“The reintroduction of the long-lived, highly social birds has offered insight into the importance of parenting in the species.”
California
Posted inEditor's Pick
Joan Didion’s Magic Trick
Caitlin Flanagan goes on a road trip through California — including Sacramento, Berkeley, and Malibu — visiting the homes of the late Joan Didion and exploring why her writing has had such a powerful effect on people. Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album created a new vocabulary of essay writing, one whose influence is […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Dislodged
In this beautiful personal essay, Josh McColough recounts a road trip with his daughter along the coast of California and makes poignant observations about humanity and our vulnerable environment. Still, we too often move through life not considering our size and stature relative to forces and objects that humble us. Geologic time. Plate tectonics. A […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Future for Susanville
Prisons such as the California Correctional Center in Susanville, California, drive the local economy in the rural town, and its residents are just as tied to these facilities as the incarcerated ones. Piper French offers a nuanced portrait of the town, as locals in support of CCC, incarcerated organizers on the inside, and urban abolitionist […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Futures From Ruins
Bombay Beach was once a vibrant resort town on the Salton Sea until agricultural pollution, drought, and toxic air led to its demise. Today, an art movement and emerging community hope to bring it back. In this Noema essay, writer Johanna Hoffman and photographer Tao Ruspoli show how a town in ruins is experiencing a […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Ghosts of Polluters Past
“As new soil tests reveal the pervasiveness of lead contamination, one California barrio continues its long struggle for justice.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
This Isn’t the California I Married
“The honeymoon’s over for its residents now that wildfires are almost constant. Has living in this natural wonderland lost its magic?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Caught Between New Tech Money and a Growing Homelessness Crisis, Restaurants on One Street in Venice, California, Are Trying to Keep Its Identity Alive
“There were an estimated 1,900 unhoused people living in Venice, and Rose Avenue was the nexus of that community.”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Story
There Are No Seasons: A Reading List on Loss, Love, and Living with Fire in California
Six personal essays about or inspired by wildfire.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Homegrown and Homeless in Oakland
“Leonard ‘Pumpkin’ Ambrose lives just down the street from the house where he grew up. Derrick Soo lives 2 miles from his former family home, Delbra Taylor is a mile from hers and Gwyn Teninty can walk the distance in 15 minutes. All four grew up here, in Oakland. And they succeeded in their own […]