These essays and features across science, food, and sports are worth a read.

Two friends, Hurricane Katrina, a suicide, and the pain and beauty that holds us all together.

Whether adding a hyphen or changing one’s name completely, the process of naming can be complex.

Six stories on the immediate and ongoing aftermath of the attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001.

Let’s go down to the woods today … with a reading list all about trees.

A tale of racism.

Against the commodification of community.

Jill Talbot on secret messages between mother and daughter.

Separated by war, boundaries, and immigration policies they cannot control, one young Yemeni couple refuses to give up on love.

On vaccine privilege in America and COVID-19 inequities in India.

On having a twin with cerebral palsy and navigating school bullies.

“I have to wear all of these dolls, you see, so that Whiteness does not have to wear any.”

How a journalist found her voice as her mother lost hers.

“As marriages go, ours is an infant. Soft-skulled and milk-breathed. We’ve been married for two years, together for five.”

“The Wall Street Journal recently used the headline ‘We All Need OCD Now’ for an article on COVID-19 … Finally, my debilitating mental illness has a timely hook!”

Heather Lanier explores the pressure to perform happiness.

“Black waves bring animals to the town’s shore. Sticky corpses float on the oil.”

“A series of small collapses is how they come to be radicalized.”

In an excerpt from her new book on fertility, feminism, and queer family-building, Jennifer Berney explores the possibilities of sperm banks.

On injury, compensation, and living with pain.

“Plant-based eating has a long, radical history in Black American culture, preserved by institutions and individuals who have understood the power of food and nutrition in the fight against oppression,” writes Amirah Mercer in “A Homecoming.” The piece, published at Eater, explores Mercer’s path to veganism and the plant-based diets of the Black diaspora. While […]

In her new book, Miranda Ward explores the unique place of almost-motherhood — an uncertain landscape characterized by waiting, wanting, hoping, and not-knowing.

“The world should not, cannot, go back to business as usual without a clearer understanding and consciousness of how we live.”

An essay on growing up in the South, legacy, and a place rooted in white supremacy.

“Daily treks in silence are an effective way to get anyone to reflect on their lives and consider what’s really important.”

Alexandra Tanner spent this weird year following Mormon mommy bloggers on Instagram.

A small sampling of standout essays published this year.

“Tyrian purple was a difficult color to manufacture. Thousands of snails were required to create a single ounce of dye.”

“The first one I saw was on the path outside my house: a single white plastic glove, the fingers curled inward like a sleeping animal.”

“Impending parenthood makes you reconsider the context of your own upbringing, and puts the work your parents did into a new light.”