The Misogyny Is the Point By Michelle Weber Highlight I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free… to be reduced to a uterus and some boobs! Good times.
Wait, What? By Soraya Roberts Feature It’s surprising when stodgy institutions award progressive artists, and surprises, even good ones, are alarming — so we immediately burden the winners with the weight of symbolism.
Soli/dairy/ty By Liza Monroy Feature As a nursing mother newly exposed to the harsh realities of milk production, Liza Monroy reconsiders the dairy cow, and questions the meaning of compassion.
Sight and Insight By Liane Kupferberg Carter Feature After a childhood filled with intrusive medical interventions for misaligned eyes, Liane Kupferberg Carter wrestles with learning to see herself and others clearly.
House of the Century By Daisy Alioto Feature Daisy Alioto reconsiders the nature of architecture while researching window alarms.
Postcard from the (Literal) Edge By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her recovery memoir, Erin Khar recalls the depths of her self-destruction as a heroin addict.
The Danger of Befriending Celebrities By Michael Musto Feature Once upon a time, nightlife journalist Michael Musto didn’t set the strongest boundaries with the boldfaced names he covered.
Regarding the Pain of Oprah By Soraya Roberts Feature She gets a mansion and she gets a boat and she gets a jet! And you get to suffer and then maybe pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if you’re lucky enough and bare enough of your private pain.
American Dirt: A Bridge to Nowhere By Sarah Menkedick Feature “Jeanine Cummins can write about Mexico — but she will be judged on whether her writing actually captures the experiential and emotional and ethical complexity of that place, and she will be judged with extra care because she is an outsider.”
All Mom’s Friends By Svetlana Kitto Feature Svetlana Kitto recalls her 1980s childhood in Hollywood during the early years of the AIDS crisis.
Be a Good Sport By Soraya Roberts Feature Competitive sports can mean professional and financial success — if they don’t compromise your mental health first. ‘Cheer’ and ‘Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez’ show how athletics can hurt as much as they can heal.
Please Don’t You Be My Neighbor By Krista Stevens Highlight “To watch those people vanish and be replaced by people who shine like glass, who cut through the sidewalks like knives but reflect nothing back, has been another scraping out. Am I still here? I don’t know anyone here anymore.”
At Mrs. Balbir’s By Jillian Dunham Feature Jillian Dunham traveled thousands of miles from home to get away from her grief. It found her anyway, in a stranger’s Bangkok apartment.
Inking Against Invisibility By Talia Hibbert Feature In the face of chronic pain, invisible illness, and medical discrimination, Talia Hibbert turned to tatoos to reclaim ownership of her body.
Eating To Save My Mind By Claire Fitzsimmons Feature Can diet determine the future of your mental health? Claire Fitzsimmons attempts to find out through a month of Whole30.
Menace Too Society By Soraya Roberts Feature Cancel culture suggests we can change the world from the outside in, but the misogyny and racism are coming from inside the house.
In Defense of Boris the Russki By Ayşegül Savaş Feature Ayşegül Savaş calls into question a kind of racism in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, and laments the liberal reluctance to rebuke discrimination outright, regardless of its targets.
In Pocahontas County, Deep Divisions and a Gruesome Discovery By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from ‘The Third Rainbow Girl,’ Emma Copley Eisenberg interrogates various social conditions that might have contributed to a mysterious double murder in West Virginia in 1980.
Leadership Academy By Victor Wei Ke Yang Feature Victor Yang considers how his time as an immigrant rights organizer helped him understand his mother, and the guilt and obligation he carries from their relationship.
Through a Glass, Tearfully By Maureen Stanton Feature Maureen Stanton contemplates her history of crying in inappropriate moments, and considers tears from gender-based and political perspectives.
We Use Language as a Spade By Krista Stevens Highlight “Though the embryo was only seven weeks old, I loved it. I loved it and wanted it, and its life ended.”
Whatever Happened to ______ ? By Longreads Feature Envy over her success led her husband, also a writer, to become violent. She fights every day for her safety — and to avoid being relegated to obscurity like so many writers who are mothers.
Happily Never After By Soraya Roberts Feature By protecting ourselves and no one else, we destroy ourselves along with everyone else.
Searching Sephora for an Antidote to Aging — and Grief By Abby Mims Feature Five years after her mother’s death, while still grieving and suddenly middle-aged, Abby Mims turns to beauty products to cure what ails her.
The God Phone By Leora Smith Feature What happens when ordinary people play God to strangers? Leora Smith explores the history of one of the oldest art installations at Burning Man and the conversations that unfold there.
The Price of Dominionist Theology By Eve Ettinger Feature After leaving fundamentalism, Eve Ettinger grapples with the loaded theological heritage of evangelical personal finance teachings.
What Brings True Happiness: the Booze or the Bonding? By Krista Stevens Highlight “But there’s nothing wrong with a nudge toward examining the difference between what makes us happy and what is merely habitual.”
Elizabeth Wurtzel Made it Okay to Write ‘Ouch’ By Sari Botton Highlight Today’s memoirists and personal essay writers owe a debt of gratitude to the Prozac Nation author for rewriting an inhibiting rule.
