Historian Tiffany Watt Smith argues that schadenfreude, the joy we derive from another’s misfortune, is just a natural part of the very complex emotional responses we have as human beings.
February 2019
Posted inCommentary, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Story
The New Scabs: Stars Who Cross the Picket Line
“The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude,” wrote George Orwell in 1946, and it still stands.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Wrestling With the Ghosts In My Head
Janet Steen tries to understand the shifting causes behind a decade of mysterious migraine pain.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story
Writing for the Movies: A Letter from Hollywood, 1962
In this classic essay about a classic American art form, legendary screenwriter Daniel Fuchs reflects on his lifetime learning the trade.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Five Families of Feces
A look at the cutthroat porta-potty business in New York City, which is surprisingly filled with all kinds of dirty drama.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster
“The men and women of the Navy deserve better.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Life at 47 Is Back to What It Was Like at 27
“I’m talking about my situational set point, the version of myself that inevitably swings back into the foreground even if I’ve managed to pretend to be another kind of person for a period of time.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
O, Small-Bany! Part 3: Winter
The third installment of Elisa Albert’s seasonal quartet of essays about life in a small upstate, New York town.
Posted inEditor's Pick
If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
Currently in the Bay Area, there are two migrations: one of young people in tech moving to San Francisco, ready to disrupt; and another of young people with other dreams — the artists, teachers, blacksmiths, therapists, mechanics, musicians — who leave because there’s no longer a place for them anymore.
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
In the Age of Instagram’s Travel Influencer, Your Pretty Home Is the Backdrop for Their Photoshoot
At Curbed, Alexandra Marvar explores homeownership in the age of the Instagram travel influencer.