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After Luigi Mangione made the difficult decision to undergo spinal surgery last year for chronic back pain, he became a proponent of the procedure that changed his life for the better.
He repeatedly posted on Reddit about his recovery and offered words of encouragement for people with similar conditions, telling them to push back against doctors who suggested they had to live with pain.
But notably absent from the posts are explicit concerns about corporate greed in the health insurance industry. Those appear to have surfaced only later: in a handwritten note found after Mangione was detained as a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
That short document references “parasites” in the health care system and laments the power and profits of health insurers, according to law enforcement officials. During his first public words since his arrest in Pennsylvania, Mangione emerged from a patrol car shouting about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people” while sheriff’s deputies pushed him into a courthouse.
There’s no indication Mangione was ever insured by UnitedHealthcare, a senior New York City police official said in an interview Thursday with NBC New York.
The killing has nonetheless prompted widespread speculation about whether he had a bad personal experience with the healthcare system. But after his 2023 surgery, Mangione’s Reddit posts suggest he was overwhelmingly pleased with the outcome and finally relieved of chronic pain. He encouraged others not to be frightened by horror stories of surgeries gone bad. He also referenced a backpacking trip to Asia earlier this year.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate appears to have stopped posting on social media roughly six months ago, around the time he lost touch with loved ones.
Family and friends expressed shock at the news of Mangione’s arrest, but little information has emerged about his recent mental and physical health.
Mangione’s Reddit posts reference a spinal condition called spondylolisthesis, which occurs when a fracture causes a vertebra to slip out of alignment. It can result in severe pain if the bone puts pressure on spinal nerves.
The condition, which can originate in childhood or from an injury, started negatively impacting Mangione’s life in recent years, according to his social media posts.
After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, he worked at the Santa Monica-based car-buying website TrueCar until 2023 and lived in Hawaii for some time starting in January 2022. During a six-month stay at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space in Honolulu, Mangione’s back pain worsened in part because of a surfing incident.
Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for the owner and founder of Surfbreak, R.J. Martin, said Mangione had expressed growing concerns about the pain. In addition to missing out on recreational activities and exercise, he was worried about how it could affect romantic relationships.
“That was definitely a theme in his time there,” Ryan said. “He wasn’t a big complainer. So it wasn’t like he was bringing it up constantly. But the people who knew him knew this was a significant part of his life.”
In July 2023, Mangione wrote in a Reddit post that he had decided to get surgery.
“I got caught in this loop for a year, all the while putting my life on hold in my 20s and damaging my nerves while I waffled on the decision. I have surgery scheduled in two weeks and I keep wondering why I was so afraid of it,” he wrote.
According to his posts, the operation was a success.
An image posted to an X account linked to Mangione showed what appeared to be an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into his lower spine.
“Surgery was painful for the first couple days, but I was shocked that by day 7 I was on literally zero pain meds,” Mangione posted on Reddit in August 2023. “Obviously will be a while until I get into rigorous activity, but it was way less of a big deal than I had anticipated.”
Medical experts say treating back pain is almost always a challenge.
“In the gross majority of treatments, surgery is when everything else has failed to provide relief,” said Dr. Jason Pittman, co-director of the Spine Center at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He said doctors generally try conservative treatments like physical therapy, injections, or medications before surgery.
Even people with health insurance can face thousands of dollars in bills from surgery depending on their deductible and other factors, though it’s unclear whether Mangione experienced any of those issues.
Experiencing chronic back pain can also significantly impact mental health, said Dr. Padma Gulur, a pain specialist with Duke Health.
“If you have underlying mental health issues — anxiety, depression — your pain can be worse because you have way more suffering,” Gulur said. “But, the second aspect is pain can push you into anxiety and depression.”
Little is known about Mangione’s mental state in recent months, but it appears he was withdrawing from close relationships. Since-deleted posts on X show a friend repeatedly reaching out and getting no response.
His family reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November, police said.
Earlier, while in college, Mangione posted on Reddit about experiencing severe brain fog and restless sleep.
In a July 2018 post, he said his grades were suffering and he had considered dropping out of school. But ultimately, “staying in college has at least let me maintain some semblance of normality,” he wrote.
His last Reddit post is dated May 17, but other statements around that time suggest he wasn’t experiencing unexpected complications or renewed back pain. He appears to be advocating for the type of surgery he received months earlier.
He posted in early April about the gear he brought on a two-month backpacking trip through Asia that included some cross-country motorcycling, saying he had found “the perfect balance between minimalism and practicality.”
In late April, he advised another Reddit user with a back problem to “keep trying different surgeons” and, if necessary, convey an inability to keep working.
“We live in a capitalist society,” he wrote. “I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these keywords far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.”
If you're not feeling the holiday spirit anymore as an adult, you're probably missing a few easy fixes.
Over and over, we've seen people on social media say that it doesn't feel like the holiday season anymore, and they aren't enjoying themselves like they used to. Conditions like seasonal affective disorder and clinical depression are real and deserving of treatment from professionals, but those aren't the problems we're dealing with here.
Instead, we're tackling regular-regular holiday spirit (or the lack thereof).
Holiday joy doesn't just show up on your doorstep — it takes a little bit of work to actually get into the swing of things, folks.
Regardless of your background or traditions, there's a very good chance that your family, school, or community had a lot of holiday festivities in your youth that you simply participated in passively without much thought. As an adult, you have to seek that out yourself.
As such, we've put together some straightforward ways you can summon the holiday spirit. Give 'em a try, and maybe your heart will grow three sizes.
Find classic holiday shows and films
If you're not watching anything holiday-focused, you can fix that anywhere. The heavy hitters like "Elf," "Miracle on 34th Street" or even "Die Hard" are easy to find just about anywhere, but we'd recommend you dig a little deeper to find the obscure stuff from your childhood that really matters to you.
Maybe the "Rugrats" Chanukah episode is important to you, or maybe some cheesy Hallmark Christmas flick. Whatever it is, we recommend that you chase it down through YouTube, the Internet Archive, or any of the countless streaming services on offer.
The original 1966 "Grinch" TV special and "A Muppet Family Christmas" from 1987 are what make us feel particularly Christmas-y, and revisiting them as adults have been a game changer.
Go to community events
No matter where you live, you're going to be able to find some sort of community gathering. Be it a church choir, tree lighting, parade, or even a stage production, it'll go a long way toward getting you into the spirit.
Your closest city likely has an event calendar available online, and Facebook is chockablock with community ordeals. And, if all else fails, head to your community's sub-Reddit to find out if there's anything seasonal popping off this time of year.
Decorate your house (or at least your bedroom)
Even if you can only swing a miniature tree or some desk decorations, making the effort to visually change your environment will make everything feel that much more festive.
Obviously, not everyone can go full-blown Clark Griswold, but it's shocking how much some glowing lights and garland change your mood.
Listen to the music from your childhood
It's 2024, so you almost certainly have unlimited access to nearly every song ever made. Take advantage of the countless community-made playlists on Spotify to find the holiday music you listened to as a kid.
People can dunk on us all they'd like, but "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney sounds like our childhoods, so that's what we're playing in our headphones right now.
Make your devices cheery
If you're reading this article, you definitely spend hours of your day staring at a screen, so use that to your advantage. Find some holiday-themed wallpapers, deck out your browser, and spend some time streaming a yule log on your TV.
Yule is surprised at the results. We promise.
Via X.
Here at Digg, we try our best to cover the most important and confounding memes that come across the timeline. But the web is littered with tons of great memes that never quite hit the mainstream and instead just bounce around the weird corners of Twitter or Reddit. Enter our recurring feature, Memes, Ranked.
This week, we've got a zombie looking worse for wear, a new trend featuring Pepe the King Prawn and everyone losing their minds over a suspected killer.
3. '28 Years Later
The Meme
The trailer for "28 Years Later," a sequel to post-apocalyptic horror "28 Days Later," dropped this week. People on X assumed that Cillian Murphy, who was in the original movie, is playing the emaciated zombie seen in the trailer, but sources have since confirmed that's not the case.
If I was Cillian, I'd be a little offended.
Nonetheless, the withered, decomposing form that appears in the form has provided plenty of meme fodder.
Examples
Darcy Jimenez
2. Pepe the King Prawn
The Meme
We all live through strange and embarrassing moments at some time or another, and it's fairly common for people to relive those instances over and over again inside their heads. This meme, featuring none other than Pepe the King Prawn, lets us all externalize those bizarre moments of personal discomfort and bemusement.
Does it make a lot of sense?
No, but it is cathartic.
Examples
Via mamalannna
Via domesticblisters
Grant Brunner
1. Luigi Mangione
The Meme
It’s unlikely that I need to explain who Luigi Mangione is, considering he’s all anyone is talking about right now, but I’ll provide a quick refresher for those who have somehow managed to miss the news.
Last Wednesday, Brian Thompson, the CEO of health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead on the street in New York. After a days-long manhunt, a suspect — 26-year-old Luigi Mangione — was taken into custody after being spotted in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s and later charged with murder.
While suspected killers aren’t usually at the top of people’s crush lists, Mangione’s apparent disdain for the health insurance industry, as well as his good looks, have won the hearts of many across America and beyond.
Examples
Darcy Jimenez
And if you're hungry for more memes, here's last week's edition of "The Week's Best Memes,", featuring the "F*** You" guy, festive "Juno" positions, and people's reactions to unhooking a bra.
The Lede
For years before he was accused of killing the CEO of one of America's largest health insurance companies, Luigi Mangione suffered from debilitating pain that doctors didn't seem able to fix. He detailed the pain in dozens of posts on Reddit between 2018 and 2024. None of them, though, mention UnitedHealthcare or its CEO, Brian Thompson, whom he's now accused of killing. But his posts paint a portrait of someone whose pain and recovery led him to put "my life on hold in my 20s."
Key Details
- In handwritten notes from 2019 reviewed by Business Insider, Mangione wrote that he had spondylolisthesis — severe slippage of parts of the spine due to joint deterioration.
- He underwent surgery in 2023. At first, he appeared jubilant — his pain was gone. But by June this year, he was castigating doctors as "basically worthless" on X.
- The experience appears to represent a significant — and excruciating — engagement with the American healthcare system.
The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was not a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said Thursday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York in an interview Thursday that investigators have uncovered evidence that Luigi Mangione had prior knowledge UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in New York City.
Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when he was detained by police in Pennsylvania.
“We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America. So that’s possibly why he targeted that company,” said Kenny.
UnitedHealthcare is in the top 20 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization but is not the fifth largest. It is the largest U.S. health insurer.
Mangione remains jailed without bail in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested Monday after being spotted at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. His lawyer there, Thomas Dickey, has said Mangione intends to plead not guilty. Dickey also said he has yet to see evidence decisively linking his client to the crime.
Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Police say the shooter waited outside the hotel, where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, early on the morning of Dec. 4. He approached Thompson from behind and shot him before fleeing on a bicycle through Central Park.
Mangione is fighting attempts to extradite him back to New York so that he can face a murder charge in Thompson’s killing. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 30.
The 26-year-old, who police say was found with a “ ghost gun ” matching shell casings found at the site of the shooting, is charged in Pennsylvania with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
Mangione is an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family. In posts on social media, Mangione wrote about experiencing severe chronic back pain before undergoing a spinal fusion surgery in 2023. Afterward, he posted that the operation had been a success and that his pain had improved and mobility returned. He urged others to consider the same type of surgery.
On Wednesday, police said investigators are looking at his writings about his health problems and his criticism of corporate America and the U.S. healthcare system.
Kenny said in the NBC interview that Mangione’s family reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November.
More than 400 tips were called into the New York Police Department’s Crime Stoppers tip line during the five-day search for a masked gunman who ambushed and fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.
NYPD officials said about 30 of those tips were useful as information about the gunman’s movements before and after the Dec. 4 shooting. But it wasn’t until a 911 call came in from a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday that police zeroed in on their suspect.
Up to $60,000 in rewards from the FBI and the Crime Stoppers program had been offered to anyone calling in a tip leading to a break in the case. But although police and prosecutors moved quickly to arrest and charge 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, any rewards may take significantly more time to be released and might be less than the full amount after taxes and consideration of the role the tips played.
Exactly who will get a reward or a share of one is still being determined, officials said. In fact, the federal and local rewards programs operate with different rules, but both have leeway built in to offer multiple rewards of varying amounts based on the outcome of those tips.
How does someone become eligible for a reward?
The FBI reward program, which offered a reward of up to $50,000 in this case, requires that a tip or information lead to an arrest and conviction.
Phone calls and emails to the FBI press office seeking details of the specific reward program’s process were not returned, but websites for various rewards offered by the agency outline similar processes. A person giving a tip must be nominated, usually by a federal investigating agency. Then a board considers the tip and its role in the investigation and decides whether to award up to the full amount.
For the NYPD Crime Stoppers award, funded by the New York City Police Foundation and the NYPD’s Detective Bureau, the tip line usually offers up to $3,500 for information that leads to an arrest and indictment. The Detective Bureau increased that amount to $10,000 in this case, and for its portion ,a conviction is required.
“The public’s help is essential to solving crimes and keeping our communities safe,” the Police Foundation board said in a statement Wednesday. “The individual in Pennsylvania, who called in a tip, is eligible to receive the reward.”
The McDonald’s employee called 911, which records a number and usually a name. A tipster calling the Crime Stoppers line remains anonymous. The program promises to never trace cellphone numbers or record information about the callers, instead giving them a unique identifier number that they can use to check back about the status of the case and the potential for a reward.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny will assess which tip or tips were instrumental in cracking the case when determining how Detective Bureau reward funds should be allocated, police officials said Wednesday.
When might money be awarded?
Most rewards require a conviction. Given the nature of the murder charges and the multiple jurisdictions involved, it could be a year or more before a trial happens.
For the $3,500 from Crime Stoppers, the board could decide to issue reward money after the indictment is complete. Both the FBI and Crime Stoppers have boards that review the tips, talk to detectives or other law enforcement involved in the investigation, and determine which tips served a substantial role in the case. The boards have some leeway to decide the amounts each tip would merit.
The Crime Stoppers board has the leeway to split a reward between tips or to consider each for the maximum amount on a case-by-case basis.
NYPD officials did not specify how any of the 30 tips helped the case, but it’s unlikely each tipster would receive the highest amount offered.
How has money been awarded in the past?
The police foundation and the FBI don’t discuss individual cases or reveal how much money individual tipsters were awarded.
For some programs such as the Rewards for Justice program, the FBI notes that it has awarded millions of dollars over the last two decades. For that program, the FBI sometimes announces the amount of the reward but does not identify the tipsters. Most often, the agency provides a confidential report to Congress detailing the tips and the rewards.
The same principles apply to Crime Stoppers The program doesn’t release details in an effort to protect the anonymity promised to tipsters. It does tout notable cases on its website in which the tips helped solve cases, including an April 2022 mass shooting on the where tips helped lead officials to the arrest and eventual guilty plea of Frank James.