A play-by-play of the Broaden study, a clinical trial of a promising new treatment for depression, highlights how unexpected variables can sink clinical trials prematurely — especially when sponsors pull the plug early on treatments that gain effectiveness over time.
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Posted inNonfiction
Paul Clarke Wants to Live
When a promising student left a neighborhood full of heroin for the University of Pennsylvania, it should have been a moving story. But what does an at-risk student actually need to thrive — or even just to survive?
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Trip of a Lifetime
In the context of some recent reads on psychedelic drugs, Laura Miller looks at Michael Pollan’s new book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. In it, Pollan says that drugs such as psilocybin and LSD got a bad rap after some […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Story
The Young Man and the Sea Sponge
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.
Posted inStory
High Expectations: LSD, T.C. Boyle’s Women, and Me
“Outside Looking In” dramatizes the discovery of LSD and the cult of personality surrounding Timothy Leary. Our reviewer drops acid and thinks about how, for women, it can be safer to be a downer.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Big Unsolved Mystery of Little Marjorie West
The unsolved mystery of a 1938 kidnapping continues to befuddle in Pennsylvania.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
B is for Bastard
As a boy, after the trauma of learning he is not his father’s biological son, Brian Gresko finds his sense of himself is shattered.
Posted inBooks, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
Why Psilocybin and LSD Don’t Deserve Their Bad Rap
A survey of recent reads says that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and LSD are not only enjoying a renaissance — they might actually be helpful to humans.
Posted inStory
What Gwyneth Paltrow and Great Expectations Taught Me about the Male Gaze
Sara Petersen explores the origin of her desire to perform a certain type of femininity, and how the performance ultimately led her to pursue motherhood as a path to purpose.
Posted inNonfiction
‘Brokenness and Holiness Really Go Together’: Darcey Steinke on Menopause
Darcey Steinke says that most menopause memoirs “end with this come-to-Jesus moment of, ‘Then I accepted hormones.’ I’m not against it, but … I wanted to hear what it’s like for other women.”
