Gene Therapy: God Discusses Its Future Possibilities By Katie Kosma Unraveling the potential of the double helix could render many of our current medical modalities laughable.
The Little Franchise That Couldn’t By Michelle Weber Ollie Gleichenhaus cooked up a mean hamburger. How come Americans are eating Big Macs and Whoppers instead of Ollieburgers?
The Good Guys Aren’t Always the Good Guys By Michelle Weber “About 50 of the 800 women housed at Rosie’s at any one time are being sexually victimized by staff.”
White Men On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown By Katie Kosma The ruling minority of white men are getting nervous about impending destabilization of their power.
Our Future Success Depends on Rocks from the Sky By Michelle Weber Steve Curry’s meteor-hunting hobby went from business to obsession to a connection with Cliven Bundy, and eventually landed him in jail after an armed standoff with law enforcement.
Waiting for Mental Health Care By Catherine Cusick Patients do ask for help with their mental health. And then they wait.
Nothing But Time and Tides and Salt and Mud and Warren Ellis By Michelle Weber Once described by 8th century Mercian king Offa as “a terrible place,” it’s an odd, out-of-the-way part of the world.
Forced to Perform As Aretha Franklin By Aaron Gilbreath How soul singer Mary Jane Jones was forced to perform as Aretha Franklin before she took control of her life and career.
How Southern Cities Are Joining the Knowledge Economy By Aaron Gilbreath Greenville, South Carolina has revitalized its city center by incubating start-ups. Can other Southern cities do the same?
The Section 8 Cannabis Eviction Problem By Aaron Gilbreath Although many states legally allow the use of medical marijuana, federal law still prohibits its possession in federally subsidized housing, so many residents live in fear of eviction.
Sometimes a Coat Is Just a Coat, and Sometimes It Ruins a Kid’s Life By Michelle Weber Sixteen-year-old Sanders, an autistic high school student, was put through an extensive “threat assessment” (aka, “We think you might be the next school shooter”).
Can the Political Override the Personal? By Michelle Weber “Harmful to Minors” author Judith Levine mines her past contradictions to sketch out the challenge of a being a young woman simultaneously burgeoning into her feminist and her sexual selves.
Here Be Tigers By Aaron Gilbreath If thousands of Australians claim to have seen the Tasmanian Tiger in the wild, then did it really go extinct in 1936?
The Benefits of Spinsterhood By Michelle Weber Like only our own laundry to do and no one to complain about the wallpaper we want to put up in the bathroom, for starters.
Just Try It, You’ll Like It, It’s Good for You By Michelle Weber Remember when you could only buy milk that came from cows and goats, rather than nuts and seeds? We live in a post-dairy world now, and soy milk started it all.
There Are Few Second Chances for Immigrants Who Commit Crimes By Aaron Gilbreath How America punishes immigrant criminals multiple times for the same crime and continues traumatizing them.
Jonathan Franzen’s “Readers” By Catherine Cusick Haters could write the book on hate reading Jonathan Franzen, but he wouldn’t read it and neither would they.
Oral History Project Grounds Story of Monticello in the Lives of the Enslaved By Danielle Jackson “Monticello was a Black space. People of African descent shaped the entire landscape: how the food tasted, what the place sounded and felt like.”
Alabama’s History Haunts, But It Also Instructs By Danielle Jackson The hope and future of the United States is bound to Alabama’s.
Seeing the Modern World In the Disposable Plastic Straw By Aaron Gilbreath How our planet came to be filled with more disposable plastic straws than most of us will ever need.
Arundhati Roy: “Fiction is a Universe” By Michelle Weber Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy is the embodiment of concept that the personal is political, even (especially?) in her fiction.
“The Beasts of the Crossing Have Been Pushed Into the Light” By Michelle Weber Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s Jezebel essay “A Theory of Animals” is a gut punch. Read it.
Author Carmen Maria Machado on the Next Phase of #MeToo By Danielle Jackson Carmen Maria Machado discusses the nuances of “benevolent sexism,” who gets to define the #MeToo movement, and how it should progress.
It’s Time for Hooters to GTFO By Aaron Gilbreath My recommendation: a complete rebrand, where all Hooters restaurants are converted into owl sanctuaries.
Johnny Depp: We Are Concerned By Krista Stevens Johnny Depp’s out of cash and he really has no idea why.
Twenty-five Years After Breaking Brandon Teena’s Story: An Apology By Katie Kosma Journalist Donna Minkowitz realizes 25 years later she was victim to her own internalized homophobia and ignorance on trans issues when she broke the story of Brandon Teena, subject of Boys Don’t Cry.
Nintendo Can Keep a Secret By Catherine Cusick The untold art of the fairytale comeback, brought to you by Nintendo.
Haruki Murakami Strolls Through His Childhood Home After the Hanshin Earthquake By Aaron Gilbreath When Haruki Murakami walked the long distance between his childhood home outside Kobe and the city center, he found a city changed by the great Kobe earthquake, and the constant spector of violence.
Staten Island Wilderness, Going, Going, Gone? By Aaron Gilbreath One of the last pieces of wilderness on Staten Island might get bulldozed.
On Saving the Cuban Crocodile from American Invasion By Krista Stevens “…female Cuban crocs, who might normally struggle to find a mate from their own small population, suddenly encounter exotic suitors of an appealing size and shenanigans ensue.”