Killed by the In-Laws, Meta’s Body Dysmorphia Reckoning, The Last Ditch

This week Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri take on two stories that you want more details on.

Segment 1: The killing of Jonathan McKinseyJonathan McKinsey, 40, director of engineering for New York Times Games, was shot dead on September 26 in a Dublin, California, park parking lot. Her in-laws, both 77, are charged with murder with a lying-in-wait special circumstance. Behind it was a bitter custody fight, with dueling restraining orders and abuse allegations on both sides. We also dig into McKinsey’s backstory: a female transition in 2010, before the youth gender boom, and a 2011 Texas marriage.

Segment 2: Meta’s settlement and the body dysmorphia verdictMeta settled with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from nearly every state. The deal is $17.1 billion, about $18 billion counting Texas’s separate agreement. It comes with new defaults for teens: a two-hour daily cap, a nighttime block, and a ban on cosmetic-surgery filters. We walk through the California jury verdict that found Instagram and YouTube contributed to a young woman’s body dysmorphia. We explain why parents’ Facebook feeds are full of law firm ads, and what families of trans-identified teens with co-occurring depression, eating disorders, or self-harm should know before calling one. And we ask the obvious question: if platforms can drive teen distress about the body, why is distress about sex characteristics off-limits?

Thanks for listening to Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Sources

McKinsey case

* New York Times, “California Couple Charged With Murder in Shooting of Son-in-Law” (Karlamangla and Qin, Sept. 30, 2026)

Meta settlement

* New York Attorney General: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-secures-171-billion-and-groundbreaking-reforms-meta

* Connecticut Attorney General: https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2026-press-releases/settlement-with-meta

* Colorado Attorney General: https://coag.gov/press-releases/weiser-announces-historic-settlement-with-meta/

Further reading

* SF Chronicle on the case and the 2011 Texas marriage: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/man-shot-killed-dublin-in-laws-suspects-22451686.php

* KTVU on the divorce and restraining orders: https://www.ktvu.com/news/dublin-shooting-nyt-engineer-jonathan-mckinsey-divorce-battle

* ABC7 on the charges: https://abc7news.com/story/new-york-times-engineer-jonathan-mckinsey-california-couple-accused-killing-son-law-public-park-charged-murder/19892829/

* CBS News on the K.G.M. verdict: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-youtube-social-media-addiction-lawsuit-verdict/

* Missouri Lawyers Media on Meta pulling plaintiff-recruiting ads: https://molawyersmedia.com/2026/04/10/meta-pulls-ads-recruiting-plaintiffs-social-media-addiction-lawsuits/

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe