An instant classic
On feuds and dinosaurs
Three writing tips
Hard-won lessons from an almost final manuscript
Rerun: The spell
Hello! It has, once again, been a while. This time my long break has a happy reason behind it: I am ~one month away from being done with my book! Well, you...
The bros are not ok
The gym, or at least my gym, is a bastion of binary gender performance. Without commenting on anyone’s individual workout routines, which are idiosyncratic,...
Black and white, revisited
Two years ago, I wrote about grayscaling my phone as a way of nudging myself to spend less time on it: For me, it’s not exactly that grayscaling makes my...
A book to make you love reading again
I’ve read less this year than any other time in my life. Reading breaks come for us all, eventually—illness, overwork, overcommitment, bad sleep, the abrupt...
My favorite recipe
I’ve gone through a lot of kitchen phases over the last four years. There was the “are you gonna meal plan, or are you gonna die?” phase, the residual...
On (not) watching Bridgerton
This year has been one long setback, as the effects of my January round of COVID have slowly but surely played out. The timeline and symptoms are almost...
Movies for brain fog
In addition to the vagus nerve exercises, the other activity that routinely eases my brain fog is watching movies. At home in soft pants, in the theater...
In which I become a wellness influencer
I recently experienced yet another round of Weird COVID, complete with the brain fog and fatigue I’ve felt after every infection. I was asymptomatic again,...
Anthropology is haunted
When I finished my feature about the Morton Collection in 2021, I needed a long break from writing about what I called “the ghosts in the museum”—the bones...
On medical mysteries
As previously discussed, I’m terrible at anticipating near-future trends. But allow me one cultural prediction at the beginning of this still young year: The...
Against New Year’s resolutions (and how to make one anyway)
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I’m against the idea of New Year’s resolutions. The resolutions so often sold to us are mired in the quicksand of...
An interview with me, and other cozy week content
I hope everyone is settling in for their ideal hibernation week, whatever that looks like for you. In the past, I’ve been very committed to napping as much...
This week in follow-ups
I’m on an early holiday vacation, which would usually mean no newsletter. But I’m trying to get back to something close to my previous weekly schedule, and...
Hello from my new home
I hold two contradictory truths about this newsletter: I love writing it, and I think about changing it constantly. Should it have more a consistent theme?...
The mystery of maize
I live in Mexico so of course I’m obsessed with corn. It’s the foundation of the cuisine and in many ways the culture, and it has been for at least 4,000...
The agonies of transcription
If you asked 100 journalists what their least favorite work task is, I’m positive more than 90 would say transcribing. It’s so tedious, it takes so long1,...
How to create more time
Long ago, when I thought about what the month before my manuscript deadline would be like, I hoped for a peaceful stroll toward the finish line, full of...
Archaeology's ethics are changing
This week I wrote for Science about a debate bubbling up in U.S. archaeology: Is it unethical to publish photos of objects buried with Indigenous ancestors?...