The art of quarantines past
The coronavirus news cycle has finally come for me with a vengeance, so due to an avalanche of extremely urgent deadlines, I will be keeping this newsletter...
Rerun: The achievable goal
Today I am bringing you a rerun. I originally sent out this issue on Oct 13, 2019, and I think the philosophy of the achievable goal might be helpful for a...
A dispatch from Before
Friends, what a week. Mexico has 41 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with no community transmission reported yet. Schools are closing for a month starting on...
Unsolved mysteries
Last week I said that my feature on Teotihuacan and the Maya contained a writing challenge: There is no answer to the mystery, and thus no natural resolution...
An epic story
This week I published a long article about an ancient mystery: What, exactly, was the relationship between Teotihuacan and the Maya? If you’ve heard of any...
Drowning
I wrote last week about not having enough water. Today I’m thinking about places that have too much water. I’ve been researching sea level rise in the past...
Water
You know you’ve really made a friend in Mexico City when you ask to come over to their place to take a shower, because your water has gone out. It happens to...
An experiment
What follows is a short piece of fiction inspired by a recent New York Times story about an almost-abandoned cosmic ray observatory and the handful of people...
On editing
I love a good edit. I’ve heard not all writers do, but I can’t imagine it. The second draft—after an editor gets involved—is my favorite part of the whole...
Shaking off the dust
Hello! I’m back. I planned on returning to this newsletter last Sunday, but the week before I had a challenging feature to file and I didn’t feel like...
The year, the decade
I love the end of the year. I’m not really one for new year’s resolutions, but I can’t get enough of year-end lists and reflections, both my own and other...
Maintenance work
I have a love-hate relationship with cooking at the moment. I really like doing it, but like everyone in the 21st century I don’t have much time for it. This...
An American abroad
The first time I left the U.S., I was 17 years old. I went to Spain on a truly terrible tour with other high school students, none of whom I knew and only...
What does productivity mean anyway?
In last week’s issue, I cited RescueTime’s productivity metric in my examination of how much work is too much, but promised to critique it further. Here I...
How much is too much work?
I said last week that my overlapping assignments resulted in “objectively too much work.” I know this because I got sick after completing it. But let’s break...
Two new stories
I published two print stories in this week’s issue of Science. (That’s a lot, for those of you not in the biz.) One is a feature that I’ve been working on,...
The secret of Stonehenge
Writing about tourism in Mexico City last week made me think of my most recent experience as a foreign tourist. I went to England for the first time this...
On (over)tourism
This week Kyle Chayka, one of my favorite critics, wrote a long piece about Iceland and overtourism for Vox. Why does it feel like we’re all going to the...
The only thing I should be doing
I saw this tweet from the writer Rachel Syme this week: rachel syme @rachsymesometimes i think the ONLY thing i should be doing is writing a book (or...
The achievable goal
Over one winter break during my Fulbright years, I wrote my first and (to date) only knitting pattern—though “pattern” is a pretty generous word for what I’m...
