The Dead Man Fund
How the world’s worst investor fleeced clients who couldn’t complain.
An Urban Planner Against the Developer Presidency
An urban planner examines the worldview of high-stakes commercial real estate developers, with a special focus on our new developer-in-chief.
Cast by Chronic Illness Into a Limiting Role
A personal essay in which Maris Kreizman recalls having her dreams of attending performing arts camp — not to mention her Broadway ambitions — dashed by juvenile diabetes, and illness she refuses to be defined by.
When a Mother and Daughter Reverse Roles
A personal essay in which Marlene Adelstein looks a her obsession with an orphaned sea otter and realizes it’s helping her process her grief over her Alzheimers-afflicted mom.
How Much is Too Much to Save a Dying Cat?
A personal essay in which author s.e. smith ponders why in seeking treatment for dying pets we tend to postpone the inevitable, inadvertently prolonging their suffering .
How to Replace a Ghost
A personal essay in which Alana Massey is haunted by the ghosts of relationships past en route to a wedding at a museum of oddities.
Language Acquisition
A personal essay in which author Diana Spechler recalls fleeing her life in New York City for a new one with a painter in his village in central Mexico.
How Does It Feel? An Alternative American History, Told With Folk Music
On Guthrie, Robeson, Seeger, Lomax, Dylan, the Red Scare, the fall of labor, and what folk music had to do with it. An excerpt from Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913.
The Doctor Will See You Now
A personal essay in which Sarah Miller eulogizes her mother’s black sheep brother.
My Date with Hollywood
A personal essay in which Monica Drake recalls the time a famous actress was interested in adapting her novel, Clown Girl, for the screen.