Turtles weren't a new writing topic for science journalist Rachel Nuwer, but the context of her latest encounter certainly was. With the nearest reptiles a mile away in the Wabash River, she leafed through material in the archives at Purdue University.

I met Rachel five years ago at an annual gathering of the Society of Environmental Journalists. So I was surprised when she emailed me about her latest project: the definitive account of the drug MDMA.

"I'm not sure how your pandemic experience was..." she said, joking as we talked this week. She had craved a new challenge after writing dozens of articles on the wildlife beat. Something big. Like the whole story of a cultural phenomenon.

The chemical was first synthesized in a German lab in 1912 and pretty much forgotten until the mid 70s. That meant her archives experience in Indiana not only infused her reporting with more conversational warmth "that really made some sections sing" but also allowed her to ask follow-up questions of the same people whose holiday cards, personal letters, and newspaper clippings she was sifting through.

"What [the archives] brought into focus is how quickly things are lost to the gobble of history, all these little dramas people experienced," she told me. "It was a great window into their mental spaces. We know the end of the story. In the 1990s, they were just living it."

In a note between researchers studying the potential therapeutic effects of a substance facing government prohibition, a breakthrough with federal drug agencies warranted a comparison.

They had achieved some progress, one wrote to the other, "like persistent turtles."

All the turtle talk reminded me of my favorite short film that I've seen in recent years and the idea of changing "a load of pottery to wings."
 

#

This newsletter was written on the traditional lands of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank.