Why does Tex-Mex get such a bad rap when it’s a legitimate culinary tradition predating Texas statehood?
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Dispatch from Puerto Nowhere
Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.
Mountains, Transcending
“Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
Baring the Bones of the Lost Country: The Last Paleontologist in Venezuela
In light of recent events in crisis-ridden Venezuela, its last vertebrate paleontologist puts together key pieces of the baffling puzzle that the country has become in the past couple of decades.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Chris Outcalt, Corie Brown, Daniel Immerwahr, Toniann Fernandez, and Karen Abbott.
Heartbreaker
Beatrix M. Rooney discovers a tragic secret that may explain her brother’s descent into cruelty and violence.
The Criminalization of the American Midwife
New York midwife Elizabeth Catlin faces 95 individual felony counts at her upcoming trial. For what? For doing her job. Politics and patriarchy make the work of many credentialed, experienced midwives illegal — to the detriment of women and underserved communities.
The Myth of Making It
If the most financially and critically successful artists don’t feel successful, maybe there’s something wrong with how we think about success.
Through a Glass, Tearfully
Maureen Stanton contemplates her history of crying in inappropriate moments, and considers tears from gender-based and political perspectives.
Pulling Out All the Stops to Understand a Distant Father
“The phrase ‘pull out all the stops’ comes from the organ; it’s fortunate for listeners’ eardrums that organists never do this.”

