I was never a Dungeons and Dragons person, but as a nerd, seems like they’ve always been nearby. I would not have expected a Venn diagram overlapping the D&D nerds I know — delightful, gentle weirdos who like elves and other imaginary creatures — with high security prisoners. Elisabeth de Cleer wrote about one such […]
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The Currency of Cars: How to Leave a Husband
The rickety ’98 Volvo wagon didn’t look like much, but it provided Debbie Weingarten and her children safe passage to a new life.
In Foreign Territory, Wondering: Who is the Alpha Monkey?
Leigh Shulman learns the meaning of home and belonging when she volunteers at a monkey refuge with her nine-year-old daughter.
America’s First Addiction Epidemic
The alcohol epidemic devastated Native American communities, leading to crippling poverty, astonishingly high mortality rates — and a successful sobriety movement.
Putting Together the Pieces of Her Grandmother’s Mysterious Death
For her essay in the New Yorker, Kate Daloz relied on a precious set of letters to tell the story of her grandmother’s abortion.
The Hippies Who Hated the Summer of Love
The merchants of Haight-Ashbury advertised a summer of free food, free lodging, and free love. What they got instead was a civic nightmare.
You Are a Jigsaw Puzzle with Missing Food-Shaped Pieces
Fat, thin, over-eating, under-eating. Lindsay Hunter’s relationship with food, weight, and body image has been consistently complicated.
My Journey to the Heart of the FOIA Request
Fifty years ago, the Freedom of Information Act gave the public access to government secrets — all you had to do was ask. How a simple request became a bureaucratic nightmare.
Popular Enough to Live: A Reading List About Crowdfunding Health Care
Sixty-three percent of Americans don’t have money to cover an emergency costing $500 or more. I’m one of them.
Yearning for My Emo Days in Nostalgia-Inducing Asbury Park
Mabel Rosenheck looks back at a group of friends, and a music festival on the Jersey Shore, that came along when she needed them most.
