“Nostalgic for a time before ubiquitous connectivity, a writer ditched his phone and relied instead on serendipity — and maps made by people he met along the way.”
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The Tickling of the Bulls: A Rodeo at Madison Square Garden
“It’s an especially American paradox: a ruthlessly meritocratic system where men nonetheless live to pull each other up by their bootstraps.”
“To the Train Lady with Dark Brown Hair … :” Extraordinary Stories of Four Couples who Found Love via Small Ads
“Is the medium dying? What might we lose if we let it go, like a stranger rounding an airport corner?”
Best of 2025: All Our Number One Story Picks
Every story we selected for the number one slot in our weekly newsletter, all in one place.
The Talented Ms. Highsmith
“I worked for the novelist in her final months. I thought she wanted to kill me.”
Santa Maria
“A youthful obsession with Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ turns to frustration over how its subject, Florence Owens Thompson, an Indigenous woman, has been misperceived.”
Bottles, Benches, and Building Connections (Plus Our Top 5)
This edition highlights reading about messages in bottles, public benches, infinity, a series of books about everything, and pay-to-play orchestras.
An American Education: Notes from UATX
“Inside the ‘Forbidden Courses’ at the billionaire-backed University of Austin, the campus of the ‘anti woke’ commentariat.”
Eight Limes, No More: The Accidental Poetry of Found Lists
A found list is a rare analog window into someone else’s needs—an accidental autobiography, a blank space to be filled with one’s imagination.
Planet TikTok
“The app’s young user base, fragmented content, and amped-up algorithm helped it spread around the world. If the US bans it, what would be lost?”

