A Litany for Survival

“I prepared for a fight. I knew that my medical chart, which lists my bipolar diagnosis, was readily available to every nurse and doctor who interacted with me. So, in addition to the routine threat of being labeled a stereotypical angry black woman, I worried that I would be dismissed as a “crazy” person. But I told myself I would rather be seen as belligerent than be dead.”

Published: Aug 18, 2020
Length: 16 minutes (4,219 words)

Thanks for Nothing.

“We make art because we can’t not make art. People care, or they don’t, but we keep going. We tell the stories we need to tell. It’s okay if it takes some of us longer than others.”

Source: Medium
Published: Aug 15, 2020
Length: 18 minutes (4,549 words)

Broken Glass, Blood, and Anguish: Beirut After the Blast

Pediatrician Seema Jilani recounts the immediate aftermath of the Beirut explosion: “As I emerged from the car, the air was still whirring with debris. Everything was eerily silent. But it wasn’t. I just couldn’t hear anything. My ears were ringing. The street scene in front of me, almost two blocks from my apartment and walking distance from the epicenter of the blast, was a silent horror film.”

Published: Aug 18, 2020
Length: 11 minutes (2,757 words)

Underneath The Sweet Gum Tree

“Today, I venture proudly and safely into the straight world outside the confines of bars and clubs once designated specifically as ‘gay’ spaces. I can be free. This wouldn’t have been the case a generation ago.”

Source: Oxford American
Published: Aug 10, 2020
Length: 15 minutes (3,766 words)

Back Draft: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

“The poet on radical revision, our reflections, and photographing poets.”

Published: Aug 3, 2020
Length: 7 minutes (1,930 words)

It’s Not Too Late

“I don’t want my part to get skipped over, but I still don’t know how to write directly about what went down between me and M. All I can do is worry a detail like an R&B singer worries a line…For years I’ve cherished a clip of Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin singing on Soul Train.”

Source: The Believer
Published: Aug 14, 2020
Length: 12 minutes (3,185 words)

How the Go-Go’s Found Their Beat: An Oral History

“Four decades after the band ushered in a bold new era for rock, Vogue plunged into the valley of the Go-Go’s for an oral history with the key players who brought Beauty and the Beat to such indelible life.”

Source: Vogue
Published: Aug 4, 2020
Length: 38 minutes (9,661 words)

The Good Son

“Polished, soft-spoken, and a self-styled moderate, Jared Kushner has become his father-in-law’s most dangerous enabler.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Aug 13, 2020
Length: 20 minutes (5,069 words)

GaryVee Is Still Preaching the Hustle Gospel in the Middle of a Pandemic

“His message is what so many desperate people want to hear right now. It’s also dangerous.”

Source: Marker
Published: Aug 12, 2020
Length: 20 minutes (5,206 words)

The Fault, Dear Reader, Is Not In Our Stars

Mental health care is pricey and inaccessible. Online astrology is rising to take its place.

Source: The Walrus
Published: Aug 12, 2020
Length: 11 minutes (2,937 words)