Charley Locke

Portland

Freelance Writer at Freelance

contributing writer @nytmag, also writing elsewhere. no longer on here, email me. she/her.

Articles

How Poetry Helps Me Resist the Algorithm

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Charley Locke

Most mornings, as soonas I wake up, I feel the pull of my phone. On a good morning, I reach for some paper and a pen instead, turning on the lamp and scooting back against the pillows so I can prop the paper against my blanketed knees. I grab an index card on which I've already copied out the poem I'm memorizing, and, looking at my own shaky handwriting, prepare to copy it again. I write it out, three or four times, enough so that I know it by heart.
The Top Financial Influencers Giving Money Advice on Instagram, TikTok

2 months ago | bloomberg.com | Charley Locke

Make room, Suze Orman and Jim Cramer, for a new generation of people with access to a camera and some financial wisdom to share. These personal finance gurus dispense money advice to audiences of millions through Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, often with very specific groups of people in mind. Meet the “finfluencers” of 2025. Tagline: “Your favorite Wall Street girly”Handle: @your.richbffFollower count: 3.3 million on Instagram, 2.7 million on TikTok, 1 million on YouTube
Optimism Among Gamblers & Investors?

2 months ago | ritholtz.com | Charley Locke |Barry Ritholtz

You might have been bored by the not-so-Superbowl last night (at least the better team won this year). Several non-football fans I know chose to go see the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary instead (they raved). But neither the game nor Zep’s origin story was the biggest story last night. Rather, the most intriguing aspect of last night was the gambling. Sports betting on Super Bowl LIX (2025) was estimated at more than $1.5 billion — a 15% increase compared to 2024.
Football Fans Reveal Why They Bet on Games Ahead of Super Bowl

2 months ago | bloomberg.com | Charley Locke

Share this articleFor millions of Americans, Sundays mean football—and football means gambling. The American Gaming Association estimates that 73.5 million Americans, more than a quarter of the US adult population, bet during the 2023-24 NFL season. And in the six-plus years since the US Supreme Court ruled that sports gambling could expand beyond Nevada, the industry has seen massive growth: 38 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, now offer legal sports wagering.
Jumping Out of a Plane, With Skydiving Seniors

Dec 30, 2024 | nytimes.com | Charley Locke

To report on the Wuest Ways group, which has been hosting skydives since 1987, a reporter had to strap on a parachute and take the 12,500-foot leap. Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. I was in a tiny plane with skydivers in their 70s and 80s, and I was distracted.
Jumping With the Senior Skydivers of Southern California

Dec 25, 2024 | nytimes.com | Charley Locke |Randy Forbes

These skydiving seniors are taking their golden years one 12,500-foot leap at a time. Credit... High above Southern California, John Miller, 77, checked his altimeter. "We're two miles up," he shouted over the plane's engines. "This is when everybody starts to get quiet."Sure enough, the cabin hushed as we reached altitude. Sharron Fielding, 70, squeezed my hand; Ricki Thues, 71, checked that his Santa hat was tied tightly under his chin.
The Boeing 737 Max and Other Airplane Models Are Still Very Safe for Travel

Nov 20, 2024 | bloomberg.com | Charley Locke

Airline travel remains far less lethal than driving. A door may have blown off a Boeing 737 Max earlier this year, but, “in terms of actual risk, it makes no more sense to be afraid to fly than to be afraid to go into the supermarket because the ceiling might collapse,” says Arnold Barnett, who studies mathematical modeling of health and safety at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
How Is Climate Change Affecting Teenagers?

Nov 4, 2024 | news.nestia.com | Charley Locke

In October, the storm surge from Hurricane Milton flooded 15-year-old Michael Miranda’s street in Land O’ Lakes, Fla. Photograph by Meridith Kohut Growing Up in Climate Chaos By Charley Locke Nov. 4, 2024 When you’re a teenager, everything can feel like a crisis. But for these teenagers living in areas around the world affected by climate change, the sense of growing crisis is real — not in some hazy future but today, disrupting their adolescence in ways both large and small.
Did Apple Just Stumble Into a Cure for Male Loneliness?

Sep 19, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Charley Locke

Richard Einhorn first noticed that he was losing his hearing in a way that many others do—through a missed connection, when he couldn’t make out what a colleague was saying on a phone call. He was 38, which might seem early in life to need a hearing aid but in fact is common enough. His next step was common too. “I ignored it,” Einhorn, now 72, told me. “Hearing loss is something you associate with geezers. Of course I hid it.” He didn’t seek treatment for seven years.
The Notes App Is a Window to the Soul

Sep 12, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Charley Locke

What makes any person’s Notes app so revealing is that its contents have no audience. Unlike social media, it’s not intended for public consumption; unlike a text, it’s not even intended for one other person; unlike Evernote or Notion, it’s not necessarily organized for the user’s future self. It is essentially built-in scratch paper on a phone, and it reveals a person’s digital subconscious.