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?
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.”
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.”
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.
The Valedictorians Project
These Boston high school valedictorians set off to change the world.
But good grades only got them so far.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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