When the Climate Change Story Becomes Your Life Story By Aaron Gilbreath Moving from bustling, expensive Seattle to tiny Ashland, Oregon seemed like an improvement, until the forest fire season began.
The Suprising History of the Ball Pit By Krista Stevens Enjoy the ball pit! I’ll be over here not swimming in pee.
If Following McMillan Cottom and Gay on Twitter Isn’t Enough, Here You Go By Michelle Weber More of this sort of thing, thanks.
“This Is the Glittering Fringe”: On Drag Inclusivity at the Rosemont By Krista Stevens ‘“The drag here is messy, not vanilla,’ one regular tells me over the din. He sips his drink and settles on a word. ‘Genuine.'”
Recalling the Making of ‘Go,’ 20 Years Later By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Director Doug Liman and screenwriter John August look back on the production of their indie film Go, 20 years after its release.
Confessions of a Clinical Therapy Trainee By Krista Stevens What do you do when it’s your first day on the job and the patient can’t stop crying?
Busting Broncos and the Patriarchy By Aaron Gilbreath After nearly a century of being denied the opportunity, women are riding bucking broncos in American rodeo once again, and regaining the respect they deserve.
How Do You Move a Warhol? Really, Really Carefully By Michelle Weber We’re gonna need more bubble wrap.
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium By Michelle Weber Let’s grab a waffle and challenge the global hegemony of U.S. culture.
‘Intelligent Education’ and China’s Grand AI Experiment By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Seven schools in China have installed facial recognition technology in classrooms to monitor — and score — their students. At The Disconnect, Yujie Xue reports on this “intelligent education” initiative.
Welcome to Sinaloa, Home of Chiltepín By Michelle Weber Your favorite Mexican shrimp dish isn’t about the shrimp at all: “People think the star of the dish is the shrimp, but really it’s the chile.”
The Terror of Being Awake By Michelle Weber “I thought, ‘This is it, this is how I’m going to die, right here on the table, and my family will never know what my last few hours were like because no one’s even noticing what’s going on.’”
Into the Wild On an E-Scooter By Aaron Gilbreath What happens when you ride an e-scooter out of the city limits — until its battery dies?
The Tyranny of Chairs By Michelle Weber Pro tip: your fat friend (read: me) doesn’t want to sit in the booth.
An American City, Inhabited Yet Abandoned By Michelle Weber “Not a single person was killed on the day of the rioting. But the following month, May, would conclude with 41 homicides — the most the city had experienced in a month since the 1970s.”
The Fertility Doctor’s Secret Children By Krista Stevens Donald Cline justified his deception with choice bible verses, so that makes everything okay.
The Power of a Neighborhood’s Name By Aaron Gilbreath When Google Maps’ data renamed an African American neighborhood, it opened up residents to the looming forces of gentrification.
A Rare Toy Heist, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away By Cheri Lucas Rowlands In 2017, the theft of a rare toy — a Boba “Rocket” Fett prototype that was never released for sale — rocked the Star Wars collecting community.
How the Pacheco Family Pivoted From Baking Bread to Burying the Bodies By Krista Stevens “For now, though, he has no plans to become a baker again.”
‘The South Is Different Now. So Are We.’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands On two tours of the South, taken 20 years apart, Pete Candler uncovers truths about his family and the place he comes from.
“The Glitter-scurfed Frappuccinos” Is Totally the Name of My New Band By Michelle Weber Don’t disrespect the fish. Or do! It’s your dinner.
“White” Isn’t Even Neutral When You’re Talking About Paint Colors By Michelle Weber Your systems will not protect you.
Deciphering the Language of the Body in China By Aaron Gilbreath In China, a British expat learns a whole new way to speak with her body.
‘We All Live in the Great Database in the Sky’: On Silicon Valley and UFO Culture By Cheri Lucas Rowlands “The idea seems to be that we all live in the great database in the sky, occasionally summoning aliens with our minds.” Emily Harnett explores Silicon Valley’s appropriation of UFO culture.
Diabetes in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley: ‘The Inevitable Inheritance’ By Krista Stevens “We’re literally cutting people’s limbs off, when they could just be taking medication. It’s kind of crazy in a developed country.”
The Darwinian View of Our Storytelling Species By Aaron Gilbreath What the history of folktales reveals about the role storytelling played in human evolution.
Make Way for Meera By Michelle Weber She bounded up a mountain humans can only slog up, and she’s the second-best dog in the world (after your dog, obv).
Maintaining Mental Health as a Rescuer in the Grand Tetons By Krista Stevens “What was important was that each of us had been there; we all, in another way, had blood on our hands—we had all shared the same experiences. We needed each other.”
Fox & Friends in High Places By Catherine Cusick Trump’s friends are like family. And Trump hires his family.
It’s All In the Wrist (and the Blatant Lying) By Michelle Weber In these troubling economic times, you can’t amass a giant art collection without robbing a few hundred museums any more.