The first draft blues
Last week I published an ambitious story I’m really proud of. This week I’m back in the psychological trenches, practically stapling myself to my chair to...
Sac Balam: Behind the Scenes
This week I published one of my favorite stories yet. I joined an expedition into one of the most remote parts of Mexico to search for Sac Balam, a real-life...
The past is a foreign country
When did the world we live in begin? I argue for the 1500s. This is when European colonialism in the Americas takes off, when the trans-Atlantic slave trade...
Two siblings chat about productivity bros
After I sent last week’s newsletter, my sibling Carrie immediately texted me, “Wait, you read Deep Work? Lol.” It turns out we both have a love-hate...
On procrastination
I’m writing this to avoid writing something else. I’ve procrastinated basically my whole life. I remember desperately not wanting to do my “homework” right...
Benedictine labors
One of the pieces of writing that has stuck with me most this year is an essay in the Catholic magazine Commonweal about how monks in the desert work. The...
Daily stage fright
A couple weeks ago, This American Life re-ran an episode from the year 2000 called “Americans in Paris.” The whole thing is charming and feels like a warm...
Rainy season, 2019
It’s not raining like it should be. First of all, it didn’t start until well into June. It was so hot in May, when the rainy season typically begins, that...
Reported out
I have been swamped with reporting and writing this week, working on a political news article that will come out next week. There’s something liberating...
The magic of paying attention
I spent most of the last week in the Caribbean, reporting another story I can’t quite talk about yet. I’ve been traveling a lot since April, with two trips...
Welcome to my newsletter
Hi, it’s Lizzie. That’s me in the ruins of an old hacienda deep in the Selva Lacandona, or the Lacandon Jungle, in Chiapas, Mexico, where I recently traveled...
Dispatches from the life and work of Lizzie Wade
Welcome to What's Lizzie Up To? All the news that’s fit to print, and some that’s not, about me, Lizzie Wade. I’m a science writer in Mexico City,...
