Max Plenke

Bio

Max Plenke was a staff writer at Mic, covering breaking news, climate science, health and the future. His work has appeared in Esquire, GQ and Wallpaper.
Here are the states Donald Trump needs to win the election
By Max Plenke
With a week to go until the 2016 presidential election, the candidates are campaigning hard in battleground states that are key to locking down a victory. For Donald Trump, things are looking up, after a new ABC/Washington Post tracking poll put…
Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton: Where the candidates stand with voters right now
By Max Plenke
It's November 1, and that means the election is a week away. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump incurred October drama — for Clinton, a renewed investigation of her emails, for Trump, leaked tapes of him talking about sexually assaulting women —…
Hillary Clinton email investigation: What we've learned about the FBI probe so far
By Max Plenke
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey publicly announced he was again looking into the case of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's email server after a batch of emails was discovered during an unrelated investigation into…
NYC Halloween Parade 2016 Livestream: Here's how to watch the parade online
By Max Plenke
Once a year, the ghouls, ghosts, witches and weirdos come out of the woodwork to charge through Manhattan's Greenwich Village. But not the regular ghouls you'd see at 2 a.m. tumbling out of some underground bar.  This is the NYC Halloween Parade.…
'Before the Flood' Online Livestream: Where to watch Leonardo DiCaprio's new doc for free
By Max Plenke
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's new documentary, Before the Flood, takes a hard look at the impact climate change will have on the planet and what the global society needs to do to save Earth's ecosystems.  Directed by Fisher Stevens — who you might…
The latest Mars mission just hit a snag, and it may have been a computer glitch
By Max Plenke
As if the Schiaparelli lander's mission to Mars wasn't tough enough, now it sounds like a computer glitch may have sent the poor thing to its death. Schiaparelli's leg of the European Space Agency's ExoMars mission was supposed to be a peaceful,…
The first photo of Earth was taken 70 years ago from a Nazi rocket
By Max Plenke
On Oct. 24, 1946, the first extraterrestrial view of Earth was shot from 65 miles away aboard a Nazi-built V-2 rocket launched by American scientists, according to Smithsonian magazine. Thanks to a Devry 35-millimeter movie camera, Earthlings saw…
Flesh-eating Bacteria Death in Maryland 2016: What to know about Vibrio vulnificus
By Max Plenke
On Sept. 15, Michael Funk died four days after Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria that occurs naturally in slightly salty, warm water, entered a cut in his leg.  Man's death from flesh-eating bacteria like a "horror movie" His wife told the…
Climate change 2016: How global warming is driving down global wine production
By Max Plenke
This year, the planet changed in ways that should worry even the most stubborn climate change deniers. We saw (and continue to see) the hottest months on record, witnessed the first mammalian extinction related to climate change and were hit with…
Battleground states: Here are the states that could decide the 2016 presidential election
By Max Plenke
Sometimes, states are firmly in the camp of one political party or the other. Texas usually goes red. Minnesota usually goes blue. Some states are historically expected to swing left or right. But there are some states that aren't decided until late…