Reflections on Antarctica

An interview with Louis Rudd and Colin O’Brady, two men who set out from the Ronne Ice Shelf on the western edge of Antarctica on November 3rd, 2018 in a two-man race. Pulling all the equipment they’d need to survive for two months on sleds called pulks, which man would be the first to traverse Antarctica — the coldest continent on earth — in a solo, unassisted journey of 921 miles?

Published: Jan 18, 2019
Length: 11 minutes (2,942 words)

Mary Oliver: Listening to the World

In the wake of her death, revisit this classic 2015 interview with poet Mary Oliver. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination.”

Source: On Being
Published: Oct 15, 2015
Length: 31 minutes (7,910 words)

Diary: How I Write Music

Composer Nico Muhly writes about his primary goal: “to create a piece of art that is better than the same amount of silence.”

Author: Nico Muhly
Published: Oct 25, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,961 words)

The Oral History of Office Space: Behind the Scenes of the Cult Classic

At one point, Twentieth Century Fox Film Group tried to convince Mike Judge, Office Space‘s director, to cast Matt Damon, feeling the film wouldn’t draw audiences without a star. Twenty years later, it’s inconceivable that anyone but Ron Livingston could have played Peter Gibbons.

Published: Jan 11, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,043 words)

The Valedictorians Project

These Boston high school valedictorians set off to change the world.

But good grades only got them so far.

Source: Boston Globe
Published: Jan 17, 2019

To All the Moms I’ve Ignored Before

In this hilarious piece, Meaghan O’Connell reflects on all the “being a mom” advice she ignored before having kids, that now, she not-so-secretly wishes to be consulted on.

Source: The Cut
Published: Jan 17, 2019
Length: 8 minutes (2,059 words)

Consolation Prizes

“People don’t necessarily revolt when things are bad, but they might when things aren’t getting better, or are getting demonstrably worse.”

Source: The Baffler
Published: Jan 7, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,745 words)

What Is Common, What Is Rare: Why Extraordinary Events Cannot Eclipse Everyday Racism

In this braided personal essay, Patrice Gropo compellingly draws together narrative threads about the solar eclipse in August, 2017, and how it, in ways eclipsed the white nationalist march on Charlottesville 10 days before; and the way in which a white writer effectively eclipsed her by publishing plagiarized portions of an essay she’d read at aloud at a conference.

Source: Catapult
Published: Jan 14, 2019
Length: 11 minutes (2,799 words)

Into a Crueler America: Two Border Crossings, Thirty Years Apart

A chance run in with a recently-released detainee drives home that the border Reyna Grande crossed into the U.S. with her family 30 years ago doesn’t lead to the same place as the border crossed today.

Source: LitHub
Published: Jan 14, 2019
Length: 8 minutes (2,139 words)

Song Flute

When relationships grow tired or toxic, some people write songs about the people they leave behind, the way John Coltrane did for his first wife Naima Grubbs. For others, like this essay’s author, there are too many things that can’t be spoken about, so they talk mostly about music.

Source: Iowa Review
Published: Jan 15, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,643 words)