Michael Mechanic

Michael Mechanic

Senior Editor

Michael landed at MoJo after six years as an award-winning feature editor at the alt-weekly East Bay Express. He's written for numerous publications, including The Industry Standard, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired. Father of two mostly charming kids and a striped cat named Phelps (okay, not the father), he lives in Oakland, California, where he raises four chickens, plays his guitar, and is lately attempting to teach himself fiddle and mandolin.

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Michael landed at MoJo after six years as an award-winning feature editor at the alt-weekly East Bay Express. He's written for numerous publications, including The Industry Standard, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired. He set out to be a scientist, and as an undergrad spent a year in an organic chemistry lab at UC Berkeley trying to synthesize natural poisons found in the skin of certain tropical frogs. He later earned a masters degree in cellular and developmental biology, and another in journalism. In 2009, he was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for public service, as one of five writers in MoJo's "Torture Hits Home" package. The father of two usually charming kids and a striped cat named Phelps, Michael lives in Oakland, California, where, after years of classical piano and raucous punk-rock drumming (and putting out more than a dozen CDs on his former DIY label, Bad Monkey Records), he has retired to old-time and traditional American music, blues-guitar fingerpicking, and lately, teaching himself to play fiddle and mandolin. His family's chickens are named Lucia, Podge, Cat, and Weed-Whacker. The goldfish have no names, because the family plans to eat them someday.

Quick Reads: "Odds Against Tomorrow" by Nathaniel Rich

—By

| Tue Apr. 2, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
book cover

Odds Against Tomorrow

By Nathaniel Rich

FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX

Did Nathaniel Rich see Sandy coming? His protagonist did. Rich's second novel follows Mitchell Zuckor, a perpetually fearful Wall Street quant whose lucrative niche is calculating the odds of worst-case scenarios—fires, floods, power grid collapses, pandemic viruses—and helping corporate clients plan for the unthinkable. When a hurricane inundates New York City, Zuckor embarks on a post-apocalyptic adventure in an objet d'art canoe bought at a gallery for 29 grand. It's fiction, thank heaven, but fiction with an edge: Zuckor's job description and his paranoid calculations are well grounded in reality, and Odds Against Tomorrow underscores the tenuous line between order and chaos.

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MoJo Photo Editor Honored for Shot of Occupy Mayhem

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| Thu Mar. 21, 2013 12:06 PM PDT
Occupy protesters elude police in downtown OaklandOccupy protesters flee an attempt by Oakland police to entrap them. Mark Murrmann

The shot above, by our photo editor Mark Murrmann, has been selected for inclusion in American Photography 29, a highly prestigious juried competition and photo book that leans toward edgier work. "Regarded as the books of record," the competition website notes, they "are still produced in all their defiant, large-format, luxurious, hard cover glory."

The winning photo was part of his series from a January 2012 Occupy protest in downtown Oakland, California, where tensions between protestors and police were at the boiling point. Mark, who had to run from the riot cops along with everybody else, offered this play by play:

It was another prime situation in which to be kettled—narrow streets, with large condos on all sides. And this time it happened: A line of police moved in from Telegraph, not letting anyone in the crowd out. Another line moved in from the opposite direction. I got cut off from the main protest, along with a few Occupy medics. We made our way around to Telegraph, on the other side of the kettle. A block away, in the kettle, a flash grenade went off. Two girls on bikes pleaded with police to be let out. Then, a large group of protesters broke down a recently re-erected chainlink fence enclosing a vacant lot next to the park. Protesters flooded the lot, breaking free of the kettle. The march resumed up Telegraph Avenue.

In the end, he managed to avoid arrest (unlike at least one of our reporters). Murrmann enjoys shooting punk rock shows in his spare time, so he's pretty comfortable amid mayhem. He's also got a sharp eye for light, motion, and composition—the resulting work is artful, gritty, and visceral. Here's another batch he shot on the fly when a bunch of Occupy protestors decided to take over a Bank of America in San Francisco's Financial District. In any case, it's an honor well deserved.

Police respond to an Occupy protest at BofA in San Francisco.
Police respond to an Occupy protest at BofA in San Francisco, Nov. 17, 2012. Mark Murrmann

"Game of Thrones" Creators on Season 3, Sex Scenes, and Scarfing Fermented Shark

"Things do not get easier," David Benioff and Dan Weiss admit. "We thought they would."

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Game of Thrones creators Dan Weiss and David BenioffDan Weiss (left) and David Benioff.

In 2006, when David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the creators of the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, sat down with author George R.R. Martin to talk about adapting his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin's Hollywood bullshit detector was on high alert. "He gave us a pop quiz," Weiss told one interviewer, but they passed the test because their passion for Martin's books "was real and natural and completely unforced."

Their geek-boy résumés probably didn't hurt: Benioff, a D&D dungeon master in his youth, did the screenplay for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Weiss had a video-game-themed novel under his belt. Nor did their willingness to shelve all other creative pursuits—no small sacrifice for Benioff, who had adapted his own first novel, The 25th Hour, into the Spike Lee film starring Edward Norton, and followed that up with the fabulous 2008 book City of Thieves.

For the uninitiated, Game of Thrones is an engrossing tale of clans struggling for dominion in the fictional realm of Westeros. (Benioff's two-second elevator pitch: "The Sopranos in Middle Earth.") With a stellar crew and ensemble cast anchored by Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf scion of a power-hungry family, the show has raked in 17 Emmy nominations and eight wins, including Dinklage as outstanding supporting actor. Benioff and Weiss told me via email about their favorite characters, learning to "fail better," and the challenges of shooting Season 3, which premieres March 31 on HBO.

Check out the trailer, then continue to the interview:

Mother Jones: So what made you want to adapt Martin's work for the small screen?

David Benioff and Dan Weiss: Reading the books is a compulsively addictive experience. We had this notion that an HBO adaptation could replicate that. Basically, we wanted to be pusher-men.

MJ: How much obligation do you feel toward the source material?

[Read the full article]

More (Stronger) Evidence Linking Sugar to Diabetes

—By

| Thu Feb. 28, 2013 11:36 AM PST

A new study published in the open-access science journal PLoS One offers some of the strongest evidence yet associating sugar, independent of other diet and lifestyle factors, with type 2 diabetes—a link that the sugar industry has sought for decades to debunk.

The study's four authors, including Robert Lustig of the University of California-San Francisco, examined data on sugar intake and diabetes prevalence in 175 countries "controlling for other food types (including fibers, meats, fruits, oils, cereals), total calories, overweight and obesity, period-effects, and several socioeconomic variables such as aging, urbanization and income."

For each bump in sugar "availability" (consumption plus waste) equivalent to about a can of soda per day, they observed a 1 percent rise in diabetes prevalence. This is a correlation, of course, and correlation does not necessarily equal causation. On the other hand, as the authors note in a lay summary, this "is far stronger than a typical point-in-time medical correlation study."

"No other food types yielded significant individual associations with diabetes prevalence after controlling for obesity and other confounders," the PLoS article states. "Differences in sugar availability statistically explain variations in diabetes prevalence rates at a population level that are not explained by physical activity, overweight or obesity."

The correlation, the authors also reported, was "independent of other changes in economic and social change such as urbanization, aging, changes to household income, sedentary lifestyles, and tobacco or alcohol use. We found that obesity appeared to exacerbate, but not confound, the impact of sugar availability on diabetes prevalence, strengthening the argument for targeted public health approaches to excessive sugar consumption."

[Read more in the Blue Marble blog]

Charts: The Staggering Cost of Death Row for California Taxpayers

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| Tue Feb. 19, 2013 4:02 AM PST
California Innocence Project infographic California Innocence Project.

I recently came across an ambitious infographic created by the California Innocence Project following the failure of state Proposition 34, which, had it passed last November, would have abolished the death penalty in California. Voters weren't quite ready to go there—they rejected Prop. 34 by a 52-48 margin. Yet nearly 6 million Californians voted to do away with capital punishment, the administration of which has been fraught with problems, and which has huge budget implications in a state struggling mightily to fund essentials like public education.

The infographic is worth revisiting in light of California's policy on capital punishment remaining status quo. The Innocence Project, a program of California Western Law School that aims to identify wrongfully convicted prisoners and work toward their release, presents the facts here as they apply to California, whose death row population even dwarfs that of Texas. (Although Texas executes more people by far than any other state.) The numbers are stark, to say the least:

What sentencing people to death costs California taxpayers:

How much more it costs to keep someone on death row:

How much Californians pay per execution, and how long it takes:

The number of people California sentences to death:

The skewed racial makeup of the condemned:

The relative size of California's death row population:

The number of people wrongfully sentenced to death in California and elsewhere—that we know of…

…in many cases because of racism, incompetence, and/or official misconduct:

There's even more interesting stuff in the original infographic, which you can view or download from the California Innocence Project's website.

Quick Reads: "Odds Against Tomorrow" by Nathaniel Rich
Tue Apr. 2, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

MoJo Photo Editor Honored for Shot of Occupy Mayhem
Thu Mar. 21, 2013 12:06 PM PDT

More (Stronger) Evidence Linking Sugar to Diabetes
Thu Feb. 28, 2013 11:36 AM PST

Charts: The Staggering Cost of Death Row for California Taxpayers
Tue Feb. 19, 2013 4:02 AM PST

Laugh Your Shorts off With Buster Keaton in San Francisco
Thu Feb. 14, 2013 5:07 PM PST

The NRA in 1905: More Mustaches, Less Politics
Thu Jan. 24, 2013 4:06 AM PST

Happy Birthday to Roe v. Wade—What's Left of It
Wed Jan. 16, 2013 4:06 AM PST

11 Killer Albums Brought to You by Brian Eno
Mon Dec. 31, 2012 12:22 PM PST

Charts: 247,131 Fatal Shootings in 8 Years
Fri Dec. 14, 2012 8:03 PM PST

Story of Stuff's Black Friday Mayhem Video
Fri Nov. 16, 2012 1:56 PM PST

After Sandy, a Taxpayer Bailout for Flood-Prone Developments?
Tue Nov. 13, 2012 2:39 PM PST

Are High-Fructose Corn Syrup Makers in Denial?
Thu Nov. 1, 2012 1:31 PM PDT

Watch: Gary Taubes Reveals the Sugar Industry's Secrets
Wed Oct. 31, 2012 3:03 AM PDT

WATCH: Mitt Romney's Bain Employees Gone Wild!
Thu Sep. 27, 2012 11:07 AM PDT

Watch: Reason's Nick Gillespie Questions James Ridgeway About Solitary Confinement
Fri Jul. 6, 2012 11:36 AM PDT

"F*ck Cranbrook!": Eminem on Romney's Elite High School (Video)
Fri May. 11, 2012 11:27 AM PDT

Video Exclusive: Ani DiFranco's "Which Side Are You On?"
Mon Apr. 30, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

How Members of Congress Enrich Their Families
Thu Mar. 22, 2012 12:05 PM PDT

Knit Your Congressman a Vagina
Tue Mar. 20, 2012 3:30 AM PDT

And You Wonder Why We're Broke? (Chart)
Mon Mar. 19, 2012 11:02 AM PDT

Book Review: Jonah Lehrer's "Imagine: How Creativity Works"
Mon Mar. 12, 2012 4:00 AM PDT

Review: Carolina Chocolate Drops' "Leaving Eden"
Mon Feb. 27, 2012 4:00 AM PST

Chart: Why the GOP's Gas Price Attack on Obama Is BS
Thu Feb. 23, 2012 4:00 AM PST

I Created Elmo, and Here's Proof!
Wed Jan. 25, 2012 4:00 AM PST

Chart: Is Obama Really the "Food Stamp" President?
Tue Jan. 24, 2012 4:00 AM PST

In Classrooms, Climate Change Is the New Evolution
Tue Jan. 17, 2012 6:31 PM PST

Book Review: 420 Characters
Mon Dec. 5, 2011 3:00 AM PST

Mitt Romney: "Stuff the Ice Chest"
Thu Dec. 1, 2011 4:30 PM PST

VIDEOS: Mitt Romney's Campaign Finance Flip-Flop
Tue Nov. 22, 2011 3:10 PM PST

Book Review: Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar
Fri Oct. 21, 2011 3:30 AM PDT

Watch: MoJo's Josh Harkinson Occupies Olbermann Show
Mon Oct. 17, 2011 5:42 PM PDT

Film Review: "The Elephant in the Living Room"
Mon Jun. 20, 2011 5:51 PM PDT

Intriguing Subject: Frank Turner
Mon Jun. 6, 2011 3:30 AM PDT

Sondre Lerche: An Auditory Antidote
Mon Jun. 6, 2011 3:30 AM PDT

Must-See: Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit
Mon May. 16, 2011 3:50 AM PDT

Does Energy Efficiency Matter?
Tue Mar. 29, 2011 4:00 AM PDT

Bernie Sanders' Top 10 Tax Avoiders
Tue Mar. 29, 2011 3:30 AM PDT

Cash for Clunkers: Nuclear Edition
Mon Mar. 28, 2011 12:25 PM PDT

MoJo's Abortion Top 10
Fri Mar. 25, 2011 3:30 AM PDT

Does America Put "Illegal Aliens" to Death?
Fri Mar. 25, 2011 1:01 AM PDT

WATCH: Jerry Brown Takes Budget War to YouTube
Mon Mar. 21, 2011 11:46 AM PDT

Mike and Peggy Seeger's Final Encore
Mon Mar. 21, 2011 4:00 AM PDT

Newt Gingrich, What Happened? [WATCH]
Thu Mar. 17, 2011 4:30 AM PDT

In Texas, a Life Spared and a Prosecutor Exposed
Mon Feb. 14, 2011 3:57 PM PST

Gang of Four Finds Its Rare Essence
Mon Jan. 31, 2011 4:45 AM PST

Susan G. Komen Causes Cancer (and Other Pro-Life Myths)
Thu Jan. 20, 2011 5:02 AM PST

Today Baby Doc, Tomorrow Toto Constant?
Mon Jan. 17, 2011 11:46 AM PST

WATCH: 10 Music Videos for Martin Luther King Jr.'s B-Day
Mon Jan. 17, 2011 4:30 AM PST

Boots Riley Is Sorry to Bother You
Mon Jan. 3, 2011 4:47 AM PST

Learning Japanese With Weezer's Rivers Cuomo
Mon Dec. 20, 2010 4:25 AM PST

"Game of Thrones" Creators on Season 3, Sex Scenes, and Scarfing Fermented Shark

"Things do not get easier," David Benioff and Dan Weiss admit. "We thought they would."

March/April 2013 Issue

His Grimm Materials: A Conversation With Philip Pullman

The best-selling author on his new fairy tale collection, writerly superstitions, and what his daemon would look like.

November/December 2012 Issue

Power Down Your Smartphones—the Magazine is About to Begin

The hottest ticket in San Francisco turns publishing into performance art.

November/December 2012 Issue

What Extreme Isolation Does to Your Mind

In the 1950s, university researchers put volunteers in tiny rooms and deprived them of sensory input. The results were shocking.

Thu Oct. 18, 2012 1:09 AM PDT

Michael Chabon's Vinyl Draft

The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist on race, procrastination, and his new book, "Telegraph Avenue."

September/October 2012 Issue

Superman is Boring, Batman is Hot, Dictators Are Clueless

A chat with "Persepolis" creator Marjane Satrapi on her new film, "Chicken With Plums," and just about everything else.

Mon Aug. 13, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

The Book Big Tobacco Doesn't Want You to Read

With "Golden Holocaust," historian Robert Proctor deconstructs an industry that still kills more than 400,000 Americans a year.

May/June 2012 Issue

Carolina Chocolate Drops Jam On

Frontman Dom Flemons on the band's new lineup, being black in Arizona, and musicians he'd bring back from the dead.

Mon Apr. 9, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

And You Thought That Heat Wave Was Bad?

Climatologist Matthew Huber on our broiling, miserable, wish-it-were-sci-fi future.

Wed Mar. 28, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Spying on the Koch Brothers

Inside the discreet retreat where the elite meet to plot Barack Obama's defeat.

November/December 2011 Issue

The Prolific Fan Art of Die Antwoord (Slideshow)

What is it about these freaky South African "zef" rappers that inspires so much creativity?

Mon Feb. 20, 2012 4:00 AM PST

Frank Turner Still Believes

Not long ago, this folk-punk troubadour was crashing in train stations. Now he's rocking stadiums.

Mon Feb. 13, 2012 4:00 AM PST

How to Make a Deadly Pandemic Virus

Should a scientist's truly frightening experiments be published?

Sat Dec. 3, 2011 4:00 AM PST

Craig Thompson—The Devil Made Me Draw It

The acclaimed graphic novelist talks parental censorship, leaving Christianity, and his new epic, Habibi.

September/October 2011 Issue

"Better This World," Behind the Camera

The makers of a hot new doc on domestic-terror prosecutions talk about our surveillance culture, Brandon Darby conspiracy theories, and how they got the FBI talking.

Sun Aug. 21, 2011 11:15 AM PDT

Survivor Snapshots From Teen-Home Hell

Parents were told their daughters would sing, pray, and ride horses. The girls say what they got was closer to torture.

Mon Aug. 15, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

Blocking the Violence Virus

Can you stop people who want revenge? A chat with the creators of The Interrupters, which airs Tuesday on Frontline.

July/August 2011 Issue

The 10 Craziest Job Perks

With bennies like these, why would any worker want to, you know, go home?

Fri Jun. 17, 2011 11:57 AM PDT

Bin Laden's Victory and Defeat in Front Pages

How 8 daily newspapers responded on 9/12—and the day after Osama was killed.

Mon May. 2, 2011 12:15 PM PDT

Joshua Bell's Virtuoso Reality

The violin maestro on 19th century rockstars, video-game addiction, and the virtues of a $100,000 bow.

May/June 2011 Issue

Gypsy King: Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hütz

The Ukrainian-born front man on rock-and-roll revolution and his long-distance run to America.

January/February 2011 Issue

PJ Harvey's British Invasion

Interview: the reclusive rocker on her new album, rural upbringing, and dicey relations with the press.

Fri Feb. 11, 2011 4:00 AM PST

Are Disney Princesses Evil?

Raising daughters in an age of gender-branded diapers, tiara-toting toddlers, and sexed-up preteens.

January/February 2011 Issue

Are You Sure You Want an Abortion? (Interactive Map)

Which states use scare tactics, guilt trips, and discredited science to keep women from getting abortions.

January/February 2011 Issue

On the Road With Johnny Flynn

Between bear sightings, cheering critics, and impending infants, this Brit-folk hipster is going places.

Fri Nov. 5, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

Mad Man: Meet Al Jaffee

The iconic cartoonist's snappy answers to our stupid questions.

Fri Sep. 24, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

MAD Cartoonist Al Jaffee's Creations

The iconic satirist still aims to "corrupt the minds of young children."

Mon Sep. 20, 2010 1:52 PM PDT

Secrets of a Two-Time Pulitzer Winner

The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten talks about every parent's worst nightmare and how journalism saved him from smack.

Wed Jun. 30, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

Unhappy Meals

Would you like some cadmium with those fries? A slideshow of recalled fast-food toys.

Fri Jun. 4, 2010 10:51 AM PDT

Michael Lewis' Wall Street Takedown

Book review: The Big Short — Inside the Doomsday Machine

Wed Mar. 24, 2010 4:00 AM PDT

Terry Gilliam's Three-Reel Circus

Filmmaker Terry Gilliam talks about imagination and why he supports Roman Polanski.

Tue Dec. 15, 2009 6:14 PM PST

MoJo Podcast: Viggo Mortensen

Listen to the movie star/Renaissance Man discuss activism, rabid fans, and eating bugs.

Fri Dec. 4, 2009 7:22 PM PST

King of The Road

Hollywood's renaissance man talks about fame, fatherhood, and edible insects.

Mon Nov. 23, 2009 4:30 AM PST

Ralph Stanley's World of Sorrow

Country music's most taciturn front man tells all in a new memoir.

Mon Oct. 19, 2009 3:30 AM PDT

Appalachia, As the Crow Flies

The craftspeople and musicians of Appalachia.

Thu Oct. 15, 2009 3:30 AM PDT