At Toronto Life, John Hofsess posthumously reveals the secret assisted suicide service he offered to eight Canadians — among them the poet Al Purdy — on the day of his own assisted death. The maximum penalty for assisted suicide was 14 years in prison. I was raising the stakes: by giving Al a pre-death sedative, […]
Krista Stevens
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Year and a Day in a Mars Simulator: Reflections at the Halfway Mark
Sheyna Gifford, mission physician for NASA’s sMars simulation, reflects on her year-and-a-day “off-planet,” six months in.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Modern Grief: Digital Ephemera and Coping with Loss
Nancy Westaway explores the nuances of grief in our digital society — how our tweets and emails can comfort our loved ones after we’re gone.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Speed-Dating in Shanghai: Finding a Mate at the ‘Love and Marriage Expo’
Looking for love in all the wrong places? Zheping Huang attempts to find a wife at the Love and Marriage Expo in Shanghai, China.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
Call and Response: Roxane Gay Reflects on Tragedy
Roxane Gay examines her own feelings on tragedy and atrocity and in doing so, helps us find compassion in grief and anger.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Coexisting With the Void: Simone Gorrindo on Chronic Pain
At Vela, Simone Gorrindo contemplates “the terrible thing that the slowness of pain gives you: time” in this meditation on how chronic illness affects the body and mind.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Terry Gross, National Interviewer: 40 Years of Fresh Air
In The New York Times Magazine Susan Burton profiles “national interviewer” Terry Gross, who celebrates 40 years behind the microphone as the host of NPR’s Fresh Air.
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Quotes
Chuck Klosterman on the Success of Taylor Swift, and the Word ‘Calculating’
If you don’t take Swift seriously, you don’t take contemporary music seriously. With the (arguable) exceptions of Kanye West and Beyoncé Knowles, she is the most significant pop artist of the modern age. The scale of her commercial supremacy defies parallel—she’s sold 1 million albums in a week three times, during an era when most […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Pablo Escobar: Renaissance Man
As dusk settles on the Magdalena Valley, the jungly middle stretch of Colombia’s great river basin, the hippopotamuses bawl and snort. The indelicate groans of these multi-ton beasts border on comedic, but mostly their ruckus is a fearsome thing—a primal ritual that has churned these waters ever since Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to his […]
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Quotes
A Sort of Readiness: Ursula K. Le Guin
A conversation between two novelists — Choire Sicha chats with Ursula K. Le Guin.