sorry I got a new French guy
As a child, I excelled at disassociating (if one can call that a skill). I was so entranced when reading that my mother would frequently need to stand next...
Now, to feel
In the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting, as the rightwing tried to grab onto a feeling besides hate, it occurred to me how many of our feelings we’ve been...
What is a "bad guy"?
As a standup, one of my biggest frustrations moving out of Chicago was the way the idea of opportunity made us avoid plain talking. As someone who has...
Kidfluencing, a bellwether
In the fifth episode of Born to Be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers, two fathers of child social media stars meet up. The show, airing on Freeform and...
We are one another
We have consumed the surveillance state and it has swallowed us whole. I have been thinking a lot about surveillance. I have been panicking a lot about...
Repost: Inconvenience
This was first published on my Substack in August 2022. I am now vegan and am once again in God’s country (make a below-average salary). I treat convenience...
American Sinners
Katie note: Spoilers for Sinners in here I spent my Friday night watching 2015-era YouTube commentary videos about Gamergate, partly because I hate myself...
On being a believer
I saw Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (a movie for a time that maybe never existed) and discovered how deeply in the tank I was for Mattel. As billionaires destroy the...
Whimsy, a defense
I want to start out by saying this: I was a known hater of whimsy from 2008 through to this year. Whimsy was the attitude de rigueur for the post-housing...
Repost: The crisis of cursive
With Republican calls to “bring cursive back” even as they seek to close schools, it seems a good time to reshare a newsletter I originally published in...
Please, for the love of God, excise the eugenics from your heart
We are trapped in another spiral of the destruction of the American empire. As a result, Americans are trying to find their experience in media. What movies...
The cultural bind of the uplifting movie
This weekend my husband watched the 1970s Charles Bronson movie Death Wish. I sat through about five minutes of it, but my husband reported it was a “slog.”...
Vending the future
As the class war reaches what I hope is its apotheosis (lest we find ourselves living in an actual Atwood novel), I’m interested, as always, in the...
I don't want Taylor Swift's life
Every job I have provides its own challenges and its own lessons. The job I held last year for a now-dissolved startup was, in retrospect, the best job I...
An email fit for forwarding
I wrote this email to some friends and family today, but I wanted to share with you folks. I have another email coming this week so! Double email week! Hi...
George W. Bush's America
I searched very hard for religion throughout my childhood and into my early twenties. I searched so desperately for a faith to find relief from my own...
There's nowhere to run
On Monday, my husband turned to me and said, “As long as we can stay together and in this apartment, I think we can get through anything.” We live in a rent-...
Humanity isn't guaranteed
We swim in a sea of eugenics. There is no bigger indication of this than how we treat those without homes. I live in Los Angeles in California, a state known...
Without a manager's say-so
I have been thinking a lot recently. I’ve been thinking about thinking, the easiest gift to give myself. As a child, I loved to Think, an activity in its own...
Political for the holidays
Over a year ago now, I got in a fight with a billionaire. (I am generally hyperbolic, but I know our conversation was more tense than casual as I was...