drove Nancy up a tree…

Michael tweeted repeatedly in support of McNeil…

“The New York Times Succumbed to Another Mob. Journalism is Unrecognizable,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Newsweek)

“Kids and Cowards: What Really Happened to Donald McNeil at the New York Times,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Newsweek)

McNeil writes his own story on Medium, starting with, “NYTimes Peru N-Word, Part One: Introduction” (Medium)

“Sundance Liked Her Documentary on Terrorism, Until Muslim Critics Didn’t,” by Michael Powell (New York Times)

Michael wrote several articles about rez ball before embarking on the book, “For Navajo Team, a Season of Change and Challenge”…

… and “In Navajo Nation, a Basketball Elder Earns Respect.”

Nancy inadvertently referred to Mendoza at “Menendez.” Management regrets the error

“The membrane between life and magic is very thin there…”

What’s in your hot box?

Michael: The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

Nancy: Small Rain: A Novel by Garth Greenwell

Michael picks the outro

Clip Nancy filmed in final day of “Reservation Dogs” shooting, season 1…

… and on the red carpet at Emmys 2024

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