Writing for Backchannel, Andrew McMillen recently profiled a woman named Tracey Helton. Helton—a former heroin addict who now works as a public health advocate—has taken to Reddit to advocate harm reduction strategies among addicts and to distribute the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Dubbed the “mother of r/opiates,” Helton’s program “illustrates the unexpected good that can emerge from darker corners of […]
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Posted inBlog Post, Nonfiction, Reading List
Kay Redfield Jamison, William Styron and the True Stories of Mental Illness
“For individuals who live with moods that change often and intensely, life is a tempestuous experience.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How Japan Prepared to Care for Its Rapidly Aging Population
As far back as the early 1960s, the government became aware of the imminent ageing problem and began to establish nursing homes and home helpers. In the 1970s, benefits for retirees were more than doubled and a system of virtually free healthcare for older people was established. In 1990, Japan introduced the “Gold Plan”, expanding […]
Posted inNonfiction
Letter to an Ex, on the Occasion of His Suicide
In the wake of a troubled ex-lover’s suicide, novelist Masha Hamilton tries to make sense of it in a correspondence to his ghost.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
A Stranger in the World: The Memoir of a Musician on Tour
The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay on DIY touring in the punk underground of the former Soviet Union.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
The House Where You Live Forever
The reversible destiny of Madeline Gins.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
The Day My Brother Took a Life and Changed Mine Forever
I grew up idolizing my brother. Then he killed a man.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Mother of the 'Distressed Baby' Speaks Out After AOL's CEO Blames Them for Reduced Benefits
Some commentators have questioned the implausibility of “million-dollar babies.” I have no expertise in health care costs, but I have a 3-inch thick folder of hospital bills that range from a few dollars and cents to the high six figures (before insurance adjustments). So even though it’s unlikely that AOL directly paid out those sums, […]
Posted inReading List
#NoShame in Mental Illness: A Reading List
Here, I’ve collected several stories about mental illness, many written by writers of color.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The 'Serial Abuse' of Our Armed Forces
The intensification of the War for the Greater Middle East after 9/11 revealed unsuspected defects in America’s basic approach to raising its military forces. Notwithstanding the considerable virtues of our professional military, notably durability and tactical prowess, the existing system rates as a failure. The All-Volunteer Force is like a burger from a fast-food joint: […]
