THE ALL-NEW

BMW 3 SERIES.
REINTRODUCING THE
LOVE OF DRIVING.

M Sport Package with optional equipment shown.

©2019 BMW of North America, LLC. The BMW name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.
 WE’RE
RUNNING
OUT OF
EFFECTIVE
DRUGS TO
FIGHT OFF AN
ARMY OF
SUPERBUGS
 EXTRAORDINAIRE.
YOUTH IS BACK.

firmer wrinkles
skin fade
97% 88%

* Results from self-evaluation tests on 40 women after 28 days.

moisturized radiant
skin skin
97% 97%

PATENTED

Available at neimanmarcus.com and bergdorfgoodman.com

 MAY 24 - 31, 2019 _ VOL.172 _ NO.16

SPECIAL REPORT

18
DIVIDE AND CONQUER 24 ‘I Never Thought It
'UXJUHVLVWDQWPLFUREHVPXOWLSO\TXLFNO\DQG
DUHH[SHFWHGWREHFRPHWKHPDLQFDXVHRI Would Come to This’
GHDWKLQWKHKXPDQUDFHE\VXUSDVVLQJ An Infectious
FDQFHUKHDUWGLVHDVHDQGGLDEHWHV
‘We Should Disease Specialist
All Be Scared’ Talks Solutions
COVER CREDIT Antibiotics have saved countless lives, 32 Mystery of ‘Chronic
$UWZRUNE\Ben FearnleyIRUNewsweek Lyme Disease’
but as deadly bacteria grow immune,
those miracle drugs stop working. Why Antibiotics
5 2 67ʝ  'ʔ* ( 7 7 <

Medicine is racing to replace them. Sometimes Fail

For more headlines, go to
34 By the Numbers
NEWSWEEK.COM BY DAVID H. FREEDMAN Superbugs

1
 */2%$/(',725ʝ,1ʝ&+,() _ Nancy Cooper

&5($7,9(',5(&725 _ Michael Goesele

(',725,$/',5(&725_ Hank Gilman

'(387<(',725ʤ(8523(˥23,1,21ʥ_ Laura Davis

0$1$*,1*(',725 _ Melissa Jewsbury

63(&,$/352-(&76(',725_ Fred Guterl

EDITORIAL

0DQDJLQJ(GLWRU862SHUDWLRQV _ David Magee

DEPARTMENTS 1HZ<RUN%XUHDX&KLHI_ Jason Le Miere
/RQGRQ%XUHDX&KLHI _ Robert Galster
0DQDJLQJ(GLWRU7UHQGLQJ1HZV _ Maria Vultaggio
0DQDJLQJ(GLWRU1HZVZHHN1(;7 _ Juliana Pignataro
In Focus 6HQLRU(GLWRUV _ Mo Mozuch, Peter Carbonara,
Meredith Wolf Schizer, Karin Roberts
'HSXW\(GLWRUV _ Jen Glennon7UHQGLQJ
08 Windsor, England Tara Chan3ROLWLFV
Baby Archie $VVRFLDWH(GLWRUV _ James Etherington-Smith,
Hannah Osborne6FLHQFHDom Passantino,
10 Amsterdam P. 48 Harriet Sinclair3ROLWLFV
/RQGRQ6XE(GLWRU _ Hannah Partos
Flag Football &RS\&KLHI _ Elizabeth Rhodes Ernst
Periscope 6HQLRU&RS\(GLWRUV _ %UXFH-DQLFNH-RH:HVWHUɿHOG
THUMB ON Bangkok &RS\(GLWRUV _ Marlaine Glicksman, Karin Halperin,
THE SCALE Catherine Lowe
A Costly 12 Conservatives &RQWULEXWLQJ(GLWRU2SLQLRQ_ Lee Habeeb
$QHQWUHSUHQHXU
DQGLQYHQWRUSODQV
Coronation Get Social (GLWRULDO$VVLVWDQW _ Jason Pollack

WRGHIHDWFKLOGKRRG
KXQJHUZLWKSURWHLQ
Puri, India Who Says CREATIVE

GHULYHGIURPɿVK Cyclone Fani Liberals Use the 'LUHFWRURI3KRWRJUDSK\ _ Diane Rice

&RQWULEXWLQJ$UW'LUHFWRU _ Michael Bessire
Internet Best? $VVRFLDWH$UW'LUHFWRU _ Paul Naughton
$VVLVWDQW3KRWR(GLWRU _ Alessandra Amodio
17 Talking Points 'LJLWDO,PDJLQJ6SHFLDOLVW _ Katy Lyness
Stern, Woods, Art Assistant _ Annie Kozak

Prince William... WRITERS

'DYLGb%UHQQDQ1LQDb%XUOHLJK'DQb&DQFLDQ
%UHQGDQb&ROH6KDQHb&URXFKHU&KDQWDOb'Db6LOYD
Horizons 6DPb(DUOH%HQMDPLQb)HDUQRZ.DVKPLUDb*DQGHU
$ULb*HRUJLRX1LQDb*RGOHZVNL1LFROHb*RRGNLQG
.DWKHULQHb+LJQHWW-HVVLFDb.ZRQJ-DPHVb/D3RUWD
36 Moonshots &ULVWLQDb0D]D7RPb2Š&RQQRU(ZDQb3DOPHU
Entrepreneur &DOOXPb3DWRQ7RPb3RUWHU%LOOb3RZHOO
5REHUWRb6DYLDQR -HIIb6WHLQ0DUFb9DUJDV
Mazi Ghorbani -DQLFHb:LOOLDPV&KULVWLQDb=KDR(*Contributing)

40 Newsgeek VIDEO
Not Just Another 9LGHR3URGXFWLRQ0DQDJHUBJessica Durham
Pokémon Movie /RQGRQ9LGHR1HZV(GLWRUBDaniel Orton
%DQJDORUH9LGHR1HZV(GLWRUBNandini Krishnamoorthy
6HQLRU9LGHR3URGXFHUVBSho Murakoshi
9LGHR3URGXFHUVSean Billings, Chiara Brambilla,
Culture Rufaro Ndoro, Frances Rankin, N. Ravichandran,
Holly Snelling, Alexis Wierenga
0RWLRQ*UDSKLFV3URGXFHUVBGogoull Kirouchenaradjou,
42 Godzilla’s World Simon Vella

Designing Creatures PUBLISHED BY

for Godzilla: King Newsweek LLC
of the Monsters &KLHI([HFXWLYH2IɿFHU _ Dev Pragad
&KLHI&RQWHQW2IɿFHU _ Dayan Candappa ) 5 2 0  72 3   % 5 , 7 7  6 3 ( 1 & ( 5   & + 5 , 6  & 2 / / , 1 6 ʔ* ( 7 7 <
46 Uncharted &KLHI2SHUDWLQJ2IɿFHU _ Alvaro Palacios
&KLHI)LQDQFLDO2IɿFHU _ Amit Shah
The World’s Best &KLHI7HFKQRORJ\2IɿFHU _ Michael Lukac
Wine Regions *HQHUDO&RXQVHO _ Rosie Mckimmie
93+5%XVLQHVV3DUWQHU _ Leiann Kaytmaz
48 Parting Shot 693*OREDO&UHDWLYH'LUHFWRU _ Robert Lee
'LUHFWRU&RQWHQW6WUDWHJ\_ Nalin Kaul
Lauren Morelli 6HQLRU'LJLWDO0DUNHWLQJ6WUDWHJLVW _ Adam Silvers
0DQDJLQJ(GLWRU%UDQGHG1DWLYH&RQWHQW_ Paula Froelich
(GLWRU%UDQGHG1DWLYH&RQWHQW_ Dan Avery
*OREDO([HFXWLYH3URGXFHU _ Alfred Joyner
NEWSWEEK,661ʸʸʻˁ˂ʿʸʽLVSXEOLVKHGZHHNO\H[FHSWRQHZHHNLQ-DQXDU\)HEUXDU\0DUFK$SULO0D\-XQH *OREDO+HDGRI3URJUDPPDWLF3DUWQHUVKLSV _ Jeremy Makin
-XO\$XJXVW6HSWHPEHU2FWREHU1RYHPEHUDQG'HFHPEHUGXHWRFRPELQHGLVVXHV1HZVZHHNLVSXEOLVKHGE\1HZVZHHN//&ʼʼ 6933URGXFW%XVLQHVV,QWHOOLJHQFH_ Luciano Costa
:KLWHKDOO6WˁWK)ORRU1HZ<RUN1<ʺʸʸʸʽ3HULRGLFDOSRVWDJHLVSDLGDW1HZ<RUN1<DQGDGGLWLRQDOPDLOLQJRIɿFHV 6HQLRU6DOHV'LUHFWRU _ Chantal Mamboury
POSTMASTER: 6HQGFKDQJHRIDGGUHVVWR1HZVZHHNʼʼ:KLWHKDOO6WˁWK)ORRU1HZ<RUN1<ʺʸʸʸʽ)RU$UWLFOH5HSULQWV +HDGRI6XEVFULSWLRQ2SHUDWLRQV _ Samantha Rhodes
3HUPLVVLRQVDQG/LFHQVLQJNewsweekReprints.com3$56,QWHUQDWLRQDOʻʺʻʻʻʺ˂ʾ˂ʾ[ʻʺʸNewsweek@parsintl.com 1HZVVWDQG0DQDJHU _ Kim Sermon

2 NEWSWEEK.COM
 ++++ +
“Journalism I don’t see elsewhere until later, if at all.”
NEWSWEEK.COM /TRY

SAVE 79%

Subscribe
FROM 1.72 PER WEEK
$
 Editor’s Letter

The Road
Ahead
drones, driverless cars, pilotless planes and trains. an automation
revolution is about to sweep transportation—one that will transform
societies around the world, the global economy and the environment. This
disruption has already begun. And while there’s no debate the change will
be dramatic, it is not clear how this revolution will reshape the world.
Will there be better jobs for people or simply fewer jobs? Will cities be
hollowed out or become more livable than the suburbs? Will automated
transportation increase congestion and pollution? Or will new fuels,
regulations and energy storage technologies reduce the carbon footprint
of transportation? Will social, racial and economic disparities created by
existing transportation systems widen or narrow? And will the countries
that dominated transportation in the 19th and 20th centuries lead this
revolution, or will the center of gravity shift to developing nations?
Across the world, academics, activists, environmentalists, engineers,
scientists and urban planners are wrestling with these questions and
coming up with ways to shape the answers. And the conversation about
these issues needs to reach—and include—a wide audience: for example,
the almost 40 million unique readers who come to Newsweek each month.
We are partnering Newsweek has spent the better part of nine decades on a mission to give

with Georgia Tech its readers carefully curated, nuanced views of important and complicated

to celebrate the
stories just like these. This endeavor—essentially, understanding the future
of our civilization—requires strong reporting and deep expertise on each
people and cities story about the future of cities, transportation and technological disruptions.
propelling the We also need a sophisticated view of the whole picture to help our
world toward an readers and others make sense of the world that is emerging. That’s why we
environmentally are partnering with Georgia Tech to announce the Newsweek Momentum

sustainable, Awards, an annual celebration of the people and cities propelling the world

socially equitable
toward an environmentally sustainable, socially equitable, economically
viable future of autonomous mobility and smart urban environments.
and economically Newsweek editors will work with the world-class experts at Georgia Tech
viable future. to convene an awards council over the summer and chose the honorees. The
Newsweek Momentum Awards will recognize five individuals around the globe,
as well as one city, which will be chosen as the “smartest city in the world.”
Nominations will open in the summer, and the winners will be announced
in a special issue of Newsweek magazine in September. They will be honored
at an event in Atlanta in the fall.
92 1 . $ 5 $  ʔ* ( 7 7 <

I hope you’ll join us on the road ahead.

 ƠNancy Cooper, Global Editor-in-Chief

7 2  0 $ . (  $  1 2 0 , 1 $7 , 2 1   3 / ( $ 6 (  * 2  7 2 Newsweek.com/Announcements

4 NEWSWEEK.COM M AY 31 , 2019
 POWERED BY

HOME &
HERD
Providing sanctuary for more
than 20 years

LEARN MORE at www.elephants.com

Rewind

The Archives
“We are definitely in a recession or a depression,” the owner of a
1970 Los Angeles TV sales and repair shop told Newsweek. “Whatever it
is, it’s here.” In the wake of years of heavy spending on social programs at
home and the war in Vietnam abroad, U.S. stock prices were down, interest
rates were up, and a growing number of Americans were out of work.
Newsweek profiled several people struggling to adjust. “I guess I don’t want a
depression,” one college student said. “I wouldn’t have time to be active against
the war if I had to worry about eating.”

1986
As Wall Street dealmakers prospered
ZKLOHIRFXVLQJRQţɿQDQFLDODVVHW
VKXIʀLQJŤNewsweek DVNHGţ,V$PHULFD
GHDOLQJLWVHOILQWRDQRWKHUGHFOLQH"Ť
Perhaps even more troubling was
another trend: “Where fortunes can be
PDGHLQRQHGHDOWKHWHPSWDWLRQWR
FKHDWKDVEHFRPHLUUHVLVWLEOHŤ

&/2 &.:,6()520/()7-2+1+8(+1(5*$57+('*$//8&&,+$16*,66,1* ( 5ʔ / , $ 9$1 ' ( ' 2 1.

2001
“Only a quarter of America’s households
VWLOOɿWWKHROGLeave It to Beaver PRGHOŤ
reported Newsweek, noting that a
growing number of mothers were going it
alone. With higher rates of divorce and
RXWRIZHGORFNEDELHVWKHQXPEHURI
families headed by single mothers had
increased to over 7.5 percent of
households nationwide.

6 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
Violence is an epidemic.
What if there was a cure?
As a critical response to violence and
injustice, a worldwide campaign is
introducing the reality of nonviolence to
billions of people. Real stories. Real change.

Discover more at nonviolencenow.org

nonviolence n w
In Focus THE NEWS IN PICTURES

8 NEWSWEEK.COM
 WINDSOR, ENGLAND

Seventh
Heaven
Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle, the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex, present their newborn son
at Windsor Castle on May 8. Archie
Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor is
seventh in line to the throne, yet he
KDVQRUR\DOWLWOHUHʀHFWLYHRIKLV
parents’ wish that he grow up as
a private citizen. For now, he will
D O M I NI C L I P I N SK , ʔ$ ) 3ʔ* ( 7 7 <

be known simply as Master Archie.

“We’re just so thrilled to have our own
little bundle of joy,” Harry said.
Ơ D O M I N I C L I P I N S K I
10
In Focus

NEWSWEEK.COM
M A Y 31 , 2 019
&/2 &.:,6()520%27 720/()70$1$19$76<$<$ 1 $ʔ$ )3ʔ* ( 7 7 <  $ ' 5 , $ 1  ' ( 1 1 , 6 ʔ$ ) 3ʔ* ( 7 7 <  ' , %<$ 1 * 6 + 8  6 $ 5 . $ 5 ʔ$ ) 3ʔ* ( 7 7 <
 AMSTERDAM
Flag Football
An Ajax Amsterdam fan is enveloped in
KLVWHDPVRFFHUŠVʀDJVLQ-RKDQ&UX\II
Arena on May 8. The Dutch team’s unlikely
ascent to the UEFA Champions League
VHPLɿQDOVHQGHGZLWKDQLQMXU\WLPHORVV
to Tottenham Hotspur. Such underdog
stories may become a thing of the past
in the annual tournament, however, as
Union of European Football Associations
RIɿFLDOVDUHUHSRUWHGO\FRQVLGHULQJOLPLWLQJ
participation mainly to elite clubs.
Ơ ADRIAN DENNIS
BANGKOK
Royal Treatment
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn is
transported atop a golden palanquin
during his coronation procession in
Bangkok on May 5. The $31 million,
three-day celebration came nearly
three years after Vajiralongkorn
ascended to the throne, following
the death of his father, and at a time
of political instability in country,
which is still deliberating the results
of March’s national election.
Ơ MANAN VATSYAYANA
PURI, INDIA
After the Storm
A woman sits with her child next to
storm-ravaged buildings on May 4
after Cyclone Fani swept through
the eastern state of Odisha. The
cyclone killed at least 34 people in
India and 15 in Bangladesh. Reports
credited the vastly improved disaster
readiness efforts of the countries,
which evacuated millions of people
from the powerful storm’s path, with
preventing a much larger death toll.
Ơ DIBYANGSHU SARKAR
NEWSWEEK.COM 11
12
NEWSWEEK.COM
Periscope
NEWS, OPINION + ANALYSIS

M A Y 31 , 2 019
& + 5 , 6 & /25 ʔ*( 7 7 <  72 3  5 , * + 7  5 2 % , 1  2 / , 0 % ʔ* ( 7 7 <
 “First of all...I do not
resort to witchcraft!” » P.17

D I G I TA L AC TI V IS M

How
Conservatives
Mastered
Social Media
Conventional wisdom says it is liberals who use the internet best
to enhance activist causes. That’s not the whole story.

about a five-minute drive from downtown
Morehead City, North Carolina, three retirees
sat down for lunch at their favorite spot, Bojangles’
Famous Chicken ’n Biscuits. While visitors to More-
head City, on the southeast coast of the state, might
feel they had tumbled into a world far removed
from the rest of the state, one of the men, a retired
nuclear chemist, said he knew of a place that was
much more out of touch.
“One of the most isolated places in the world,
and I’ve been there, is a university,” said Ken. “All
you do is talk to your friends, and your friends are
the same ones who think the same way you do….
They only talk to people who make themselves
feel comfortable.”
Ken was sitting with Verne and
Bob. The three retirees and friends
also happened to be leaders of the
Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots JEN SCHRADIE
(CCTPP). @schradie
“Sounds like D.C.,” Verne quipped.
“In a bubble,” added Bob.
“You always hear on the news that Congress is out
of touch,” Ken continued. “They never go home and
talk to their people.”
Ken had worked for the federal government for
30 years in both the military and the Department
of Energy. “As a scientist, I believe you got to look
at both sides to make an intelligent decision. If
you want to make stupid decisions, that’s easy,” he
added. “But if you want to make informed deci-
sions, you have to read ‘what this side says and
what this other side says.’ You have to also seek
what the facts are and not what the feelings are.”
This viewpoint, the three men
agreed, drove their digital work.
BY
As the person responsible for
promoting the group’s lively Face-
book page and Twitter feed, Ken
worked tirelessly to distribute

NEWSWEEK.COM 13
Periscope
information. While he wrote posts
himself, many were retweets or
links to stories from news outlets
such as the Carolina Journal, a
statewide conservative newspaper
run by North Carolina’s John Locke
Foundation, or Breitbart News, a
national right-wing news outlet.
I was interested in learning more
from activists like Ken, Verne and
Bob since I had noticed their active
online presence. They seemed to
defy the prototype of the digital ac-
tivist. Most of the early hype around
digital activism focused on protest
movements of the left. Right-leaning
movements’ digital activity was
given little attention in the media,
even dubbed “astroturf.” And even
after the election of Donald Trump
in 2016, a common assumption was
that conservatives had been duped
14 NEWSWEEK.COM
D I G I T A L A C T IV I SM
by fake news or Russian hackers.
A few years earlier, though, I was
finding a broad spectrum of active
right-wing online activity. Some was
sensationalized, but much was mea-
sured and analytical. I was curious
how the CCTPP’s political ideology
might factor into what its members
did online. I had already found that so-
cial class and organizational structure
Eighty-two percent
of right-wing
organizations had
Twitter accounts,
compared with
65 percent of
left-wing groups.
shaped online activism. Both of these
capacity factors had challenged the
pluralist view of the internet—not
every type of social movement group
is online at equal rates. But were right-
wing and left-wing groups using digi-
tal technology equally?
Ken’s statement about academia
and left-leaning politics was right
in some ways. Scholars tend to lean
further left. Most research on social
movements generally focuses on pro-
gressive causes. Some had researched
underground far-right groups’ in-
ternet activity, especially online
discussion forums, and since then,
a handful of studies have emerged
comparing left and right populist
movements online. But the vast ma-
jority of digital activist research has
focused on left-wing movements.
As a result, the exact role of polit-
ical ideology within digital activism
has been a puzzle that has produced
three general arguments. First, many
have connected digital activity with
left-wing protest movements, such as
Occupy Wall Street, both because of
egalitarian associations with internet
use and because, simply, these types of
movements are usually the object of
study. The second line of thinking is
that ideology is less relevant with dig-
) 5 2 0  / ( ) 7  6 ( $ 1  5 $< ) 2 5 'ʔ* ( 7 7 <  $ /  ' 5 $* 2ʔ& 4  5 2 / /  & $ / / ʔ* ( 7 7 <
ital activism because online participa-
tion comes from individual experienc-
es rather than organizational dogma.
The third argument is that, well,
it depends. Political ideology’s role
in digital activism hinges on the
broader context—when a group is
the “out-party,” it uses it more. A pos-
sible fourth argument—that conser-
vatives dominate digital spaces—was
not yet on the radar. Trump and the
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
Trump supporters at a March 2016
campaign rally in North Carolina cheer for
the Republican presidential candidate.
M A Y 31 , 2 019

debate about the influence of even
more sophisticated tools like bots
and clickbait would come later.
So where do right-wing groups
fit into these arguments? Studying
the relationship between digital ac-
tivism and the politics surrounding
collective bargaining rights for pub-
lic employees in North Carolina was
a way to cast a wide net to include,
hopefully, a wide range of groups on
all sides of the debate. Indeed, these
components in the South generated
a broad political spectrum of groups
organizing around this issue, from
the far left to the far right and those
in between. But it was this very ideo-
logical divide that helped explain
why Ken and his friends with the
CCTPP were some of the most pro-
lific users of digital technology.
The CCTPP ’s high level use of
the inter net was common among
conservatives. The top five groups in
the digital activist index were right
wing. Conservatives had more com-
plex and updated websites, as well as
a higher number of Facebook com-
ments and tweets per day, than pro-
gressive groups did. Eighty-two per-
cent of right-wing organizations had
Twitter accounts, compared with 65
percent of left-wing groups, boasting
a greater number of tweets, Twitter
mentions and a higher overall Twit-
ter score. In general, they were more
A common
assumption was
that conservatives
had been duped
by fake news or
Russian hackers.
6,1*/(ʝ3$57<58/(
During his term as governor, the North
Carolina state legislature moved so far
right that Pat McCrory would eventually
veto six bills passed by his own party.
likely to set up online platforms and
update them regularly.
Conservatives dominate the dig-
ital activism score even more when
we throw in the additional factor of
a group’s political strategy—whether
a group is reformist or radical. The
gap widens considerably between
reformist right-wing groups at high
digital levels over radical left-wing
groups’ low levels.
It’s clear that most right-wing
groups in my study were using the
internet more than left-wing groups.
Can this be explained by only one
of the three factors I examine: class,
organization or ideology? The
answer, of course, is no. Instead, what
I began to see is that several of these
factors, when combined, would am-
plify the effect of the others. These
factors build on each other and fur-
ther widen the digital activism gap.
I also found that the common
view of left-wing horizontal groups
as being associated with internet use
did not fit the mold. It was the oppo-
site. Right-wing groups that were hi-
erarchical in their decision-making
structure were the top users of the
internet. This embrace of digital
media by right-wing groups seemed
to go almost wholly unnoticed out-
side of their immediate circles at the
time. The popular perception of in-
ternet use, fed by the media’s focus
on the use of technology by left-wing
protest movements, had people look-
ing in one direction while a wave
was cresting from just outside this
field of vision.
Interestingly, it was not just out-
siders who were mesmerized by the
left’s digital media use. Right-wing
NEWSWEEK.COM 15
Periscope
activists themselves were not always
aware of the extent of their con-
servative digital ecosystem. A well-
organized and resourced digital move-
ment on the right had been growing
in North Carolina. Grass-roots con-
servative groups had received some
attention because of the elections
in 2010, but they were generally not
on the digital activism radar of most
pundits or the liberal public. While
tea parties were the focus of the far-
right grass-roots conservative move-
ment, that was not the whole story in
North Carolina. Tea parties were just
the tip of a vast conservative iceberg.
The depth and breadth of this digital
juggernaut would not become pop-
ularly acknowledged until well after
statewide elections in 2012 that sent
the state careening even further to the
right than it had been in decades.
Those North Carolina elections
delivered a devastating blow not just
to Democrats but to anyone who had
been fighting in some corner of the
state for public workers. Republi-
cans won a stunning, historic victory,
gaining complete control over state
government for the first time in the
post–Civil War era.
Nationally, North Carolina’s leg-
islature would gain attention in the
coming years for bills such as the
one to ban transgender bathrooms
and attempts to declare a state reli-
gion. But these were just highlights
among an endless rightward march
to curtail abortion, pass rules to lim-
it ballot access and gerrymander vot-
ing districts to maintain power. The
gerrymandering was so radical that
the U.S. Supreme Court would later
declare it illegal. The state’s agenda
moved so far to the right that even
then–Governor McCrory would veto
six bills passed by his own party. At
least four vetoes were overridden.
Years later, this robust, tightly
16 NEWSWEEK.COM
D I G I T A L A C T IV I SM
linked network would evolve into
the fertile terrain that would stim-
ulate the spreading of the informa-
tion, “the Truth,” the messages that
would all propel Trump’s campaign.
But while many saw this as a phe-
nomenon that seemed to come out
of nowhere in 2016, in reality it was
under construction for years. One
could see it forming close to the
ground in North Carolina a few years
earlier. And so rather than being an
anomaly, the state was a bellwether
for the tidal shifts what would shock
the nation a few years later.
For those finding themselves on
the wrong side of the digital activism
gap, it’s critical to fully understand
the factors that created it. Not only
did conservatives dominate in the dig-
ital domain thanks to a focused mes-
sage of freedom rather than a frac-
tured one of fairness, but reformist
right-leaning groups working within
the legislative system also had much
higher digital participation than their
radical left counterparts did.
Excerpt adapted from the revolution
that wasn’t: how digital activism
favors conservatives by Jen Schradie,
published by Harvard University Press.
Copyright © 2019 by the President and
Fellows of Harvard College. Used by per-
mission. All rights reserved.
I NT E RN ET
Extremists Get
Booted From
2QOLQH3ODWIRUPV
BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW
As social media has risen in importance as a
news source, so too have extremists gained
prominence by using the platforms, especially
during and since the 2016 presidential elec-
tion. However, the spread of radical and often
conspiratorial rhetoric online has also led to a
new push by the tech industry to ban extrem-
ists from social media.
In early May, Facebook trained its sights on
extremists who peddle fake news and white
nationalism. The social network, along with
Instagram, banned Infowars’ conspiracy the-
orists Alex Jones and Joseph Watson, former
Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, far-
right activist Laura Loomer and white suprem-
acist Paul Nehlen, deeming them “dangerous.”
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who
is known for his anti-Semitic remarks, was
also removed. Facebook said in a statement,
“We’ve always banned individuals or organiza-
tions that promote or engage in violence and
hate, regardless of ideology.”
Twitter had previously kicked off may of
WKHVHFRQWURYHUVLDOɿJXUHVRUUHYRNHGWKHLU
ţYHULɿHGŤVWDWXV,WDOVRUHFHQWO\ORFNHGWKH
account of actor James Woods, who wrote
“#HangThemAll” in a tweet attacking the
Mueller report, reigniting complaints from
President Donald Trump and others about
ţXQIDLUŤWDUJHWLQJRIFRQVHUYDWLYHɿJXUHV
: , / ' 3 , ; ( / ʔ* ( 7 7 <
These moves by Big Tech also raise ques-
tions about free speech, regulation of hate
speech and whether private companies have
the wisdom to make these decisions, even if
they hold the legal authority to do so.
M A Y 31 , 2 019
 N EW SM A KE RS

Talking Points
“I’M VERY PLEASED AND
“First of all, I GLAD TO WELCOME
MY OWN BROTHER
would like to say ,1727+(6/((3ʝ
I do not resort DEPRIVATION SOCIETY
THAT IS PARENTING.”
to witchcraft!” Ŝ3ULQFH:LOOLDP

“I’ve battled.
—POPE FRANCIS, ANSWERING
A REPORTER'S QUESTION ON

I’ve tried to
WHERE HE GETS HIS ENERGY

hang in there,
“I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD and I’ve tried
BE ALLOWED TO SMOKE,
DRINK AND EAT AS MUCH to come back Prince William

and play the

RED MEAT AS THEY LIKE.”
—sylvi listhaug, norway's
)520/()7(00$18(/'81$1'ʔ$)3ʔ*(77<.(<85.+$0$5ʔ3*$7285ʔ*(77<5,&+$5'6721(+286(ʔ*(77<

great game of
new minister for the elderly
and public he alth

“My wife and I

golf again.” are in a haze. He was
everything to us. ”
ŜǰǦǤǢǮdzǬǬǡǯ  —john ca stillo on the de ath of
ǮǢǠǢǦDzǦǫǤǰǥǢǝǮǢǯǦǡǢǫǰǦǞǩ his 18-ye ar- old son, kendrick, one
of the nine pe ople shot at stem
ǪǢǡǞǩǬǣǣǮǢǢǡǬǪ scho ol highland s ranch

Sylvi Listhaug

“THE PATH WE HAVE

CHOSEN TODAY IS NOT
“My interviewing technique
was like bashing someone THE PATH OF WAR; IT IS
in the face with a THE PATH OF DIPLOMACY.
sledgehammer. I was like BUT DIPLOMACY WITH
the Joker, and all I wanted A NEW LANGUAGE AND
to do was cause chaos.” A NEW LOGIC”
—radio host howard stern
—Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Tiger Woods

NEWSWEEK.COM 17
 SPECIAL REPORT

18 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 Antibiotics have saved countless lives
over the years, but as DEADLY BACTERIA
grow immune, those miracle drugs stop working.
Medicine is racing to replace them

by dav id h. fr eedm a n

Photog raph b y N A M E G O E S H E R E NEWSWEEK.COM 19

 SPECIAL REPORT

january, columbia university

revealed that four patients at its Ir-
ving Medical Center in New York
had been sick with an unusual version of E. coli, a common gut
bacterium. Although the news largely escaped attention in the me-
dia, it ricocheted through the world of infectious disease experts.
E. coli is a relatively common bacterium and benign when it’s in
the gut, where it usually lives, but in the wrong places—such as in
lettuce or ground beef, or our bloodstream—it can turn deadly.
When antibiotics prove ineffective against an E. coli infection, as
many as half the patients with it die within two weeks.
That’s exactly why the Columbia E. coli was so worrying. Over
the past decade or two, E. coli has developed resistance to one an-
tibiotic after another. For some infected patients, their last hope is
the antibiotic colistin, a toxic substance with potential side effects
that include kidney and brain damage. The Columbia E. coli had
a mutation in a gene, MCR-1, that confers a terrifying attribute:
imperviousness to colistin.
“We’re looking to the shelf for the next antibiotic, and there’s
nothing there,” says Erica Shenoy, associate chief of the infection
control unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. “We’re facing the
specter of patients with infections we can’t treat.”
Ever since an experimental miracle drug called penicillin was
rushed to a Boston hospital in 1942 to save the lives of 13 victims
of a nightclub fire, medical researchers have discovered more
than 100 new antibiotics. We’ve needed each and every one of
them—and they’re not enough. It’s not just E. coli. Drug-resistant
strains of Staphylococcus, Enterobacteriaceae and Clostridium dif- “We’re looking to the shelf for the
ficile have been steadily overcoming antibiotics; one study found
that the number of deaths due to resistant infections quintupled
between 2007 and 2015. Recently, treatment-resistant versions
of the fungus Candida auris have shown up in hospitals in New
York City and Chicago, killing half of infected patients.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports
that 2 million people a year are sickened in the U.S. by bacteria
or fungi resistant to major antibiotics, and that 23,000 die from
them. “It’s probably a vast underestimate,” says Karen Hoffman,
who heads the Association for Professionals in Infection Control
and Epidemiology. “We don’t have a good reporting system for
multiresistant organisms, so we don’t really know.” Studies sug-
gest the cost to the U.S. health care system of treating patients
with these hardy bugs tops $3 billion a year.
This grim trend is expected to accelerate. The World Health
Organization predicts that worldwide death rates from drug-re-
sistant microbes will climb from the current 700,000 per year to
10 million by 2050. At that point, they will have surpassed cancer,
heart disease and diabetes to become the main cause of death
in the human race. Before antibiotics, a small cut, tooth decay or
routine surgery could lead to a life-threatening bacterial infection.

20 NEWSWEEK.COM
next ANTIBIOTIC , and there’s nothing there.
We’re facing the specter of patients with INFECTIONS we can’t treat.”

Penicillin, the “miracle drug,” and other antibiotics changed all “And we may not be able to perform organ transplants, and even
3$ 58 / $ 1  - 5 ʔ* ( 7 7 <  3 ( 7 ( 5  3 8 5 '<ʔ % , 3 6 ʔ* ( 7 7 <  3 5 ( 9 , 2 86 (  6 3 5 ( $ ' 

that, saving countless lives over the years. But the age of the miracle routine surgeries like joint replacements. We should all be scared.”
* ( 7 7 <  . $7 ( 5< 1 $  .2 1 ʔ 6 & , ( 1 & (  3 + 272  / , % 5 $ 5<ʔ* ( 7 7 <  5 2 ' 2 / ) 2
&/2 &.:,6()520%27 720%,//2Š/($5<ʔ7+(:$6+,1*7213267ʔ

drug seems to be ending. Medical experts are pinning their hopes on entirely new strat-
Doctors are learning how to identify and isolate the bugs that egies for dealing with infection. To find novel ways of killing bugs,
are already resistant in the hopes of avoiding large outbreaks. They they’re looking in exotic places—in viruses and fish slime and
6 & , ( 1 & (  $ 57 : 2 5 . ʔ 6 & , ( 1 & (  3 + 272  / , % 5 $ 5<ʔ* ( 7 7 <

are scrambling to tighten up on the use of antibiotics in an effort even on other planets. They’re using insights gained in genomics
to slow the development of resistant strains. It’s too little, too late: and other fields to come up with new technologies to kill bugs
The strategy will only buy us some and keep them from spreading. And they are re-examining prac-
BATTLE OF THE BUGS time. At the moment, the oldest tices in hospitals and other spreading-grounds for bacteria, put-
This page: Fleming, the
discoverer of penicillin. and weakest patients in hospitals ting in place more holistic strategies for managing the bacteria
Opposite page from top: are most affected, but the risks are in our bodies and in our hospitals and doctors’ offices.
A colony of drug-resistant spreading. “We’re seeing healthy The alternatives sound promising, but they are far off. It’s not
staph; an artist’s rendering
of the fungus C. auris; young people with urinary tract clear that we can invent new weapons before the superbugs, like
Rosslyn Maybank and Patrick and skin infections that we don’t a zombie army at the gates, overwhelm our defenses.
McGann at the Walter Reed have a pill for,” says Helen Bouch- “We need to make a huge investment in other approaches,” says
Army Institute of Research
work to maintain the er, an infectious disease specialist Margaret Riley, a drug-resistance researcher at the University of
effectiveness of antibiotics. at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Massachusetts. “And we need to make it 15 years ago.”

NEWSWEEK.COM 21
 To find novel ways of KILLING BUGS, scientists are looking
in viruses and fish slime and

5 2 0 $ , 1  / $ )$ % 5 ( * 8 ( ʔ$ ) 3ʔ* ( 7 7 <

22 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019

in exotic places—
even on OTHER PLANETS.
VIRAL CURE
One promising alternative
to antibiotics is the use of
viruses, called phages, to
attack bacteria. Doctors
have successfully treated
infections with phages, but
more work is needed. Here,
Dr. Gilles Leboucher, at
the Croix-Rousse hospital
in Lyon, France, prepares
a solution of phages.
SPECIAL REPORT
The New Bug-Hunters
part of the problem with drug resistance is that
microbes evolve with alarming speed into new species. Whereas
a human needs 15 or more years to mature enough to have off-
spring, microbes like E. coli reproduce every 20 minutes. In a
few years, they can go through evolutionary change that would
have taken humankind millions of years to accomplish—change
that can include acquiring genetic attributes that allow them to
withstand drugs. A human on antibiotics is the perfect lab for
developing resistant microbes. “Research shows that whenever
a new antibiotic comes into use, we start to see the first resistant
microbes emerge about a year later,” says Mass General’s Shenoy.
There’s little in the pharmaceutical pipeline to replace the an-
tibiotics to which bugs are becoming resistant. That’s because
development of a new antibiotic runs about $2 billion and takes
about 10 years—with little hope of ending up with the sort of
blockbuster drug that justifies such an investment. “The point
of having a new antibiotic would be to use it as infrequently as
possible, for as short a time as possible,” says Jonathan Zenilman,
chief of the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Bay-
view Medical Center in Baltimore. “Why would a pharma com-
pany want to develop a drug for a market like that?”
Medical researchers are now searching for other approaches.
One involves recruiting biologists with a flair for evolutionary the-
ory into the war on bugs. In the 1990s, Riley started out at Harvard
and Yale studying the ways viruses kill bacteria and bacteria kill
one another. In 2000, a colleague casually asked her if the work
had any application to human health. “I had never thought about
that,” she says. “But suddenly everything clicked for me, and I be-
came consumed by that question.”
Riley has since spent the past two decades looking into applying
the warfare strategy of viruses to the problem of resistant infections
in humans. Viruses called “phages,” which are basically chunks of
genetic material wrapped in a protective protein, will pierce the cell
wall of a bacterium and hijack its genetic machinery, turning the
bacterium into a factory for making more viruses. Riley also studies
how bacteria sometimes also kill other bacteria in the competition
for food. A colony of bacteria will sometimes elbow out a competi-
tor by producing poisonous proteins called “bacteriocins.”
Riley’s goal isn’t just to kill dangerous bacteria—it’s also to
protect the beneficial ones. Of the roughly 400 trillion bacteria
living in or on each of our bodies, the vast majority are helpful or
benign—only one 10-thousandth of a percent of them are poten-
tially harmful, she says. Commonly prescribed “broad spectrum”
antibiotics like penicillin, ciprofloxacin and tetracycline don’t
discriminate between good and bad bacteria—they wipe out
them all. That not only helps lead to the emergence of resistant
bacteria but also causes problems for patients.
Continued on page 26
NEWSWEEK.COM 23
 SPECIAL REPORT

Doctors are running out of EFFECTIVE DRUGS

because of poor economic incentives to develop them

edical researchers have known for decades that the

pipeline for new drugs to stave of bacterial infec-
tions would one day run dry. That day is now at
hand. In some cases, doctors have no drugs to give
their patients for what once were treatable infections but are
now life-threatening. Although researchers have many good
OHDGVWKHELJJHUSUREOHPLVDODFNRIɿQDQFLDOLQFHQWLYHVWR
bring new treatments through the drug-development gantlet.
“When I signed up to be an infectious disease specialist 25
years ago, I never thought it would come to this,” says Helen
Boucher, a physician at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and
director of its infectious disease fellowship and heart trans-
plant programs. Boucher has been a leading advocate for
3 ( 7 0 $ / ʔ* ( 7 7 <

ɿQGLQJZD\VRILQYHVWLQJLQQHZWUHDWPHQWV6KHVSRNHZLWK
Newsweekk about the drug-resistance problem and how we
might dig our way out of it. _ B Y D AV I D H . F RE E DMA N

24 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 Q _ In terms of the scope of the drug-
resistance problem, do you believe we are
approaching a crisis?
A _ The crisis has already arrived. We are
in an era now when doctors like me have no
effective antibiotics for some of their patients.
Q _ Is there anything in the wings that
gives you hope a potential solution is
on the way?
A _ There is a lot of research going on that
could give us good solutions. The pipeline isn’t
quite as empty as it was 10 years ago. Phages
[bacteria-killing viruses], vaccines against infec-
tions, new diagnostic methods and monoclonal
antibodies [immune-system boosters] are all
innovative and promising lines of research.
Some of the technical and scientific
hurdles are high, especially with vaccines. But
we could target a vaccine at people we know
IDFHDVSHFLɿFNLQGRILQIHFWLRQULVNVXFKDV
people who are getting open-heart surgery, a
common operation with a high risk of infec-
tion. We’d vaccinate you a week or two before
surgery. Even if we only had vaccines for one
or two types of infections, it would save thou-
sands of lives.
Q _ But is the research moving quickly
enough?
A _ The research isn’t the problem. We
are seeing innovative research in the pre-
human-trial phase from small biotech com-
panies that are fully ready to pursue human
trials. But nobody’s lining up to pay for it.
Sales wouldn’t bring in enough to justify the
cost. We’re seeing existing antibiotics man-
ufacturers at or near bankruptcy, and small
biotech companies are struggling. We can
foster innovation, but if there’s no market
waiting to nurture the results, it will just be a
“We’re seeing existing
antibiotics manufacturers
at or near bankruptcy,
and small biotech companies
are struggling.”
wasteland. We need something fast, but it’s
a hard sell in this environment.
Q _ How can we get past this bottleneck
and lack of funding?
A _ We need a better way to value new anti-
biotics and treatments. The expectation now
is that they should be cheap and widely avail-
able. We pay many thousands of dollars for
cancer drugs that may prolong life only for
months or even weeks, but antibiotics can
cure someone who’s critically ill and give
them their full life back. There’s a real value
disconnect.
Many of us are working on “pull incentives”
for antibiotic drug developers, which involves
ɿQGLQJZD\VWRUHDVVXUHWKHPWKDWWKH\ŠGJHW
some return on their investment when the drug
gets to market. That might involve “delinkage,”
which means that remuneration wouldn’t en-
tirely depend on sales. There would be other
mechanisms for making money. Separating
sales from profits would also help avoid in-
centivizing antibiotic overuse.
One short-term solution would be for Medi-
care to reimburse hospitals for the high cost
RIQHZDQWLELRWLFVVHSDUDWHO\IURPWKHʀDWIHH
Medicare pays for treating someone with a
given medical condition. Right now, hospitals
are incentivized to use cheap drugs that may
be less effective, because the cost comes out
RIWKHʀDWIHH$ORQJHUWHUPVROXWLRQZRXOGEH
offering “market-entry rewards.” If a company
develops a drug that treats resistant infection,
it would be promised a return of $500 million
to $1 billion.
We’re still debating how to pay for some of
this. One idea is to do what we do now with
vaccines—where every time a vaccine is giv-
en, a small amount of money goes to a fund to
cover some of industry’s costs. We could do
that for antibiotics and use the fund to provide
market-entry rewards.
Q _ Shouldn’t the government be covering
the cost of some of this?
_
A The government has been investing in an-
tibiotic drug development for some time. We’re
WKUHH\HDUVLQWRWKHɿYH\HDU&$5%;HIIRUWD
public-private international partnership that’s
investing more than $500 million in the indus-
try for early drug discovery and development.
7KHUHŠVDOVREHHQPRQH\IURPWKH*$,1>*HQ-
HUDWLQJ$QWLELRWLF,QFHQWLYHV1RZ@DFWDQGWKH
VW&HQWXU\&XUHV$FW
$OOWKLVKHOSVEXWLWŠVJRLQJWREHDWR
15-year process to reinvigorate the pipeline.
Where we are right now is scary.
NEWSWEEK.COM 25

“These non-antibiotic treatments are still in the EARLY
“An antibiotic is like throwing an H-bomb at an infection,” Riley
says. “You kill 50 percent or more of all the bacteria in the body,
and a lack of healthy bacteria has been linked to obesity, depres-
sion, allergies and other problems.” Phages and bacteriocins, on the
other hand, can in theory be tuned to take out a colony of infec-
tion-causing bacteria in a patient, all without harming the normal
flora or creating a fertile breeding ground for resistant bugs.
ImmuCell, a biotech company in Portland, Maine, has devel-
oped a bacteriocin that treats dairy cows for mastitis, a disease
that costs the dairy industry $2 billion a year. Riley says labs like
hers can adapt phages and bacteriocins to target virtually any sort
of human microbial infection too, with little risk of nurturing
new resistance. “These are stable, hardy killing mechanisms that
evolved 2 billion years ago,” she says.
Several clinical trials of phage therapy have already been suc-
cessfully conducted in Poland, the nation of Georgia and Bangla-
desh. In the West, there have been successful phage trials for foot
ulcers. No trials are underway for more serious infections, but a
successful phage treatment of a critically multiresistant-infected
26 NEWSWEEK.COM
&/2&.:,6()520/()73(23/(,0$*(6ʔ*(77<<9$1&2+(1ʔ/,*+752&.(7ʔ*(77<                         60 , 7 + &2 / / ( & 7 , 2 1 ʔ* $ ' 2ʔ* ( 7 7 <  '$ 1 $  1 ( ( /<ʔ* ( 7 7 <
STAGES of
patient in California in 2017 under Food and Drug Administra-
tion emergency rules has more researchers in the U.S. looking
to develop phage treatments. One or more of these could move
toward trials in the next few years, says Riley, including one for
multi-resistant tuberculosis and another for pulmonary infections
in cystic fibrosis patients. Bacteriocins are further behind. The U.S.
government has promised to provide $2 billion for the effort to
develop these alternatives, “but that’s not nearly enough,” she says.
Cancer researchers are widely investigating drugs that can
boost immune systems, and these immunotherapies could be
promising in helping weakened patients fight off resistant bugs
that try to take hold. Researchers have produced human antibod-
ies in cows and other animals that can be injected into patients.
Boston’s Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in an
emergency effort, reported injecting a combination of antibodies
and antibiotics to save a patient with a drug-resistant infection,
but the results weren’t disclosed. Otherwise, little has been done
to bring the approach to trials in infected patients. Researchers
are also working on vaccines against resistant staph infections
M A Y 31 , 2 019
 SPECIAL REPORT

investigation. But we have to KEEP THINKING of new approaches.”

and other resistant bacteria, but these too are just research Managing the Bugs
efforts. “These non-antibiotic treatments are still in the early although antibiotics are truly miracle drugs when they
stages of investigation,” says David Banach, who heads infection work, our current problems have arisen in part because medicine
prevention at the UConn Health medical center in Farmington, has relied too heavily on them. Doctors prescribe them for ear
Connecticut. “But we have to keep thinking of new approaches.” infections, sore throats and urinary tract infections. Surgeons
Given the enormous urgency of the problem, why is it taking use them to prevent postoperative infections. Because bacteria
so long to move promising solutions toward trials and availabili- can develop resistance, antibiotics make the most sense as part
ty? Because there’s little money in it, says Tufts’ Boucher. The gov- of a holistic approach to managing the spread of bacteria and
ernment is sinking billions into research, but the private invest- dealing with infections. As antibiotics begin to lose their useful-
ment to turn that research into ness, medical experts are now coming around to emphasizing
manufactured drugs and devic- many-pronged strategies for keeping the bugs at bay.
DRUG PUSHERS
The easy availability of antibiotics es has not materialized. Drug Being quicker off the mark to identify and respond to potential
encourages microbes to develop companies, says Boucher, have outbreaks with extra precautions and targeted antibiotics could
resistance. Opposite page: A little prospect of profiting off a slow or prevent outbreaks. New tests under development would
pharmacist makes notes on
medications on the shelves. drug that isn’t likely to be taken allow health workers to rapidly and cheaply identify the genes of
This page, clockwise from top: by millions of people or fetch any bacteria found on or near patients. “We can’t do molecular
Over-the-counter drugs in prices of tens of thousands of screening on every patient who walks through the door for every
Bangkok; the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention dollars per dose. “The economic organism. That would be looking for a needle in a haystack,” says
in Atlanta; a surgical waiting area. model is broken,” she says. Shenoy. “But if we can screen high-risk patients quickly enough,

NEWSWEEK.COM 27
The U.S. promised $2 BILLION to develop alternatives
to antibiotics, “but that’s not nearly enough.”

. $7 ( 5< 1 $  .2 1 ʔ 6 & , ( 1 & (  3 + 272  / , % 5 $ 5<ʔ* ( 7 7 <

28 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 TO THE RESCUE
Viruses that attack
bacteria, called
phages, have a big
head that contains
genetic material and
WDLOɿEHUVWKDWDIɿ[
WRDVSHFLɿFVWUDLQ
of bacteria. Genetic
material, injected into
the bacterium, hijacks
its cellular machinery
to produce more
copies of the virus.
 &/2&.:,6()520/()7$1',$ʔ8,*ʔ*(77<&$0,//(9$19225(1ʔ(<((0ʔ*(77<                             ( 6 6' 5 $6  0 6 8$5 ( =ʔ7 + (  %2 672 1 */2 %( ʔ* ( 7 7< 5( %( && $ :,/&2;ʔ 3 85'8 (8 1 , 9 ( 5 6 , 7 <
“Research shows that, on average, HOSPITALS aren’t following
the right precautions about half the
we can take appropriate actions.” It would certainly be an im- average, hospitals aren’t following the right precautions about
provement over the standard techniques for identifying bacterial half the time,” says the Association for Professionals in Infection
outbreaks, developed 150 years ago. Control and Epidemiology’s Hoffman. “It’s our biggest struggle.”
Infection specialists are also focusing on getting hospitals to Hospitals are beginning to change their ways. Many now use
do a better job at containing resistant bugs when they pop up, trash can–shaped robots to disinfect walls with ultraviolet light
instead of spreading them among patient populations. About 5 (the rooms have to be empty because the light is harmful to hu-
percent of all patients in U.S. hospitals end up with a “nosocomial” mans too). At Riverside Medical Center, south of Chicago, two
infection—that is, an infection acquired at the hospital. It’s not robots from a company called Xenex disinfect more than 30
hard to see how. Hospitals are dense gatherings of sick people rooms a day.
with weakened immune systems and various wounds and punc- Keeping hospitals clean would
KEEPING IT CLEAN
tures, constantly poked and prodded by fingers and tools that be easier if bacteria couldn’t stick Hospitals, breeding grounds
move around the hospital to poke and prod others. to surfaces such as tabletops and for microbes, use best
An aging population and new procedures have left patients all clothes. Melissa Reynolds, a Colo- practices and technology to
prevent infection. Above:
the more vulnerable. Johns Hopkins’ Zenilman found in an infor- rado State University biomedical Disinfecting hallways.
mal survey he conducted that more than half of all the patients engineer, is developing new bac- Opposite page, from top:
he asked had some sort of implant, a common source of infec- teria-resistant materials. Health Washing hands; germ-
ɿJKWLQJURERWV3XUGXH
tion. “The patients in hospitals today as a group are much sicker care workers’ clothing and other University’s Seleem is
than any we’ve seen in history,” he says. “Research shows that, on hospital materials and surfaces developing a bug-killing laser.

30 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 SPECIAL REPORT

wouldn’t need as much disinfection if they didn’t pick up bugs

in the first place. Fighting bacteria accidental mission for Reyn-
olds. She had been investigating ways of avoiding clots in the
meshes that surgeons use to keep patients’ arteries open. Apply-
ing a coating of copper nanocrystals to the meshes seemed to
keep blood cells from sticking to the surfaces. She noticed that
bacteria didn’t stick to the nanocrystal coatings either. Then a
student in her lab had a eureka moment: Why not dip cotton
fabric in a solution of the nanocrystals to keep bacteria from
sticking to the fabric? “We were discovering new materials with
strong antibiotic properties,” says Reynolds. “That led us in a
new direction.”
The idea of bacteria-proof clothing has so far survived a bat-
tery of tests. “We’ve exposed the treated fabric to all kinds of bac-
teria over and over again, and we can’t find any sticking to it,” she
says. “We’re still trying to figure out the mechanism, but we know
it works with all different types of bacteria.” She has already col-
laborated with a major medical-supply company to prove that the
nanocrystals can be cheaply incorporated into manufacturing
processes. Now, she’s investigating ways to get the crystals into a
variety of other materials used in hospitals, including stainless
steel, paint and plastics. These treated materials would stay bac-
teria-free much longer than conventional hospital surfaces that
are wiped with common disinfectants, she says.
Lasers are another potential weapon against bacteria. Mo-
hamed Seleem, a Purdue University biologist, and his colleagues
were trying to come up with a way to quickly identify infectious

time. It’s our BIGGEST STRUGGLE .”

bacteria in blood samples by hitting the samples with laser
light of different colors. Along the way, they noticed that cer-
tain drug-resistant bacteria changed color from gold to white
just seconds after being hit with a mild beam of blue laser light.
Some of these “photobleached” bugs died, and others became so
weakened that they lost their resistance to ordinary antibiotics.
The blue light, it turned out, damages the pigment in the bacte-
ria’s outer membrane. “It only affects a particular pigment,” says
Seleem. “So it doesn’t harm any other cells.”
Seleem and his collaborators are now working to find ways
to tune the color of the laser light to target other resistant bugs.
If he succeeds, health care workers would be able to use a la-
ser the size of a flashlight to safely kill dangerous bacteria on
patients’ skin or disinfect a hospital or doctor’s office. It could
also be shined on the skin and clothing of health care workers
themselves in order to keep them from spreading infections. His
collaborators are working to set up clinical trials.
Seleem also thinks the light could be used on severe, dan-
gerously resistant blood infections, by hooking up a patient to
a blood-circulating machine and shining it on the blood as it
passes through. “You’re basically taking out the patient’s blood,
sterilizing it and returning it to the patient,” he says.

NEWSWEEK.COM 31
 SPECIAL REPORT

F
Thousands of people
each year continue to
or Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium
that causes Lyme disease, these
are the good old days. Because of
patients treated for Lyme disease continue to
have symptoms for months and even years.
These patients fall into a gray area called
a proliferation of white-tailed deer
have SY MPTO M S after and other mammals that harbor the
treatment. Doctors microbe and a seemingly endless supply
of ticks to transfer it from deer to human
don’t know why bloodstreams, an estimated 300,000 people
_
BY KASHMIRA GANDER DUHLQIHFWHGHDFK\HDULQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV
Left untreated, Lyme disease does a lot of
damage: It can attack the heart and nervous
system and trigger arthritis.
Fortunately, B. burgdorferi has not yet
developed a resistance to antibiotics. That’s
good news for most bite victims who are
lucky enough to notice the early symptoms—
fever, headache, chills, fatigue, joint and
muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes, plus
a rash up to 12 inches from the bite site—and
seek treatment with a three- to four-week
course of antibiotics.
But not all patients walk away scot-free.
For reasons that are obscure, one in 10
SRVWWUHDWPHQW/\PHGLVHDVH37/'V\Q-
drome, which is characterized by cognitive
dysfunction, incapacitating fatigue and chronic
pain, according to a study published in April in
the journal BMC Public Health. The cost to the
) 5 2 0  72 3   . ( 1 7  : 2 2 'ʔ* ( 7 7 <  - 2 ( /  6 $ 572 5 ( ʔ* ( 7 7 <
medical system is estimated at up to $1 billion
D\HDULQWKH86
'RFWRUVKDYHVSDUUHGRYHUZKDWPLJKWFDXVH
37/'V\QGURPH6RPHWKRXJKWDIHZUHQHJDGH
cells of B. burgdorferi, which is notoriously clev-
er about evading the body’s immune system,
somehow survived the antibiotic treatment,
settling in for the long haul and causing “chronic
Lyme disease.” Recent research has cast doubt
on that view, but researchers still have no good
working hypothesis.
Whatever the cause, the number of people
ZKRVXIIHUIURP37/'V\QGURPHVHHPVWREHRQ
the rise. In the BMC Public Health study, scien-
tists estimated how many people currently have

37/'DQGKRZIDVWWKHQXPEHURIFDVHVPD\
be increasing. They drew on data collected
E\WKH86&HQWHUVIRU'LVHDVH&RQWURODQG
3UHYHQWLRQDVZHOODVSDVWHVWLPDWHVRI/\PH
disease rates, survival rates and examples of
treatments failing.
The two estimates varied widely. When they
assumed a treatment failure rate of 10 percent,
new cases rose steadily between 1980 and
EHIRUHVORZLQJE\WKHQXPEHURI
37/'FDVHVURVHIURPDERXWLQ
to more than 80,000 in 2020. When they
assumed a treatment failure rate of 20 percent,
they found that the number of cases would
reach 1.9 million by 2020.
ţ1HYHUWKHOHVVRXUɿQGLQJVVXJJHVWWKDW
there are large numbers of patients living
ZLWK/'UHODWHGFKURQLFLOOQHVVŤWKHVFLHQWLVWV
wrote. Further research is now needed to
create tests to accurately diagnose and treat
the condition, raise public awareness and
DUULYHDWDFRQFOXVLYHɿJXUHRQWKHQXPEHU
of sufferers.
M A Y 31 , 2 019
Slowing the Superbugs
although the pharmaceutical industry has all but aban-
doned antibiotics, researchers haven’t given up hope of finding
new ones. The antibiotic revolution was kicked off in 1928, when
Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to his London lab
only to find a weird-looking mold growing in a dish he had left
by an open window. Ever since, researchers have tried to peek
into every corner of nature for the next great bacteria-killer. Ac-
cording to recent studies, among the new sources of substances
that appear lethal to even resistant bacteria—yet may be safe
for human consumption—are insects, seaweed, the mucus on
young fish, arsenic-rich dirt in Ireland and even Martian soil. One
team at Leiden University in the Netherlands is trying to build
an artificial bacterium from scratch in hopes it can be tweaked
to manufacture a new antibiotic.
Doctors are also trying to make the best use of antibiotics we
have now by slowing the development of new resistant strains.
That calls for cutting back on rampant overuse of antibiotics,
which encourages superbugs to evolve. Doing so has to become
an international effort, because the resistant bugs in one part of
the world often made their way from elsewhere.
Developing countries are becoming a particularly frequent
source for emergent bacterial threats that end up in the U.S.,
notes UConn’s Banach. Studies have found that in most of the
world antibiotics are readily dispensed from community phar-
macies without prescriptions, contributing to a 65 percent
climb in global antibiotic use between 2000 and 2015. The
resulting resistant bugs skip frictionlessly around the world in
the guts of millions of international travelers. “The impact of
antibiotic overuse in these countries, as well as living and en-
vironmental conditions, are facilitating the worldwide spread
of resistant organisms,” he says.
Patients have a role to play too. Pressuring doctors to prescribe
antibiotics for mild congestion, urinary tract infections or slow-
to-heal wounds contributes to antibiotic overuse and the resulting
resistance. Massachusetts public health officials have been pushing
physicians and the public to ease up on antibiotics for more than
a decade, and the state was rewarded with a 16 percent drop in
prescriptions over a four-year period. A small victory, perhaps, in
a large war that we have so far been mostly losing.
The cost of our failure to act a decade or more ago to this easi-
ly foreseeable crisis will most likely be a spreading tide of severe
illness and death. It won’t rise to the level of deadly mass out-
break the way a killer virus like Ebola could. But resistant infec-
tions will begin to affect more and more of us. Even if medicine,
government and industry embarked today on a massive effort
to find new approaches to combat resistant infections like the
Columbia E. coli—which they aren’t close to doing—the payoff
wouldn’t come for a decade or more.
NEWSWEEK.COM 33
 SPECIAL REPORT

154 MILLION
3UHVFULSWLRQVIRU
Portion of
BY T H E N U MB ERS
antibiotics written in

all hospital
WKH86HDFK\HDU

SUPERBUGS patients
One day in 1928, Alexander who receive
Fleming noticed that antibiotics.
Staphylococcus failed to
thrive near a fungus that had 1 IN 3
contaminated his bacteria Outpatient
cultures. He isolated the active $85 million+ oral antibiotic
substance, leading to the first Amount invested in combating the spread of prescriptions in
WKH86WKDWDUH
antibiotic drug, penicillin, and superbugs worldwide. This research stretches unnecessary—
heralding a new age of miracle across seven countries and has developed a major reason for
drugs. Since then, scientists 10 new antibiotic classes in the pipeline. antibiotic resistance.

have brought out a hundred or

$100,00
so antibiotics, saving millions
of lives. But these days the
drugs are less miraculous than
they once were. Bacteria are
evolving resistance, leaving
doctors with no treatment
options for many infections.

39%
Superbug cases
4 out of 5 that involved
infections
Adults in with bacteria
the U.S. who resistant
have taken to last-line
antibiotics at antibiotics—
some point in rendering them
their life. effectively
untreatable.

34 NEWSWEEK.COM
 $2 billion+
Cost of infection treatments
last year. Since 2002, this
number has more than
doubled, and it could rise
further due to drug resistance.

The total
cost of
superbugs
worldwide
by 2050.

2 MILLION Twenty-Seven
The number Number of states with
of people reported cases of
LQWKH86 carbapenem-resistant
infected each
Enterobacteriaceae 11
&   ' , ) ) , & , / (   . $7 ( 5< 1 $  .2 1 ʔ 6 & , ( 1 & (  3 + 272  / , % 5 $ 5<ʔ* ( 7 7 <

year with
3 , / / 6   6 + 8 7 7 ( 5 : 2 5 ; ʔ* ( 7 7 <  & 8 7  2 8 7  * 5 ( *  % $ - 2 5 ʔ* ( 7 7 <

drug-resistant (CRE), including

bacteria. New York, Connecticut, The amount
Florida, Texas, of days it
California, Wash- took E. coli
C R E CAS E S
ington and Alabama. bacteria
1 2 1( 5 (3 2 57('
to evolve
and develop
total
resistance
23,000 Ơ U.S. deaths due to drug-resistant infections per year, to an
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. antibiotic,
according
Estimates suggest that by 2050, the bacteria could claim to a Harvard
10 million lives every year around the globe, more than cancer. study.

NEWSWEEK.COM 35
M O ON SHO T S

Entrepreneur and inventor

Mazi Ghorbani believes he’s found
, 0 $* ( 1 $9 , ʔ* ( 7 7 <

a way to feed millions of kids:

VXSHUSURWHLQH[WUDFWHGIURP˽VK

36 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 (&2ʝ)5,(1'/<
1285,6+0(17
3URWHLQIURPɿVK
OLNHWKHVHVDUGLQHV
FDQEHWXUQHG
LQWRDQRGRUOHVV
WDVWHOHVVKLJKO\
QXWULWLRXVSRZGHU

NEWSWEEK.COM 37
Horizons
in anticipation of the 50th
anniversary of NASA astronauts
landing on the moon, Newsweek is
spotlighting pioneers in science and
technology, highlighting their very
own moonshots and how they hope to
change the world. Mazi Ghorbani is
an entrepreneur and inventor whose
latest venture involves creating a sus-
tainable protein derived from fish in
an effort to combat childhood hunger.
:KDWLV\RXUPRRQVKRW"
My dream is to have our technology
deployed all around the globe and lit-
erally save lives by delivering the most
sustainable, healthy protein to the
over 5 million children that die every
year of malnutrition, along with all
of the adults and young children in
the developing world that are either
stunted or undernourished.
:KHUHŠV\RXULQVSLUDWLRQIURP"
When my wife and I started an orga-
nization called PledgeToHumanity
.org, helping underprivileged chil-
dren and orphans, we were devastat-
ed by the millions of children who
die every year from malnutrition. So
we said, Let’s come up with a food
package unlike what the U.N. and
UNICEF at the time were delivering,
which was just carbohydrates and
just fills up their stomach but doesn’t
really alleviate the root cause of the
problem. The children die because
they lack highly digestible protein.
I read a U.N. report that said fish
protein was the savior of the world
hunger problem, and it is the most
sustainable raw material, abundant
on Earth. To my surprise, I could
not find any large-scale manufac-
turer that makes it. I said, We need
to find out how to develop a truly
sustainable and environmentally
friendly technology, unlike anything
else that has been done, and create
38 NEWSWEEK.COM
MOONSHOTS
an extraction technology where we grade through companies and fish-
can have the flexibility to find the eries that are [Marine Stewardship
most sustainable raw material, ex- Council] certified, and we put it
tract the protein out of it and make through a fully automated, propri-
an odorless, tasteless, very desirable etary mechanical extraction system.
finished product. The technology has a very small foot-
print, and from the time that the fish
+RZGRHVLWZRUN" arrives in our facility, it is handled
We wanted to develop a technology in a food-grade manner, where it
that is extremely sustainable, unlike goes through a closed-loop system
enzymatic hydrolysis, which is how and nobody touches anything until
99 percent of the proteins in the a powder, oil and water come out.
world are produced. We succeeded We use absolutely zero water for
in our goal to develop an extraction processing. In fact, we actually make
technology that doesn’t use any water—we extract it from the fish.
water or any land for cultivating And the protein that comes out is a
our raw material. And our carbon super-protein powder: It has all the
footprint is extreme- nutrients and no additives, it’s got a
ly small. We can take long shelf life, and it has virtually no
more than 200 species odor or taste.
BY
of truly sustainable,
abundant and bounti- JULIANA
+RZLVWKHSURWHLQLQJHVWHG"
ful FDA-approved fish. PIGNATARO Its characteristics enable it to be
We buy them fo o d @julie_pignataro added to many foods that traditional
proteins cannot be, such as ramen or
pasta, or even baked goods. In India,
we’re doing a human study where
the children eat potato patties. We
ţ:HXVHDEVROXWHO\ can put our protein into the pasta,
]HURZDWHU,Q and then they can eat whatever they
like, but they’re actually getting a
IDFWZHPDNH lot of very valuable and nutritional
ZDWHUŜZHH[WUDFW fish protein in it, without changing
the taste of the product. We can put
LWIURPWKH˽VKŤ it in tortillas; you can’t put tradi-
tional protein into tortillas or tor-
tilla chips, but ours can go in there
because it acts differently than
traditional protein.
:KDWKDYH\RXOHDUQHGIURP
RWKHUVZKRKDYHWULHGWRWDFNOH
VLPLODUSUREOHPV"
We searched the globe to perfect the
6($9,256$9,25*KRUEDQLŠVGUHDP
LVWRKDYHDʀHHWRIKLVVKLSVGHSOR\HG
DURXQGWKHJOREHVDYLQJOLYHVLQ
GLVDVWHUDUHDVDQGIHHGLQJWKHKXQJU\
M A Y 31 , 2 019

system, and some of the things that
we found were that the same old
technology was used in the protein
manufacturing industry. We tried
to stay away from enzymatic hydro-
lysis and microfilters because they
require a lot of water. Also, we avoid
the heavy use of synthetic enzymes
and genetic modification, because
some of the synthetic enzymes and
acids remain in the food and affect
its overall quality. We also learned to
avoid oxidation through the design
& 28 57( 6<  2) $ '9$ 1&(  , 17 (5 1$7 , 21$ /  ʦ  ʧ
of the Seavior System, which is basi-
cally a closed-loop system that does
not allow daylight or oxygen into
the system so that the finished
product is not oxidized while it is
being processed.
'R\RXIHHOFORVHWRVXFFHVV"
Thanks to God, after a few years
of very hard work, we are close to
launching our full-scale plans. We
have several tons of protein samples
that have been tested successfully. We
have wholesale customers that are
waiting to receive the product. But
our original and ongoing passion
is taking care of the children. We
have a program called Kilos for Kids,
so for every kilo of protein that we
sell, we’re going to give away enough
protein for a life-saving package for a
child around the world.
),6+)22')URPWRS&KLOGUHQ
UHFHLYHOLIHVDYLQJSDFNDJHVRISURWHLQ
WKURXJK.LORVIRU.LGVSURWHLQ
SRZGHUFDQEHPL[HGLQWROLTXLGV
:KDWREVWDFOHVKDYH\RXIDFHG
ZKLOHWU\LQJWRPDNHWKLVDUHDOLW\"
Coming up with the fully automat-
ed technology that no one has done
before was a big obstacle. Removing
the odor and the taste from the fin-
ished product. And, mind you, we
have three products, and we have
zero waste. That means the fish goes
in, and everything that comes out
is usable. We add nothing—it’s all
from the fish.
:KRDUH\RXUPHQWRUV"
My number one mentor is the
c arp enter from Galile e, Je sus
Christ. He’s the one that multiplied
the fishes in the Sea of Galilee. I
know that’s a cliché, but it’s the
truth. Besides God, my wife has
really been the one to inspire me.
She’s dedicated her life to helping
others without expecting anything
in return.
:KDWGR\RXVHHWKHZRUOGEHLQJ
OLNHLQ\HDUVLI\RXVXFFHHG"
In my wildest dreams, I would like
to see our factories all around the
globe, producing products and de-
livering it to all the population, so
that we do not have stunted children
in Asia, we don’t have starving chil-
dren in Africa, and we don’t have
millions of children die around the
world from malnutrition. We can
feed people in disaster times or in
good times. My dream is to have a
fleet of our patented Seavior ships
all around the globe, going to every
disaster area and really saving lives
and enriching our food supply in a
totally sustainable and environmen-
tally friendly fashion.
NEWSWEEK.COM 39
Horizons
M O VI E S
Bringing Pocket
Monsters to Life
Detective Pikachu is not just another Pokémon movie
since pokémon debuted in
1996, the franchise’s “pocket
monsters” have dominated the
hearts, minds and wallets of gen-
erations of kids. It’s now a global
empire worth $90 billion, making
it the world’s most valuable media
property, bigger than Star Wars. And
it has its first live-action, big-screen
movie, Detective Pikachu (based
on an adventure game of the
same name), which opened in
theaters May 10.
Pokémon began as a
pair of Japanese-only
video games for Nin-
tendo’s Game Boy. Play- MO MOZUCH
ers were tasked with @momozuch
catching Pokémon and
training them to battle one another.
A trading card game, comic book and
cartoon series launched soon after,
and the whole phenomenon was
exported to the U.S. in 1998. Since
then, there have been 78 video games,
18 animated movies and thousands
of trading cards, not to mention
millions of toys, hats, T-shirts and
backpacks.
What is the secret of its success?
Rob Letterman, the director of
Detective Pikachu, tells Newsweek,
“There’s a real wish fulfillment to
it, especially for a younger gen-
eration. A s ens e of emp ower-
ment, the notion that you can go
40 NEWSWEEK.COM
out into the wilderness and can
collect something that can empower
you, that brings you joy. You can
go out with your friends and with
no adults around go on these great
adventures.”
The Detective Pikachu game is
unusual for Pokémon. It is a story-
driven mystery adventure rather than
a wide-open role-playing game, and it
features a titular ball of fur who says
a lot more than his trademark phrase,
“Pika! Pika!” He partners
with a boy named Tim
BY Goodman to investigate
the disappearance of
Tim’s father, Harry, him-
self a detective who went
missing on a case about
a series of unusual Pokémon attacks.
In the game, as well as the movie, Tim
and Pikachu have a special relation-
ship because Tim is the only human creative team took an audio clip from
who can understand Pikachu’s speech. one of Reynolds’ previous movies, The
It’s an Odd Couple dynamic that lends Change-Up, and used it to animate a
itself to moments of humor and per- scene with Pikachu. “The second we
sonal discovery for the characters.
“The idea baked into the Detective
“We were gonna make
Pikachu game was a big personality
coming out of a small, yellow furry
character,” Letterman says. That
a movie for hardcore
fans and get it right
someone turned out to be Ryan Reyn-
olds, best known for his portrayal of
foul-mouthed superhero Deadpool.
for them.... They’re so
passionate about it.”
Before even approaching Reynolds
about the part, Letterman and his
M A Y 31 , 2 019

$%29(&2857(6<2):$51(5%5263,&785(6ʦʧ5(<12/'60,&+ $ ( /  67 ( :$ 5 7ʔ ) , / 0 0 $* , & ʔ* ( 7 7 <
Put down
the stapler, or I
will electrocute
you!
saw that clip, it was a done deal. It was
a perfect fit,” says Letterman.
But while Reynolds appears in the
film only as the voice of a digitally
animated Pikachu, co-star Justice
Smith had to act in front of the cam-
eras. Letterman used puppeteers to
give the actor a Pikachu to react to
in rehearsal. But once the scene was
ready for filming, Smith needed to
do it alone. “Justice’s muscle memory
and eyeline and performance were
incredible,” Letterman said, “He’s so
skilled. No one will really appreciate
LEVEL UP TO THE BIG SCREEN
Left: Scenes from Detective Pikachu,
featuring actors Smith and Kathryn
Newton, as well as Letterman di-
recting Smith. Bottom: Reynolds, at
the premiere, quotes Pikachu.
the performance because it’s blended
so beautifully.”
Letterman says he began think-
ing about how to make a live-action
movie with cartoon characters years
before filming—shuttling back and
forth between Tokyo and California
to meet with original artists and cre-
ators, like the Pokémon Co. founder
Tsunekazu Ishihara and Ken Sugi-
mori, who created all 151 original
Pokémon. “I didn’t want to break
what people recognize as Pokémon,”
Letterman says. “They are very car-
toonish shapes. They’re not animals
that exist in our world that we just
copied. They are otherworldly car-
toons that we wanted to make pho-
torealistic. Part of that process was
shooting on location, shooting with
vintage lenses.”
Detective Pikachu is a film noir at
heart, says Letterman, so he shot it
on film and relied on the skills of
cinematographer John Mathieson to
give it what he calls a gritty “daytime
Blade Runner vibe.” Leaving in sub-
tle imperfections prevents the film
from looking sterile, Letterman says,
something he feels audiences are
becoming more aware of after years
of highly digitized blockbusters.
Throughout the making of the
movie, Letterman says he and his
team tried to keep one thought in
mind. “It’s hard to make a movie for
everyone; you end up making a movie
for no one,” he says. So “we said we
were gonna make a movie for hard-
core fans. Start there and go to our
base and figure out how to get it right
for them. They’re so passionate.”
NEWSWEEK.COM 41
Culture HIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

&2857(6<2):$51(5%5263,&785(6ʔk:$51(5%526(17(57$,10(17,1&$//5,*+765(6(59('7235,*+77$530$*186ʔ*(77<

M O V IE S

Godzilla’s World
How the creature designer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters built an entire
ecosystem of beasts, rewriting human history along the way

42 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019

The world’s best wine regions » P.46
“Everything about them is a part of nature.”
“We call it making them more believable, but it’s
CLASH OF THE TITANS
1DWXUDOGLVDVWHUVRIɿUH
OLJKWQLQJDQGʀRRGVUHVXOW
from battles between the
PRQVWHUVVHHQKHUHLQ
FRQFHSWDUWIURPWKHɿOP
THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
scott chambliss has built environments
across the universe as production designer
for movies such as Star Trek and Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol. 2. But Godzilla: King of the Monsters
presented a new challenge: create an entire eco-
system robust enough to shape a fictional human
past and populate its monster-filled future.
“What is their story, what are their qualities, and
how do we most accurately or meticulously convey
this about them?” Chambliss says, describing his
design approach. As the ringleader on more than a
dozen creature designs for King of the Monsters—“17
and counting,” Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe)
says in the latest trailer—Chambliss and director
Michael Dougherty had to build a world on a scale
appropriate for the movie’s rampaging iconic mon-
sters, or Titans, competing for dominance.
“We had this biodynamic relationship with
nature that we visualized with these creatures,
including Godzilla,” Chambliss says, using a term
often applied to organic farming and wine labels.
This could mean Godzil-
la’s body lighting up with
BY
bioluminescence as he
roars radioactivity, or
ANDREW WHALEN Rodan’s fiery nature going
@AnAndrewWhalen far beyond his volcanic lair.
“There’s some visual man-
ifestation that happens within their very beings
before they let anything rip,” Chambliss explains.
Unlike Hollywood’s first attempt, in 1998, at a
Godzilla movie, which over-explained Godzilla’s
dietary habits and mutations, King of the Monsters
understands that realistic isn’t the same as believ-
able. “In creating our new silhouettes, we gave
them characteristics that make them a bit more
accessible to modern audiences,” Chambliss says.
not really more believable. It’s just a visual lan-
guage we can believe now.”
The movie obsessively re-creates some of
the effects found in movies like Toho studio’s
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, including the
zig-zagging, lightning-like “gravity beams” fired by
Godzilla’s nemesis. But King of the Monsters also
NEWSWEEK.COM 43
Culture

introduces new Titans all its own,

expanding the world of monsters
beyond the series’ Japanese roots.
“A lot of it is starting from the crea-
tures themselves,” Chambliss says.
“We made very sure we could contrib-
ute to the origins of these creatures.”
King of the Monsters depicts nature
unbalanced, with the old gods of the
Earth returning, either to set it right
or feast upon the chaos. Just as its
monsters represent a natural world
run amok, the scale of destruction
in King of the Monsters goes beyond
city-stomping, taking on the propor-
tions of a natural disaster.
“We employ references from the
most melodramatic visualizations
of catastrophic happenings on the
planet,” Chambliss says. “Massive
storms and earthquakes happen,
and all of that is part of the chaos the
monsters are creating.”
On one side is Mothra, “a crea-
ture innately tied with nature,”
Chambliss explains, “a conductor
of metaphorical and visual light.”
Then there’s King Ghidorah, a three-
headed monstrosity who sees the
potential to “dominate everything
and everyone, including the mon-
sters.” “Nature is out of balance,
and he sees that as an opportunity,”
Chambliss says. “He’s basically there
to ravage and own.”
Godzilla, appearing with his com-
pact wrestling stance and ursine
snout, as introduced in the Gareth
Edwards–directed reboot in 2014,
will play the bruiser, bringing bal-
ance back to the people who once TAKE COVER
The monsters primarily take aim at
worshiped him. King of the Mon- each other in this all-out monster
sters not only builds a complex web EUDZOZKLOHWKHKXPDQVGRWKHLU
of city-scale organisms but also best to avoid their own species
becoming collateral damage.
delves into humanity’s long and Clockwise from above: Concept art
complicated history with the mon- IURPWKHPDNLQJRIɿOP&KDPEOLVV
sters. Godzilla has experienced many the three-headed King Ghidorah.
redesigns — from the rubber-and-
fiberglass suits donned by the late

44 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 MO VI E S

Haruo Nakajima (an autographed

photo of the actor watched over the
King of the Monsters set) in 1954’s
original Gojira to the fleshy, knotted
scar tissue of the constantly mutat-
ing Shin Godzilla in 2016. Audiences
have never, however, seen into his
past or his home.
“Michael had a construct, based on
his views of the place of these mon-
sters in ancient history,” Chambliss
says. “We got to look way back into
the actual representation of mon-
sters in the iconography of different
cultures. From that, we created our
own anthropological history.”
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
) 5 2 0  % 27 72 0   & 2 8 57 ( 6<  2 )  :$ 5 1 ( 5  % 5 2 6   3 , & 7 8 5 ( 6 ʔk       :$ 5 1 ( 5  % 52 6   ( 1 7 ( 57$ , 1 0 ( 1 7  , 1 &   ʤ  ʥ   0 , & + $ ( /  % 8 & . 1 ( 5 ʔ* ( 7 7 <

visits an ancient city built to house

King of the Godzilla, once populated by wor-
Monsters shippers, subjects and caretakers.

introduces It was later lost to a mythological

disaster. Only Monarch, a secret sci-
new Titans ence organization, has the resources
all its own, to launch a submarine expedition

expanding from its own underwater fortress.

While Godzilla: King of the Monsters’
the world of rewrite of natural and human his-
monsters tory sets up a sprawling world for its

beyond 2020 sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong, don’t

count out humans just yet: Plans
the series’ include a new take on the colossal
Japanese robot Mechagodzilla, humanity’s

roots. answer to the Titan threat.

But during much of King of the
Monsters, the human cast, includ-
ing Vera Farmiga, Sally Hawkins,
O’Shea Jackson Jr., Kyle Chandler,
Charles Dance and Millie Bobby
Brown, will simply be struggling to
survive. “Our movie is very much
about the monsters battling each
other,” Chambliss says. “In some
cases, human beings aren’t a big
part of that story. The best they
can do is stand by and try not to
be obliterated.”

Ơ Godzilla: King of the Monsters is in

theaters May 31.

NEWSWEEK.COM 45
Culture

02 United States
,GDKR
7KHXQVXQJKHUR
RIWKH$PHULFDQ
ZLQHLQGXVWU\LV
,GDKR:LWKPRUH
WKDQYLQH\DUGV 03 Portugal
WRGDWH,GDKRKDV 'RXUR9DOOH\
WKHSRWHQWLDOWRMRLQ 'HFODUHGD81(6&2:RUOG+HULWDJHVLWHWKH

   6 + ( 5 5<  6 0 , 7 + ʔ* ( 7 7 <     & 2 8 57 ( 6<  2 )  6 $: 72 27 +  : , 1 ( 5<     7 , $* 2 ) ( 5 1 $ 1 ' ( =ʔ* ( 7 7 <     ' ( 6 , 5 ( (  0 $ 57 , 1 ʔ$ ) 3ʔ* ( 7 7 <     ' , & .6 2 1  / ( ( ʔ 628 7 + &+ ,1 $  02 5 1, 1*
&DOLIRUQLDDVDWRS 'RXUR9DOOH\ZLQHFRXQWU\SURGXFHVZRUOG
86ZLQHUHJLRQ FODVVSRUWFODUHWDQG%XUJXQG\VW\OHZLQH

3 2 67ʔ* ( 7 7 <     : ( 67 ( 1 '   ʔ* ( 7 7 <     , 0 $* ( % 5 2 . ( 5 ʔ$ / $ 0 <     3$7 5 , . 67 ( ' 5 $ . ʔ* ( 7 7 <     8 1 , 9 ( 5 6 $ /  + , 672 5<  $ 5 & + , 9 ( ʔ 8 , * ʔ* ( 7 7 <      6 2 +$ ' , 6= 1 2ʔ* ( 7 7 <
2
3

01 Mexico
9DOOHGH*XDGDOXSH 04 Canary Islands
'ULQNLQJLQ0H[LFRLVQŠW 7HQHULIH
MXVWDERXWWHTXLODŜ 7KHODUJHVWLVODQG
9DOOHGH*XDGDOXSH LQWKH6SDQLVK
LQ%DMDWXUQVRXW DUFKLSHODJRLVRQHRI
VXUSULVLQJO\JRRG WKHPRVWLQWULJXLQJ
FKDUGRQQD\ULHVOLQJ ZLQHUHJLRQVLQWKH
DQGFKHQLQEODQFDV ZRUOG,WGHSHQGV
ZHOODVUHGVLQFOXGLQJ ODUJHO\RQLQGLJHQRXV
PHUORWWHPSUDQLOOR JUDSHVOLNHOLVW£Q
DQGSHWLWHVLUDK EODQFRDQGPDOYDVLD

UN C H AR T E D

Wine Regions 5

05 Chile

of theWorld
0DXOH9DOOH\
&KLOHŠVJUDSHV
LQFOXGLQJWKHLGLR-
V\QFUDWLFFDUP«QªUH
Oenophiles, rejoice! Wine regions are some of the world’s QRZSURGXFHZRUOG
most scenic, vibrant areas and can be found in the FODVVZLQHVWKDWDUH
ERWKIUXLWIRUZDUG
most unexpected, exciting corners of the globe. Ready DQGKHUEDFHRXVVLP-
your palate for your next vacation! —Paula Froelich LODUWR)UHQFKZLQH

46 NEWSWEEK.COM M A Y 31 , 2 019
 06 Croatia 07 China
'DOPDWLD *REL'HVHUW
&URDWLDQZLQHVOLNH 7KHKRWDULGVXPPHU
JUDVHYLQDVWDQGRXW FRPELQHGZLWKSOHQWLIXO
IURP1HZ:RUOG ZDWHUIURPWKH<HOORZ
ZLQHVLQKHULWDJH 5LYHUPDNHVWKH*REL
IURP2OG:RUOGZLQHV 'HVHUWLQ,QQHU0RQJROLD
LQVLPSOLFLW\DQGIURP DQXQXVXDO\HWEULOOLDQW
RWKHUZLQHDUHDVLQ ZLQHUHJLRQIHDWXULQJ
DFFHVVLELOLW\6LPSO\ PHUORWFDEHUQHW
SXW7KH\ŠUHGHOLFLRXV VDXYLJQRQDQGFDEHUQHW
DQGHDV\WRɿQG JHUQLVFKWJUDSHV

7
10

10 Tunisia 08 New Zealand

&DSH%RQ :HOOLQJWRQDQG:DLUDUDSD
6WDUWHGLQ$'E\ ,WVQHLJKERU$XVWUDOLDKDVORQJEHHQNQRZQ
WKH5RPDQV7XQLVLDŠV IRUZRUOGFODVVZLQHEXW1HZ=HDODQG
ZLQHLQGXVWU\LV LVɿQDOO\FRPLQJLQWRLWVRZQWKDQNVWR
VHHLQJDUHELUWKZLWK WKHSLQRWQRLUDQGVDXYLJQRQEODQFIURP
GHOLFLRXVYLQWDJHV WKH:HOOLQJWRQDQG:DLUDUDSDUHJLRQV
OLNH&HSWXQHV'LGRQD
0RUQDJ
$2&DQG'RPDLQH
1HIHULV5RVH
0DJQLɿTXH

09 South Africa
9 6WHOOHQERVFK
DQG3DDUO
9LQH\DUGVLQWKH
&DSH:LQHODQGV
FRQFHQWUDWHGLQWKH
6WHOOHQERVFKDQG 8
3DDUOGLVWULFWVKDYH
EHHQSURGXFLQJ
YLQRVLQFHWKHWK
FHQWXU\7KHLUPRVW
IDPRXVZLQHVDUH
FKDUGRQQD\VDXYL-
JQRQEODQFULHVOLQJ
DQGV«PLOORQ

NEWSWEEK.COM 47
Culture Illustration by B R I T T S P E N C E R

PA R T I NG S HO T

Lauren Morelli
“it’s very important to have trans voices contributing to the How critical was it to have trans
stories,” Orange Is the New Black alum Lauren Morelli says of her latest talent involved?
project, a remake of the cult classic Tales of the City, premiering on Netflix June It was paramount. There’s no question
7. Morelli, who serves as executive producer and showrunner for the series, that we would’ve cast Anna as a trans
hopes to bring the Emmy-nominated original, which was based on Armistead actress today. We were very lucky
Maupin’s groundbreaking books and debuted in 1993, to a new generation with to get the amazing Jen Richards to
some modern updates. Laura Linney reprises her role as Mary Ann Singleton, SRUWUD\KHULQDʀDVKEDFNHSLVRGH
who returns to San Francisco to reunite with her chosen family, including Anna
Madrigal, a trans woman once again played by Olympia Dukakis, but they are Are inclusion riders important?
joined by trans talent including directors Silas Howard and Sydney Freeland, Very important. Often the excuse is
writer Thomas McBee and actress Jen Richards, who is best known for the web how hard it is to make sure that you’re
series Her Story and portrays a young Anna. “Because the show is so queer,” EHLQJLQFOXVLYH<HVLWUHTXLUHVVRPH
Morelli explains, it felt crucial “to be as diverse and as inclusive as possible.” effort. It’s the very least we can do
when we’re handed a lot of power.

“It also felt How does the 1993 version

compare with the remake?
important to (VSHFLDOO\LQWKHERRNVWKHUHŠVVR
update it and much kindness and empathy. As long

portray the as that was at the core of what we were

GRLQJZHZRXOGEHFDUU\LQJIRUZDUG
authentic queer the original spirit of Armistead’s
experience as words. It also felt important to update

we understand it and portray the authentic queer

experience as we understand it today—
it today.” EHLQJTXHHUQRZYHUVXVZKDWLWIHOW
OLNHWREHDJD\SHUVRQLQ>ZKHQ
WKHɿUVWERRNZDVSXEOLVKHG@

How has Orange Is the New Black

changed your career?
,WZDVP\ɿUVWHYHU79MREVR,OLWHUDOO\
KDGDFDUHHUEHFDXVH-HQML.RKDQ
hired me. Being on that set taught me
VRPXFKDERXWZKR,DPDVDSHUVRQ
DQGWKHNLQGRIOHDGHU,ZDQWHGWREH
That cast taught me how expansive
ZHQHHGWREHZKHQLWFRPHVWRWKH
people we’re portraying on TV.
It really shaped the kind of stories
I wanted to tell. —Maria Vultaggio

48 M A Y 31 , 2 019
 The green tide is rising.
Are you ready?
Jim Belushi and his team pose for a
WEED photo after loading a pickup truck with
plants and flowers. The skies surrounding
Belushi’s Farm are often host to mating
bald eagles, which gives the stretch of
Oregon the name Eagle Point.

HE’S ON A
MISSION
FROM GOD
How beloved character actor
Jim Belushi found a new career
and a new purpose.

HEN JIM Belushi introduces himself,

the first words come with a rush of

W recognition. Preparing for the mental

torrent instigated by the familiarity of
the voice would’ve been impossible.
The sheer number of times one has heard it is
staggering, and its in-person presence makes
thinking about all those times inevitable. After
following in his brother John’s footsteps as a cast
member on SNL, Belushi built an impressive
résumé, the highlights of which necessarily twitch
through one’s memory at the sound of his voice:
the sitcoms like the still-syndicated According to
Jim, the cartoon voice-overs from Hey Arnold! to
Doc McStuffins to The Adventures of Jimmy
Neutron: Boy Genius, the dramatic parts in critical
darlings like Twin Peaks and The Ghost Writer.
Being interviewed by Newsweek, though, there’s
one role in particular he wants to talk about, on
the Amazon Original Series Good Girls Revolt,
which dramatized the struggle for equality among
female journalists in the late-1960s at the aptly
named News of the Week. In a coincidence fit for
the big—well, at least the small—screen, Belushi
played the magazine’s editor in chief: in other
words, a fictional version of this correspondent’s
boss’s boss’s boss’s boss. “[For the show,] they had
old photographs of Reagan, LBJ and the pope and
they put my body in,” he remembers, laughing.
“When the show got canceled I put them up in
my own office and people would come over and

32 WEED 2.0

Outdoor cannabis thrives before

flowering. According to Politico,
296 members of the House
(68 percent) represent districts
in the 33 states with some form
of cannabis legalization.

WEED Health Update

RECONSIDERING
CANNABIS?
As more and more people accept cannabis into the
mainstream, some still question its health risks.

WENTY YEARS Berenson went on to [cancer] connection was really

AGO, less than a write Tell Your Children, an there. And it took another five or

T third of Americans
favored legalizing
marijuana. Now,
investigation into the risks of
widespread marijuana use. He
spoke with Newsweek about
10 years for the tobacco industry
to finally stop arguing about it.

62 percent do, according to a
Pew Research Center poll last
fall, including nearly three-
quarters of millennials. Ten
states allow recreational use of
weed, and 33 permit doctors to
prescribe it for chronic pain,
anxiety and other ills. A growing
marijuana legalization industry,
which includes many for-profit
companies, is heavily promoting
the drug.
But what do we know about
its health effects? Not enough,
says author Alex Berenson. That
fact occurred to him during
a conversation with his wife,
a forensic psychologist who
works with the criminally ill.
She mentioned that many of
the people she saw were either
high on cannabis when they
committed their crime or were
habitual users.
A former reporter at The
New York Times, Berenson did
some research and found, to
his surprise, that scientists had
hard data to support his wife’s
anecdotal evidence. A 2017
report, in particular, linked
marijuana use to schizophrenia.
what he considers the pitfalls
of legalization.
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION
TO HEARING THAT RESEARCH
CONNECTED SCHIZOPHRENIA
AND MARIJUANA?
How could no one know?
And it turns out that scientists
do know! In 2017, there was
a report from the National
Academy of Medicine that
definitively said this, and nobody
really paid attention.
2017? WHY DID IT TAKE SO
LONG FOR THE REPORT TO
COME OUT?
Cannabis wasn’t very widely
used until about 1970. The new,
stronger stuff, the more potent
versions of it, have only come
into being in the last 20 years
or so. The evidence has been
mounting, but the [marijuana]
advocacy community has done
a good job throwing smoke
around this.
Even with tobacco and lung
cancer, it took about 40 years
for scientists to prove beyond
a reasonable doubt that this
WHAT DOES THE NEW
RESEARCH REVEAL ABOUT
MARIJUANA’S EFFECTS ON
THE BODY AND THE MIND?
You can’t say, “As a result of
smoking, this set of biological
changes happens that causes
you to have these thoughts
that you can’t control.” I
doubt we will ever get to that
point. But you can still prove
it epidemiologically [with
association studies], and by
looking at other biological weekend and have a good time, and increases the perception minors. You want messaging
mechanisms. Is there a that’s reasonable. But we don’t that the drug is safe. Those are campaigns about the dangers
plausible case here? What pretend that alcohol is medicine. all problematic. of cannabis. And you want to
happens to people who we Why should we pretend that But the most important thing start collecting hard data on the
know suffer from schizophrenia cannabis is? is not whether it’s legal or not, harmful effects. There should be
when they use marijuana? but that people know the risks studies about violence associated
There are ways to get to part of AS MORE STATES MOVE in using it. And we need to with marijuana, about psychosis,
a scientific understanding. TOWARD LEGALIZATION, spend money advertising those about suicide and about driving.
WHAT WILL PLAY OUT IN risks the way we spend money There should also be restrictions
WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE TERMS OF REGULATION? advertising the risks of tobacco. on marketing and advertising.
WHO USE MARIJUANA TO The U.S. is probably going to Even though tobacco is legal and Let’s get some data if we’re
TREAT THE SYMPTOMS OF legalize, and something big cannabis isn’t, fewer teens use going to do this, so we can stop
DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY? would have to change for that tobacco than cannabis. arguing about what the numbers
You probably shouldn’t be using to not happen. Certainly, if a really are.
any kind of intoxicant to handle Democrat is elected president WHAT REGULATION
depression or anxiety. This goes in 2020, there’ll be a big push IS NECESSARY? HAS CRIME INCREASED
for alcohol too. Cannabis and for federal legalization. I’m not Obviously, you want to make IN STATES THAT HAVE
alcohol are recreational drugs. in favor of that because I think sure that stores are selling to LEGALIZED MARIJUANA?
If you want to use them on the it lowers prices, drives up use people 21 and over and not to Violent crime has increased in

16 WEED 2.0

Find it on newsstands nationwide

or at OnNewsstandsNow.com