Subscriber Writing, September 2022

Here ya go! Here are links to writing by subscribers for the month of July, presented in the order in which I received them. If I’ve missed someone entirely, please let me know and I’ll be sure to include you next month; if I’ve misformatted something, comment and I will fix it on the website. Those of you who formatted your submissions in the way I asked are the real MVPs. Please note that while I tried to remember every email sent to the wrong address, I disavow any responsibility if I missed yours! I always find cool stuff to read in these, so please click around at whatever you might fancy. Try someone whose stuff you haven’t tried before.

Arnold Kling, Score Settling on COVID. 

What if a non-partisan commission handed out grades?

Zack Morris the Elder, How to ask questions so you're not snookered by a hoax.

Some tips to help you figure out if a sensational media story is likely true or false.

Malston Reeves, Tales from Malston Reeves

Weekly tales of a fantastic and horrifying nature.

Infovores, Masks (in memoriam)

How masking radically transformed my understanding of social life.

Amod Lele, Doing what you love when the money won't follow 

A response to Freddie's defence of the advice to “do what you love”: the problem isn't with doing what you love, it's with expecting to make a living off of it. 

Josh off the Press, <PT. VI> Abortion Rights in America: The Trump Effect

With the midterm elections just around the corner, I wrote a series of essays on the abortion debate in America. This is the 6th edition, which is more or less a catchall/summary of my previous five essays on this pivotal issue. 

Joe Mayall, Explaining America's Falling Life Expectancy

America's declining life expectancy, which has been in crisis since 2014, is a consequence of our capitalist system, not just COVID.

Nick Russo, The Kids Are Not Alright

A dispatch from the fringe of Philly's youth violence crisis

Klaus, Introduction to Japanese Mythological Creatures

A brief overview of some popular, scary, and bizarre creatures from Japanese folklore. 

Luke T. Harrington, “I kind of blew up my career to write this book”: an interview with journalist Rina Raphael

I got to interview Rina Raphael about her new book The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care

Chris Boutté, Hasan Piker: How Nepotism Created a Faux Anti-Capitalist

Although using Hasan Piker as a jumping-off point, we take a look at anti-capitalism and socialist values through the lens of moral philosophy.

Brad Neaton, Requiem for the American Dream

The white working class is disintegrating.

Mari, the Happy Wanderer, Every Show Is a Bringer Show

An embarrassing personal story about Mary Kay, a rant against the Pampered Chef, and a brief cameo from Rammstein all help me make the case that we need to resist the intrusion of selling and commerce into our personal relationships.

Hal Johnson, Apprentice Academy: Sorcerers 

A book for kids (or teens) about sorcerers from myth and legend, presented as a handbook from a crooked wizard school; preorderable not everywhere yet, but some places; I'm currently just trying to "raise awareness."

Michelle Jia, Bioloneliness

An personal-critical essay about loneliness, the climate crisis, and different forms of domination.

Ben Henley, Johann Hari, incest erotica, Wikipedia and the social construction of truth

An essay about the dodgy pop psychology writer Johann Hari, his history of plagiarism, fabrication  and writing incest erotica, and what it tells us about the social construction of truth via Wikipedia. 

T. Scott, “Complexity”

The motivations of the abortion foes are not as simple as some pro-choice advocates would like them to be.

Barrett Hathcock, What I can't live without

My version of the New York magazine column, since they won't ever call me.

Khaled, POC? No Thank You!

A deconstruction of Freddie’s race ideology followed by its evaluation using Freddie’s own standard of political seriousness.

First Toil, then the Grave, Pay no attention to that opinion behind the curtain

In journalism, being told that "Person X holds Bad Opinions" without being told the content of those opinions is a red flag.

Christopher J Feola, Is it right to be treated so bad? 

How Web2 abused click-through agreements and broke commerce.

Eitan Levy, How my Baby Saved my Life: with love and terror 

How the terror of her imminent arrival forced me to make dramatic changes for the better. 

Eileen Curtright, Give Up, Get A Tarantula 

An essay about eroding standards, parenting, and spiders.

Nick Ottens, Don't Tell Europeans to Cut Down on Meat

Reducing meat consumption is the easiest thing consumers can do slow climate change and improve animal welfare, but the French and Spanish aren't having it.

Alex Olshonsky, The Divine Union

A tale of letting go of who you once were in Silicon Valley and the bumbling soul struggle to find meaningful work.

Sam Mace, ‘puffer fish dictatorships’

Those who appear strongest are oftentimes weakest.

Jamie Ryan, Mind Games

On Narcissist Dark Magicians and the games you lose by playing.

Rebecca Eydeland, Enter Label: On Becoming Glinda, the good troll in the HEALINGVRSE

On learning the power of virtual support through my personal journey to heal chronic pain.

BJ Campbell, An Illustrated Guide to Plastic Straws

The article explains how plastic recycling efforts in the United States actually increase, instead of decrease, the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the best way people who live in the USA can reduce the oceanic plastics problem is to try and get the Phillipines ordinary garbage collection, and to throw our own plastic into domestic landfills. 

Samantha Hedges, Educating girls in the wake of the sexual liberation 60s

The article describes how the sexual liberation movement of the 60s played out for the Millennial women of the late 1990s/early 2000s, and, consequently, what those women have to teach today's youth.

Yassine Meskhout, Eleven Magic Words

When you’re a public defender, you’re pretty useless — until suddenly, you aren’t.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper, Saying 'Abortion is Healthcare' is Bad for Women

This lame and disingenuous slogan hides what abortion is really about: women taking power away from men.

Connor Collins, Building American Seriousness

America is not a serious country, but it doesn’t have to be this way: Decadence and decline are decisions.

Erin Etheridge, My ethic of life

A friend's question about assisted suicide led me to really mull over how I feel about questions of life and death, which has led to considerations of abortion, the eating of animals, and the death penalty.

Meghan Boilard, The Online Business of Torture

A look at a dark corner of the internet, and a story where Kiwi Farms ended up being the good guys.

edward rathke, Glossolalia.

For fans of Ursula K Le Guin, China Mieville, and Takashi Miike, Glossolalia is a horror fantasy about the worst year of one man's life at the edge of the world.

Karl Straub, John Cage's Soft-Pedal Revolution

I wrote this appreciation of composer John Cage for music fans who mostly know him as the punchline of many tired jokes. 

itsnotmyfault, The home front of the never-ending quest for meaning 

I've got big plans for Halloween

J.M. Elliott, Cut Bait (short fiction)

When a professional woman and her blue-collar boyfriend travel to Iceland, their relationship is tested by his obsession with catching a fish.

Education Realist, The Push for Black Teachers, Minneapolis Style

Conservative Twitter went briefly (and belatedly) berserk because the Minneapolis School District teachers contract agrees to layoff by race, while the rest of the media ignored the news this time round. Why?

Andrew Rosa, Fake Accounts Is A Trap

The case for Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts as metafictional prank.

Dylan Selterman, Social Media Algorithms Are Not Undermining Democracy

Algorithms on platforms like YouTube actively steer people away from extremist content. Scientific research refutes the "rabbit hole radicalization" idea.

Nick Coccoma, Divine Madness: On Religion and Mental Illness

A personal account of my journey with bipolar disorder and religious experiences. 

Kody Cava, NPR Is Not Your Friend

This is an in-depth critique of NPR's news coverage and funding structure from an anti-establishment perspective.