A pandemic profile
This week Science published my profile of Abigail Echo-Hawk, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and a public health researcher committed to making...
Too many words about Twitter
Once upon a time, I really loved Twitter. I joined in 2009, just after I’d moved to Mexico City with a Fulbright. Facebook, which I had joined in 2004, early...
Writing during a pandemic
This week I’d like to share a series of interviews from Man Repeller about writing during These Times, with Mary H.K. Choi, Shenequa A. Golding, and Vivek...
Why tweet?
I’ve been using my vacation to pull back from and reevaluate my relationship to various digital tools and online platforms. That’s a project that will take...
Out of the office
I’m still on vacation, struggling to figure out what relaxing means when everything I used to do to relax (get cozy at home, cook a new recipe, watch TV, get...
How to thrive during a global pandemic
Throughout these five-going-on-six months of quarantine, my sister Carrie and I have been having long phone conversations about how we’re doing, how we’re...
The return
Hello! I’ve missed writing to you. I’ve finished my Very Big Project, which was—*drum roll*—my first book proposal. I’m not ready to say more about it...
New stories
Hi friends! I’m still working away on my Very Big Project, which I hope to have more to say about soon. (Both what it is and how I’m getting so much of it...
A quick hello
Hello! I’m back, just for a minute. My Forever Quarantine™ life is going well, and I’ve reached a point in my Very Big Project where I need to keep going...
The long haul
Up until now, my strategy for staying sane in quarantine has been to work all the time. I’m a journalist writing for one of the most important scientific...
My new story on pandemics and inequality
This week Science published my feature about how various kinds of inequality affected the course of past pandemics, and how (sometimes) those pandemics...
Nothing better to do
I’ve been thinking about the monks in the desert again. I wrote about this article, about work and life at a Benedictine monastery, in an early issue of this...
A neighborhood in quarantine
We are entering Week 7 of official quarantine here in Mexico City. We’re definitely used to it by now, though that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The peak of the...
In praise of Nailed It!
In the middle of an episode of the fourth season of Nailed It!, host Nicole Byer rolls over the judges’ table, thuds to the floor, and continues rolling...
A non-coronavirus story!
This week I published a feature in Science’s special issue on drought about the rise and fall of Wari, which many archaeologists (though not all!) consider...
Maintenance work, part 2
Late last year I wrote about my frustrations with cooking and other “maintenance work,” in the parlance of Jenny Odell: I started reading How To Do Nothing...
A quarantine (re-)read
I bet it’s really hard to concentrate right now. I’m certainly feeling that, although it’s gotten a little better now that we’ve settled into quarantine life...
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...
