reader-essay

By Jay Edgar It happened to me — it’ll happen to you. Man, those were the days. I never thought I’d be the kinda guy to write something like that. As a gig drummer in the 2000s, I always thought that the day you first complained about “music these

By Erez Levin When did it become socially acceptable to call everyday people Nazis? There was a time, perhaps only 20 years ago, when if someone earnestly called a political opponent "Hitler," they wouldn’t have been scolded — they would have been laughed at. The response was usually

That’s it, I thought to myself. That’s the last straw. A writer I admire, a woman I respect, read and listen to, a woman who has been identified with the impressive title “public intellectual”  —  spoke on a podcast in which she used the name Karen as a pejorative.

By Christian Gray, Yinka Onayemi, and Frank Obermeyer At the beginning of law school, my co-author, Yinka, and I both enrolled in Georgetown Law’s alternative first-year curriculum known as Section 3. The purpose of Section 3 is to teach traditionally distinct legal courses together in order to demonstrate the

By Jodi Jones A few weeks ago, I cast the first vote I have come to regret. The story of that vote is a portent of risk and opportunity hidden in the humble microcosm that is local government. I wrote this story for those who feel American democracy is eroding,

Having compassion for previous versions of ourselves can help us have compassion for others.

Scars By Stout Cortez We hit the mountain at the same time, skidding face to face. I don’t know exactly how our skis got tangled up to lead to our trajectory; I came out of my break and was late to see her, having just come out of one

By Cristin Marker In June of 2023, I visited what I still think is one of the most beautiful places in the country: Buttersville, Michigan. My family stayed at a quiet, unassuming campground on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan — perfect weather, sandy beaches and picturesque views of the lake.

By Michael Tyler Amidst the current brouhaha of the changing world order, the nations of the world — or at least the ones far enough from the equator to get snow and ice — are gathering in Northern Italy to compete for winter glory. This year’s Winter Olympics feature many wonderful

Why reasonable people can look at the same evidence — and eat very differently.

By Charles Cousey All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. —attributed to Blaise Pascal, 1623–1662 By the time I graduated high school, I was mentally ill — and I knew it. Eighteen years of constant hellfire and brimstone “Christian” fundamentalist