Matthew Phelan

Matthew Phelan is a former chemical engineer, whose research focus was developing advanced lithium-ion batteries for a DARPA contractor. His science and politics coverage has appeared at The New York Review of Books, Slate, Gizmodo and Gawker, where he founded the conspiracy theory explainer vertical Black Bag in 2014. Once upon a time, too long ago, he was also a freelance contributor to The Onion.

You can follow Matthew on X @CBMDP or on Bluesky @matthewphelan.bsky.social. Or, if you have an actual, honest-to-God, serious tip — that is real this time — you can contact him via the encrypted messaging app Signal at @matthew_d_phelan.16.