SpongeBob SquarePants turned 20 this summer. This is the story of how a marine biology teacher named Stephen Hillenburg gave life to an animated character who continues to delight fans worldwide.
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Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Breaking the Family Silence on Alcoholism
Alicia Lutes contemplates her family’s history of addiction, her mother’s failing liver, and the effect it’s all had on her generation.
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Story, Unapologetic Women
This (Wo)Man’s Work
When men devalue the labor of women like Andrea Arnold and overvalue the work of even problematic men, it’s a triple whammy that diminishes the individual woman, women in general, and the overall quality of culture.
Posted inNonfiction
Game of Crones
It wasn’t entirely Laura Lippman’s idea to become a mother in her 50s. But when it happened, she leaned in hard.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Bowie Knives, Concealed Rifles, and Caning Charles Sumner
As the Civil War loomed, weapons — like the recently invented bowie knife and rifles that were shipped to Kansas hidden in crates labeled as bibles — became complex political symbols.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story, Writing
Stalin’s Scheherazade
An opportunistic literary caper became a lifelong con — with no possibility of escape.
Posted inNonfiction
Prince of the Midwest
For one Wisconsin farm boy, Minneapolis will always be the city of Purple Rain.
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Highlight, Quotes
The Myth of the Singular Voice
Ahistorical narratives of racial uplift and singular heroes deny complexity and are devoid of real politics.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
The Death and Birth of the Los Angeles River
The authors describe the river as a “postindustrial terra incognita,” a place “of discarded things and marginalized people”. Can the city change that?
Posted inBundyville The Remnant, Crime, Culture, Current Events, investigations, Nonfiction, Standout, Story
Bundyville: The Remnant, Chapter One: A Quiet Man
When a bomb exploded in a tiny desert town, there was no doubt who did it. But no one could understand why.
