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.
Quotes
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Stephen Rodrick Returns Home to Flint
The human damage is incalculable. Think of a mother waking in the middle of the night to make formula for her baby girl and unwittingly using liquid death as a mixer. Lead poisoning stunts IQs in children, many of whom in Flint are already traumatized by poverty, arson and rampant gunfire outside their doors. And […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How One Woman Left Her Abusive Husband
In Oregon Humanities magazine, Loretta Stinson writes about her moment of clarity, the night when she saw her fifteen-year relationship to an abusive alcoholic for what it was, and decided to walk out on him.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Ain’t No One Here But Just Us Chickens
Daniel Wallace killed a chicken — and it didn’t really change him. He reflects on the strange ease of poultry murder and the inevitability of death in this fun but sobering piece in the Bitter Southerner.
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Planning for the Death of Parking in American Cities
In the latest issue of Mother Jones, Clive Thompson investigated how the rise of autonomous cars, and Americans’ desire to live in more walkable cities, will mean no longer having to set aside vast amounts of land for parking lots. Many articles have offered a utopian vision of our autonomous driving future, but what I particularly like […]
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The Most Influential Box on Earth
The container’s efficiency has proven to be an irresistible economic force. Last year the world’s container ports moved 560 million 20-foot containers—nearly 1.5 billion tons of cargo altogether. Though commodities like petroleum, steel ore, and coal still move in specially designed bulk cargo ships, more than 90 percent of the rest—everything from clothes to cars […]
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Living and Dying in Cancer Alley
David Hanson, writing for the Bitter Southerner, helps residents of Standard Heights, Baton Rouge, tell their story of a town next to an Exxon plant — explosions, sinkholes, toxic sludge, and a everyday life that has to go on, regardless.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Quotes
Stories Make Us Human
Journalist Jacqui Banaszynski’s advice for reporting on the lives of others.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What Goes into Japan’s Famous Powdered Green Tea
Matcha ─ you’ve read about its health benefits, you’ve seen it in chic cafes sold as bright green lattes and iridescent bubble teas. Consumed in Japan since the 12th century, it’s suddenly trending in America. So what is it and where does it come from? In Serious Eats, food writer Matthew Amster-Burton provides a rare look […]
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The Ever-Shifting Definition of ‘Progressive’
Who gets to be a “progressive”?