Michael Mechanic

Michael is a longtime senior editor at Mother Jones magazine and former managing editor of the Oakland, California-based weekly, East Bay Express. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he majored in biochemistry and later earned a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism. (He also holds a master’s degree in cellular and developmental biology from Harvard.) As a journalist, Mechanic has won numerous awards, including a “best feature” award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for a story about the culture of illegal cockfighting culture. “Voluntary Confinement,” his Mother Jones story about a Fox Reality show that subjected contestants to solitary confinement conditions for a chance at $50,000, was shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and won a “best feature” award from the East Bay Press Club. His multimedia essay with photographer Nina Berman, “It Was Kind of Like Slavery,” about a group of Black men who go back to revisit the nightmarish Florida School for Boys where they were sent as children—a reform school that inspired Colson Whitehead’s novel Nickel Boys—won an Excellence in Journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists. His work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Industry Standard, the Los Angeles Times, Wired, and other publications. Michael lives in Oakland with his wife and teen daughter—his son attends Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. He plays five musical instruments in his spare time. Jackpot is his first book.