My Oversubscribed Life

If subscription-based businesses can let us use our time more efficiently, then why was this subscriber not using her time for anything more than scrolling through her feeds, imagining future life-optimization?

Source: Esquire
Published: Apr 16, 2020
Length: 11 minutes (2,939 words)

Aquanauts of Hudson Canyon

Short fiction set around one of the world’s deepest subterranean canyons, right off New York City’s coastline, and that explores the deep, unseen terrain of the heart.

Published: Apr 24, 2020
Length: 19 minutes (4,821 words)

Just for Kicks: Japan’s Sneaker Obsession Rebounds

Interest in Japan’s limited edition shoes has crossed from Japanese collectors into the global mainstream, but a lot has changed about the original sneaker culture of the 1990s.

Source: The Japan Times
Published: Mar 1, 2020
Length: 9 minutes (2,271 words)

Sex Ed Failed Me. Then I Was Hired to Sell Vibrators

“Barely five feet two inches tall and wearing a too-big dress shirt and braces, I looked more like a Catholic schoolchild lost on a field trip than the newest employee of Lovecraft sex shop.”

Source: The Walrus
Published: Apr 20, 2020
Length: 10 minutes (2,709 words)

Grieving, but Calmed by a Different Kind of Storm

In isolation, Stephanie Land finds surprising relief from PTSD — and discovers she is able to write again.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 24, 2020
Length: 12 minutes (3,059 words)

Tressie McMillan Cottom on Writing in One’s Own Voice

“And yet, for academics this is a constant tension. They have this idea that the writing should be secondary, or distinct, from the thinking. And I’ve always found that very bizarre. How are you thinking, if you are not writing?”

Source: Public Books
Published: Apr 23, 2020
Length: 15 minutes (3,977 words)

The Hunger Mood

Is losing weight a matter of psychology, not physiology?

Source: Aeon
Published:
Length: 14 minutes (3,700 words)

My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?

Forced to shutter Prune, I’ve been revisiting my original dreams for it — and wondering if there will still be a place for it in the New York of the future.

Published: Apr 23, 2020
Length: 23 minutes (5,831 words)

The Body Collectors of the Coronavirus Pandemic

“As the death toll from COVID-19 rises, the funeral homes and hospital morgues of New York City are struggling to keep up.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Apr 22, 2020
Length: 18 minutes (4,692 words)

Life of Zai

A local singer with big dreams keeps getting close to stardom. Then her body and mind start to fail her.

Source: Tampa Bay Times
Published: Apr 19, 2020
Length: 22 minutes (5,500 words)