#389: An interview with Lisa Bubert, author of “The Sunset"

There’s still time to join our discussion on Sunday, April 30

Dear Loyal Readers,

I’m happy you’re here. This month at Article Club, we’ve been focusing on “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. If you haven’t read the article yet, I highly encourage you to do so. In the essay, Ms. Bubert discusses her experience working in a nursing home when she was a college student. It’s poignant and outstanding.

Also: I hope you’ll join us to discuss the article on Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT on Zoom. There’s still time to sign up. Article Clubbers are kind and thoughtful and welcoming. Our conversations are always in small, intimate, facilitated groups. Plus there’s a bonus: Ms. Bubert will be joining us!

Sign up for the discussion!

I’m excited to share that I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Bubert a couple days ago about her brilliant essay. We talked about a number of topics, including:

• how we love our grandparents in our society but not our elderly

• how we don’t care about the people who care for the elderly (i.e., Black women)

• how death is the most vulnerable act

• how “there is no act of love greater than to sit with someone as they face their deepest moment of vulnerability”

• how the elderly deserve our dignity, and how “dignity requires witness”

I hope you take a listen and share your thoughts in the comments.

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to the interview. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 8 new subscribers – including Pamela, Jessica, John, Abbie, Madison, Bianca, and Albert – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Dave! Danny! Derek!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Nancy, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Venus and Yolanda (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes.

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#388: American Name

Great articles on names, Black enrollment, and poverty in America

Happy April, loyal readers. Today I have a shorter-than-usual issue for you, on account of sun, sand, and Spring Break in México. Despite my ability to rest in advanced ways, I nonetheless carved out time to read my usual 100-or-so articles in order to find a few outstanding ones to share with you. And I hope you appreciate them. First up is this week’s lead article, “What Counts As An ‘American Name’ In A Changing Nation,” a collection of six mini-profiles that explore how our names affect our stake in the American Dream. If that doesn’t interest you, scroll down past the pet photo, where you’ll find two more great pieces — the first explaining why Black parents are fleeing urban public school districts, and the second explaining why our rich country has long tolerated a high percentage of poor people.

I hope you find at least one article valuable and thought-provoking. If you do, I’d love to hear from you. All you need to do is hit reply or click here.

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: This month we’re discussing “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. It’s about a young woman who works at a nursing home. We may love our grandparents, Ms. Bubert writes, but we as a society certainly do not love our old people. I invite you to join our conversation on Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Bubert will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ American Name

After Asian Americans suffered an increase in hate-inspired violence in 2021, Marian Chia-Ming Liu wrote about her decision to reclaim her Chinese name. Thousands of readers resonated with her story and shared their own experiences of how their names affected their sense of Americanness. A few felt relieved their families had chosen “less foreign” names so they didn’t have to face ignorant and hateful questions like, “Where are you really from?” and “Can I call you something else?” But the majority — like Ekaterina, Ahmed, AikWah, Jaime, Ayako, and Thenedra, featured in this piece — embraced their names “loud and proud” in order to expand what counts as an American name. As Jaime says, “My name should not be what is most convenient for you.” Teachers: You may want to consider using this text next August as you get to know your students at the beginning of the school year.

➡️ Read the article • Washington Post • 12 min

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2️⃣ Losing Black Students

Black students are leaving San Francisco. They’re leaving Oakland, too. And Los Angeles, and Chicago, and many other urban districts across the country. The common explanation for the exodus blames the pandemic in the short term and rising housing prices and lowering birth rates in the long term. But what if the real reason is that the schools aren’t very good? That’s the conclusion of this well-written article, which focuses on why Boston schools have lost 15,000 Black students (nearly half) over the past 20 years. Parents are fed up with the district’s lottery system, high turnover, and slow pace of school improvement. For Black families who have lived in Boston for generations, the trauma of busing remains. “We’re leaving because we’re tired,” said LaTasha Sarpy, who chose to send her kids to charter schools. “My mom was fighting this fight 35 years ago, trying to find the best schools. At some point, enough is enough.”

➡️ Read the article • Boston Globe • 15 min

3️⃣ Why Poverty Persists In America

Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve heard of Matthew Desmond before. He’s the sociologist who wrote the “Capitalism” chapter in The 1619 Project and the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Evicted. Now he’s studying why the United States has essentially the same poverty rate now as it did 50 years ago (12.6 percent then, 10.5 percent now). The reason is not a neoliberal decline in government spending. (It’s more than doubled.) Rather, Prof. Desmond argues, the primary reason is exploitation. In housing, labor, and banking, rich people exploit poor people because they can, under the laws we’ve passed and the systems we’ve built.

For the past half-century, we’ve approached the poverty question by pointing to poor people themselves — posing questions about their work ethic, say, or their welfare benefits — when we should have been focusing on the fire. The question that should serve as a looping incantation, the one we should ask every time we drive past a tent encampment, those tarped American slums smelling of asphalt and bodies, or every time we see someone asleep on the bus, slumped over in work clothes, is simply: Who benefits? Not: Why don’t you find a better job? Or: Why don’t you move? Or: Why don’t you stop taking out payday loans? But: Who is feeding off this?

➡️ Read the article • New York Times • 24 minutes

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 6 new subscribers – including Joy and Gilbert — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Carol! Charles! Chris!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Reggie, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Tyler and Toni (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

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#387: It’s almost April! This month, let’s read and discuss “The Sunset.”

Join us on Sunday, April 30 to discuss Lisa Bubert’s outstanding essay

Happy Thursday and happy almost-April, loyal readers. Today’s my last day at work before my school heads off for Spring Break. I’ll be escaping the Bay Area’s latest atmospheric river ☔️ and relaxing somewhere warm. ☀️ My hope is that you, too, find some time this weekend to rest and read.

I’m very happy to announce that this upcoming month, we’ll be reading and discussing “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. This poignant, well-written essay explores Ms. Bubert’s experience working at a nursing home when she was a college student. If you have or have had a relative living in a nursing home, you’ll relate and connect to this outstanding piece. All of the emotions are there. Most of all, I appreciated Ms. Bubert’s attention to humor and honesty. I hope you’ll read it.

A little bit about the author: Ms. Bubert grew up in Texas and lives in Nashville. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Longreads, Texas Monthly, The Rumpus, and Washington Square Review. Her story, “The Coma,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Ms. Bubert has generously agreed both to record a podcast interview and to join us at our discussion on Sunday, April 30, at 2 pm PT. Hope you’ll consider being there, too. You can find out more information about the article and discussion below.

The Sunset

Young people are scared of old people, which is to say all people are scared of old people, which is to say all people are scared of death.

Because we’re scared of death, our society doesn’t care about old people, unless they’re our grandparents. So when Lisa Bubert chooses to work as an aide in a Texas nursing home as a 19-year-old college student, making $7.25 an hour, her friends are confused. Even before COVID, the annual turnover rate was 60 percent – not surprising, given the understaffing and underfunding. Despite the horrendous working conditions, Ms. Bubert finds purpose and meaning in her work. It helps to think of her Granny K when connecting with residents who feel isolated and lonely. She recognizes that death is a vulnerable act: “There is no act of love greater than to sit with someone as they face their deepest moment of vulnerability.” (13 min)

Read the article

This month, I warmly invite you to read, annotate, and discuss “The Sunset” as part of Article Club.

If you’re interested, this how things will go:

• This week, we’ll read the article

• Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group

• The following week, we’ll hear from Ms. Bubert in a podcast interview

• On Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom. Ms. Bubert plans to join us! ⭐️

Sign up for the discussion

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community. Feel free to reach out with all of your questions.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter Article Club. Hope you liked it. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback. I’d love to hear from you.

To our 17 new subscribers – including Laura, Barbara, Joe, Anna, Ashok, Ray, Peter, Jace, Samikrith, and Bret – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Bert! Betty! Brisa!), you’re pretty great, too. VIPs Sage and Shawnim, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow.

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

❤️ Become a paid subscriber for $3 a month, like Sharon and Shreya (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes, including exclusive audio letters from me to you.

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#386: The Male Gospel

Excellent articles on extreme masculinity, the fake six-pack, and body dysmorphia

There’s a group of seven boys at my school who love to congregate in the bathroom. They don’t use the bathroom in a traditional sense. In other words, they’re not relieving themselves, or washing their faces, or looking at themselves in the mirror. Instead, they’re going in there to hoot and holler. They joke and snicker. They push each other around. They run into the urinals and bounce off the walls.

My colleagues and I wonder why they love the bathroom so much and what exactly is going on in there. I have a theory: It’s their safe space. They’re exploring their masculinity. They’ve got their little Fight Club. In their own way, they’re becoming men.

I haven’t asked the boys if they know about Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer banned from social media and currently detained in Romania for rape and human trafficking. But after reading this week’s fascinating lead article, “Tate-Pilled,” which uncovers Mr. Tate’s widespread popularity among straight cis boys, I wouldn’t be surprised if our students are striving to attain his definition of manhood: smoking cigars, driving Lamborghinis, getting jacked, and belittling women.

Although it’s not my general tendency to feature articles about gross men, this one I recommend for its exploration of toxic masculinity and its development among teenage boys. If you’re an educator or a parent, it’s very much worth your time.

If blatant misogyny isn’t your cup of tea, scroll on down to the pet photo and two well-written pieces about body image, plastic surgery, and body dysmorphia. The first one is about abdominal etching, and the second one is about battling the bathroom mirror. Please enjoy!

1️⃣ The Male Gospel, According To Andrew Tate

No matter which way I turn, I’m bombarded lately with the same message: The boys are not all right. They’re dropping out of school, using drugs, getting arrested. They’re not seeing a future that includes them. They feel stuck. For many teenage boys, the way out is to follow the gospel of Andrew Tate, who blew up huge on TikTok last year before being banned and getting arrested.

Mr. Tate evangelizes that modern society has emasculated men, stripping them of their natural urge to dominate. Centering the voices of girls and queer kids in schools has isolated boys, dissuading them from speaking about their authentic views on dating, sex, and relationships with girls. The answer, Mr. Tate argues, is to hop off that path and instead get strong, get rich, and “become a G.”

Of course I find Mr. Tate abhorrent, but this well-written article by Lisa Miller got me thinking about all the boys out there who our schools don’t serve. If college isn’t speaking to them, and if they’re not great at sports, or haven’t identified a passion, and they’re lost, who are they going to listen to?

➡️ Read the article | The Intelligencer | 24 minutes | Article with highlights

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2️⃣ The Fake Six-Pack

One thing I learned from the lead article is that if you’re serious about becoming a real man, the first step is to get yoked. In addition to massive biceps and powerful pecs, you absolutely need six-pack abs. This means either (a) living in the gym and not eating food, or (b) getting abdominal etching surgery. “That’s what high school boys want,” one plastic surgeon in California said. “That’s what college guys want. That’s what people of all ages want.” The procedure, which costs between $5,000 and $30,000, takes several hours, results in severe pain for more than a week (“it’s like getting punched in your stomach 100 times”), and is irreversible (fat cells don’t come back). Despite the drawbacks, more and more men are flocking to get their abs etched while it’s still (mostly) a secret. After all, the real value comes when women think you’ve achieved your body through hard work and discipline.

➡️ Read the article | GQ | 12 minutes | Article with highlights

3️⃣ On Reflection And Body Dysmorphia

We assume that we know our own bodies. We describe them as temples, cages, a wonderland, the sum of our choices. The body is embedded within our language. Knowing something like the back of your hand means that you know it well. But what happens when you can’t access that information? How do you navigate a world that not only expects you to know what you look like, but to also keep changing parts of yourself to fit a socially manufactured mould?

In this thoughtful personal essay, Angelina Mazza discusses her experience with body dysmorphic disorder, the struggle she faces looking at her body in the mirror, and her decision to have a breast reduction. Ms. Mazza writes, “I tell myself not to expect the surgery to ‘fix’ me or somehow align what I see in the mirror with what really exists. I know better than to hope. Still, some secret part of me wants to believe I am the exception.”

➡️ Read the article | Maisonneuve | 14 minutes

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 5 new subscribers – including Jessica, Paola, and Mark — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Antonio! Anthony! Andy!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Elisabeth, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Nancy and Nick (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#385: “Thin Is Power”

Plus: Article Clubber Melinda shares her thoughts on “HUMAN_FALLBACK”

I went on my first diet when I was 12 after a friend told me I was too chubby to attract the girls at our middle school. (Likely there were other things going on.) Somehow I got my hands on a series of cassette tapes that offered a comprehensive course on the neuropsychology of weight control. It wasn’t a diet; it was a “life program.” Always the meticulous learner, I listened from beginning to end. In addition to the affirming subliminal messages, the course urged calorie restriction and willpower. Starve yourself for long enough, it suggested, and you’ll lose weight. (I didn’t.)

If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter for a while, you know that I’m fascinated by articles about weight loss, body positivity, and fat shaming. For example, here’s a collection of articles I compiled a few years ago. This week’s lead article explores the rise of Ozempic and how the drug is reminding us of the inevitable — that in our society, no matter what we say, it’s better to be thin.

If the topic of anti-fatness doesn’t interest you, scroll on down for two other great pieces. The first recounts the Red Cross and the U.S. military’s racist blood donation policy during World War II. The second is a joyful, thoughtful interview with loyal reader Melinda about her thoughts on “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” this month’s deep dive. (Yes, you should absolutely listen.) Please enjoy!

1️⃣ Life After Food?

We love wellness and body positivity — as long as we’re thin. That’s at the core of this outstanding article about Ozempic, the diabetes drug that fancy people in New York and Los Angeles (and everyone at the Oscars) are taking as an appetite suppressant to get drastically thin. Author Matthew Schneier does a great job peeling back the layers of anti-fatness in our society. He writes:

The whole shaky edifice of wellness rested on the rickety foundations of body acceptance: Everyone was beautiful; it was the standards, not the bodies themselves, that were wrong. Which is true, of course — it just turned out we only sublimated the standards, hid them behind vagaries of looking good, feeling good, and being so much more buoyant without dairy, or gluten, or whatever. How quickly we’ve abandoned our contortions and commitments to acceptance as soon as a silver bullet comes around.

➡️ Read the article (19 min) (if you hit a paywall)

2️⃣ The Red Cross And Jim Crow

More than 1 million African American men and women fought for the United States in World War II. But the American Red Cross did not accept blood from Black donors. In this informative, clearly-written piece, Melba Newsome explains how the U.S. military assumed white soldiers would feel uncomfortable receiving Black blood. Not the case, according to the evidence, but no matter. What also didn’t matter: that Dr. Charles Drew developed the first large-scale blood banks that saved thousands of British soldiers during the war. Protest ensued. After a year of public pressure, the Red Cross in 1942 announced a compromise: It would take Black donors’ blood, but process it separately. Nearly 80 years later, in 2021, the Red Cross apologized, calling the policy a “regrettable decision” that accommodated “cultural norms of the time.” No wonder Black people now account for less than 3 percent of blood donors.

➡️ Read the article (11 min)

3️⃣ Article Clubber Melinda shares her brilliant thoughts on “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston

My favorite part of putting this newsletter together is meeting and getting to know kind, thoughtful people who love to read and discuss the best nonfiction articles on race, education, and culture. Over and over again, I’m floored by how quickly and deeply we all connect.

That was the case again this week, when I asked new Article Clubber Melinda to share her thoughts on this month’s selection, “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston. (If you haven’t read it yet, you should! It’s about artificial intelligence, capitalism, and the stripping away of humanity.)

Melinda is an activist, lawyer, and cat mom living in Washington, D.C. A lover of many genres, from memoir to fantasy novels, she’s normally reading several things at once and hunting for her next read at her favorite local bookstore, Solid State Books.

And also important: She’s got great thoughts on this month’s article! Within 30 seconds of opening the Zoom and saying hi, it was like we were already friends. I encourage you to listen in on our conversation. Here are some topics we talked about:

• how Melinda found The Highlighter Article Club (thank you, Ann Friedman!) and what she likes about it so far

• how “HUMAN_FALLBACK” isn’t your typical article on artificial intelligence

• how the article made us feel extremely uneasy about the future of humanity

• what questions we want to ask author Laura Preston when we meet up

Isn’t Melinda great? I’d love it if you could leave her a comment to welcome her to our Article Club reading community. What did Melinda share that you connected with?

Leave a comment

Also, there’s still time to join our conversation on Sunday, March 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Preston will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Join the discussion!

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 3 new subscribers – including Deborah and Giffe — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Zaretta! Ziba! Zachary!), you’re pretty great. VIP Melinda, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Monica and Marna (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#384: Our Whispering Wombs

Excellent articles on Black women, affirmative action, substance abuse, and kids

Happy Thursday, Loyal Readers. Today’s issue is classic Highlighter: four outstanding articles on race, education, and culture — from a variety of publications. If you’re new here (22 of you this week!), welcome. I hope you find the articles valuable and our reading community kind and thoughtful. Please feel free to reach out!

Today’s lead article, “Our Whispering Wombs,” is so good, I’m fairly certain you’ll see it again in December when I announce the best pieces of the year. Part family history, part ode to Black women, part history of gynecology, and part resistance to racism, Elsa Julien Lora’s essay is beautifully written. You won’t regret reading it.

If you have more time, the other three articles are excellent as well. They explore affirmative action; the meaning of the 14th Amendment; the pain a father feels knowing his daughter suffers from substance abuse, the comfort a dog brings; and the awful effects of COVID on our kids. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: This month we’re discussing “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston. It’s about artificial intelligence, capitalism, and the stripping away of humanity. I invite you to join our conversation on Sunday, March 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Preston will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ Our Whispering Wombs: A Black Family History

Elsa Julien Lora grew up in a home with loving images of her foremothers adorning the walls. There were photographs of her mother and grandmother, daguerreotypes of her great-, great-great-, and great-great-great grandmother. I just want you to know that you can always talk to me, they told her.

This essay traces generations of women in Ms. Lora’s family, beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother Sarah, whose uterus “held the future of the slave economy, and also of our family.” She died at age 35 after raising 10 children. About her great-great-great grandmother Cordelia, Ms. Lora writes, “I don’t know anything about her birth other than that it deepened her father’s pockets.”

Ms. Lora discusses not only her foremothers’ resistance to slavery but also how they navigated the rise of gynecology as a profession. Ms. Lora suspects several women in her family lived with uterine fibroids at a time when doctors practiced on enslaved women without anesthesia. She writes:

The gynecological profession and the institution of slavery had a symbiotic relationship. On the one hand, gynecology was only able to advance as a field as quickly as it did because practitioners were able to experiment on enslaved women’s bodies. On the other, the slave economy depended on enslaved people’s productive labor, which was only made possible by enslaved women’s reproductive labor. Slaveholders relied on the insights and services of gynecologists to keep enslaved women healthy during childbearing years. In the words of historian Jennifer Morgan, “Black women’s bodies are inseparable from the landscape of colonial slavery.”

Ms. Lora tracks the disrespect and dismissal of Black women’s bodies over generations, exploring at length her mother’s experience with fibroids. Doctors often believe Black women don’t feel pain. Doctors often recommend hysterectomies when myomectomies are appropriate. “At your age, what do you need your uterus for, anyway?” they ask. Ms. Lora’s mother resists, getting the operation she desires — the successful removal of 117 fibroids.

Shortly after her 24th birthday, Ms. Lora wakes up with a fullness in her belly. Despite her family history, a nurse suspects it’s a kidney issue. It’s not. “I called my mom as soon as the results came in,” she writes. “ ‘I have fibroids.’ Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes. ‘Well of course you do.’ ” (26 minutes)

➡️ Read the article

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2️⃣ Why Is Affirmative Action In Peril?

The Supreme Court most likely will strike down affirmative action next June. This article explains why. According to journalist and law lecturer Emily Bazelon, it all comes down to understanding Regents v. Bakke, the 1978 decision that banned racial quotas but preserved affirmative action. In order to lure enough justices, lawyer Archibald Cox devised a strategy that centered the benefits of diversity, rather than the responsibility of reparations, as the reason affirmative action should continue. In other words: Let’s forget that the 14th Amendment’s purpose was to give equal rights to Black Americans. In the short term, the tactic worked. The Court sided with Mr. Cox 5-4, and affirmative action has endured despite many challenges, including in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Fisher v. Texas (2016). But now with a much more conservative court, Ms. Bazelon suggests that affirmative action’s “diversity” rationale may be similar to abortion’s “privacy” rationale — way too flimsy to survive. (35 min)

➡️ Read the article

3️⃣ Running With Hank

This piece by Caleb Daniloff is beautifully written, and I urge you to read it — even if you’re not a parent, runner, or pet owner. Content note: substance abuse.

I had taken to writing my daughter’s obituary, revising it week after week. It usually cropped up during a run, as if the movement jarred the sentences loose from the dark place where I hid my fears. But then I’d get stuck. All these sepia-toned memories were of her as a child. I struggled to conjure anything meaningful from the previous 10 years. Where was that impish blond-haired girl who loved to draw and silly-dance to TV theme songs, who didn’t care what people thought?

That kid had been replaced by someone I no longer recognized—a stranger with vacant eyes and sores hidden beneath thick makeup, thin as a coatrack. Addicted to heroin and fentanyl. At 25.

The only thing of Shea’s that I could reach out and touch was her 3-year-old dog, Hank, a 30-pound mutt who was now living with us. I started running with him at the nearby Middlesex Fells Reservation a few times a week after a particularly low point in Shea’s journey. (14 min)

➡️ Read the article

4️⃣ The Other Long Covid

It’s been three years since schools closed due to COVID-19. We are still coming to terms with the pandemic’s drastic and long-lasting effects. This informative Vox explainer both confirms what we already know and offers a clear-headed assessment of the generational trauma that our young people have suffered. The data is stark: For example, 1 million students dropped out or disappeared from school. More than 200,000 children lost a caregiver. Fewer high school graduates will go to college. Mental health is at a crisis. While I’ve read statistics like these in various articles over the years, having them all in one place hit me differently. Also I appreciated author Bryan Walsh’s treatment of “learning loss.” He writes, “Students didn’t suddenly lose what they had already achieved before the pandemic. Rather, they lost the opportunity and the time to build on what they knew.” Even though I’ve mostly stayed away from highlighting COVID-related articles in this newsletter, I found this one succinct and illuminating. (17 min)

➡️ Read the article

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 22 new subscribers – including Daron, Lee, Carol, David, Viola, Ruben, Ronny, Elena, Bob, Isa, Arora, Sharon, Suhith, and Kate — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Yara! Yvette! Yuri!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Katie, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Melinda and Pearl (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

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On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

Magic numbers

We’re close to two big milestones, and I’m excited.

Dear VIPs,

I recorded an audio letter this rainy Saturday to share some good news: We’re close to two big milestones: 1,000 total subscribers and 100 paid subscribers.

In this quick four-minute recording, you’ll also learn about…

• my childhood love: baseball

• my other childhood love: numbers

• what a magic number is

• how close we are to reaching 1,000 free and 100 paid subscribers

• how running an ad in Ann Friedman’s newsletter was a fantastic idea

• how you can help get us over the top

Would love to have you at the discussion! Sign up here.

As always: Thank you for your loyal readership and generous support. Hope you have a restful weekend and great week coming up.

-Mark

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PS: Also, take a look at this good news! Article Club now ranks #19 in the Education Category over at Substack. Maybe Top 10 someday? 😀

#383: It’s March! Let’s read and discuss “HUMAN_FALLBACK.” (It’s about AI.)

Join us on Sunday, March 26 to discuss Laura Preston’s outstanding essay

Are you scared of ChatGPT? Many of my educator friends are. Take your pick:

• It’s the end of high school English!

• It’s the end of the college essay!

• It’s the end of higher education!

Me, I’m not so worried. At least, not in the short term. But if you ask me if I’m afraid of machines taking us over someday, I’d say yes, We’re doomed.

We’re seeing it already: I can’t drive anywhere without my GPS; my students can’t remember anything unless they set a reminder; I don’t know where I’m supposed to be unless I check my Google calendar; my friends are tracking their sleeping and their snoring, everyone’s got their AirPods in.

One big trend is that I no longer know for certain if I’m chatting with a person or a computer. That’s what this month’s Article Club selection is all about. If you’re creeped out about technology, you’ll really be creeped out by “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston. (But in a good way, I promise!)

If you’re intrigued by the question, “What does it mean to be human?” then I urge you to read Ms. Preston’s outstanding essay and join our discussion on Sunday, March 26. There’s more information below!

HUMAN_FALLBACK

Ever felt you were chatting with a bot? It could have been Laura Preston. She’s a 29-year-old graduate student whose job is to help a conversational AI named Brenda lease apartments to people who think they’re talking to a human being. Usually Brenda does fine, but if prospective tenants get too personal, she surrenders, calling for “human fallback.” That’s when Ms. Preston takes over. She has three minutes to craft the perfect reply, or else the humans might get suspicious (and her boss angry). The job (which pays better than teaching, by the way) is nonetheless mind-numbing. “The only way to keep pace with the inbox was to go into a state of focus so intense that at times I felt on the verge of astral projection. I heard nothing and felt nothing, not even the cues of my body.” (26 min)

Read the article

This month, I warmly invite you to read, annotate, and discuss “HUMAN_FALLBACK” as part of Article Club.

If you’re interested, this how things will go:

• This week, we’ll read the article

• Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group

• The following week, we’ll hear what a loyal reader thinks about the piece

• On Sunday, March 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article. Ms. Preston plans to join us! ⭐️

Sign up for the discussion

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community. Feel free to reach out with all of your questions.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter Article Club. Hope you liked it. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback. I’d love to hear from you.

To our 5 new subscribers – including Ann and Ken – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Xavier! Xiomara! Xander!), you’re pretty great, too. VIPs Rachel and Robert, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow.

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

❤️ Become a paid subscriber for $3 a month, like Erin and Phillip (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes, including exclusive audio letters from me to you.

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#382: Grieving California

Excellent articles on climate grief, fat shaming, and veterinarians’ mental health

Except for a one-year stint in Boston and a four-week stint in New York, I’ve lived in California my whole life. I was born here, was raised here, went to college here, and have spent nearly my whole adulthood here. But for some reason, I don’t strongly identify with my state. For example: Please don’t ask me how many times I’ve been to Yosemite, or gone on road trips up or down the coast, or exactly where Big Sur is.

Lately, though, I’ve felt more California pride. Maybe it’s because people are leaving the state and I’m feeling defensive. Or maybe it’s that I’m appreciating recent trips to Santa Cruz and the Sierras. Or maybe it’s that I’m grateful for California’s natural beauty and I’m finally not taking it for granted.

Whatever it is, I’m finding myself reading more articles about the state of my state. One of them is this week’s lead article, “Grieving California,” which reminded me of the ravages of climate change and the human consequences of loss. Especially if you’re from California, I encourage you to read the piece.

If California doesn’t interest you, or if climate-related articles feel too doomsday, scroll on down to take in the pet photo and two other great articles. The first is about the simultaneous trends of body positivity and fat shaming, while the second is about the mental health of veterinarians. Please enjoy!

Here’s VIP Clare, making sure to wear her Highlighter Hoodie while enjoying an after-school skate. If you’re jealous of Clare’s great fortune, attend our next Highlighter Happy Hour, where you too could win the grand prize.

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: It was great to hear from so many of you who said you appreciated listening to last week’s interview with Naomi Gordon-Loebl, author of “Saying Goodbye to My Chest,” this month’s Article Club selection. If the piece moved you, there’s still time to join our discussion this Sunday at 2 pm PT. Would love to have you there, alongside other thoughtful readers.

Sign up for this Sunday’s discussion

1️⃣ Grieving California

A building that burns can be rebuilt. But if fire incinerates a state of mind, can that be put back together? After neighbors move, new homes rise from the ones that burned, and the landscape is marked by the fingerprints of flames – the time before can feel like a past life. It’s the kind of rupture that transcends space and time, shaping our memories, our goals for the future and even our understanding of where we belong. Part of living here now means grappling with apocalyptic scenes and with whether this version of California can still be called home.

You don’t have to be from California to appreciate this beautifully written article, in which Erica Hellerstein explores the trauma people have experienced as a result of the massive wildfires that have plagued the state. Rather than focusing on the despondent, however, Ms. Hellerstein devotes her energy to show what people are doing to understand and process their emotions. “It’s really important to know that climate distress is not a pathology,” says Robin Cooper, the co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, which is developing resources and therapies to help people deal with the psychological impact of climate change.

Similar work is happening in California schools. A recent survey revealed that 3,000 students in Sonoma County are still showing “increased anxiety, stress, depression, behavioral problems, or decreased academic performance as a result of the 2017 Tubbs wildfire.” Educators there have used resources from the Good Grief Network, a 10-step, peer support program to help people process their climate grief.

Most importantly, Ms. Hellerstein emphasizes that you don’t have to be a survivor of a climate catastrophe to feel the calamitous effects of climate change. If you’re feeling dislocated or distressed or disillusioned, you’re not alone. (28 min)

➡️ Read the article

Chuy, who belongs to VIP Lopez, enjoys begging for food, running wild and free, and secretly jumping on beds when no one us looking. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

2️⃣ Fat Shaming Shouldn’t Be Part Of Our ’New Normal’

I went to the doctor this week. We talked about my weight. I said I’m happy with my current relationship with food. He said I should lose a few pounds. The exchange reminded me of this thoughtful essay, written at the height of the pandemic, in which Erika Thorkelson wonders why the rise of body positivity has corresponded with an increase in Instagram advertisements urging us to watch our weight. “Despite gentle shifts toward fat acceptance in the last few years,” Ms. Thorkelson writes, “it’s clear our culture remains obseesed with controlling our bodies.” She adds:

Poor and working-class women, like those in my family, were often encouraged to look to their weight as the source of their problems rather than the larger forces of structural issues like misogyny and capitalism. If you had trouble finding a job or your husband was cheating on you, getting skinny was supposed to be the answer.

Getting skinny is apparently the answer we should be messaging to our kids, too, according to a report released last week by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It seems like we’re saying, “All bodies are beautiful, as long as they’re thin.” (14 min)

➡️ Read the article

3️⃣ Our Business Is Killing

Dr. Andrew Bullis is a veterinarian in a small town in Pennsylvania. He treats cats and dogs and chickens and pigs. He loves his job — despite the long hours, the poor compensation, and the complaints of his clients. But there’s one thing that Dr. Bullis can’t stomach, even though he does it every day: killing. More than any other procedure, vets perform euthanasia, which in most cases is the right decision for the animal. But not always, as Dr. Bullis explains in this heartbreaking story about a dog named Lacey, who crushed her leg in an accident, but who didn’t have to die. “Euthanasia gets to us,” Dr. Bullis writes. “Really gets to us.” This stress has led to significant mental health challenges for veterinarians, who die by suicide at a rate two to three times higher than the general population. (15 min)

➡️ Read the article

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 4 new subscribers – including Brooke and Pearl – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Warren! Wanda! Wilma!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Jim, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Melinda and Pearl (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#381: An interview with Naomi Gordon-Loebl, author of “Saying Goodbye to My Chest”

There’s still time to join our discussion next Sunday, February 26!

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. Great to see so many new subscribers here this week. Welcome to our kind and thoughtful reading community. Hope you like it here.

This month at Article Club, we’ve been focusing on “Saying Goodbye to my Chest,” by Naomi Gordon-Loebl. If you haven’t read the article yet, I encourage you to do so. In the essay, Gordon-Loebl poignantly and vulnerably discusses her upcoming top surgery. It’s outstanding.

Also: I hope you’ll join us to discuss the article on Sunday, February 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT on Zoom. There’s still time to sign up! Article Clubbers are kind and thoughtful and welcoming. Our conversations are always in small, intimate, facilitated groups.

Sign up for the discussion!

I’m excited to share that I had the opportunity to interview Naomi a couple days ago about her brilliant essay. We talked about a number of topics, including:

• how it feels to be on the other side of her top surgery

• how there’s no one monolithic experience of being trans

• how trans people deserve stories of nuance and complexity

• how writing is like going down to the bottom of the ocean and noticing what you’re seeing along the way

• how educators should treat trans kids (and all kids) in the classroom

I hope you take a listen and let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 65 new subscribers – including Faith, Francis, Jessica, Sarah, Mary Lou, Adrienne, Hilary, Jenn, Maria, Kate, Tracy, Marilyn, Paula, Kellie, Abby, Laura, Tim, Dakota, Lauren, Shannon, Erin, Dolores, Colleen, Carly, Nicole, Lorna, Heidi, Paula, Kat, Emma, Kelsey, Kim, Alex, Terri, Hallie, Jodie, Carolyn, Tiffany, Marian, Melinda, and Jillian – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Venus! Vard! Violet!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Mike, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Lorna and Jack (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (The hoodie is next!)

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!