#416: Human Connections

Three poignant stories about humans and the connections they make

Happy Thursday. Last week’s interview with Dashka Slater was a big hit. Thank you for listening and signing up for our discussion of her outstanding article, “The Instagram Account That Shattered A California High School.” We’re meeting on October 29 at 2 pm PT. There are two slots left if you’re interested.

Sign up for our discussion

Now let’s get to this week’s issue. Long-time readers have sometimes told me, “Mark, I love the articles you choose, but why do they have to be so serious all the time?” It’s true: I love reading pieces that are big and take on serious subjects about systems and structures and why things are the way they are.

But this time, let’s turn things around and focus on three regular stories about three regular humans. I think they’re wonderful. You’ll meet a mover in New York City who loves to help people. You’ll meet a man named Dan whose dad is distant. And you’ll meet a big-hearted mom who doesn’t want her daughter to die.

My hope is that at least one of these stories will move you and remind you of the power of human connection. You’re always encouraged to share your thoughts below. Hope you have a good weekend ahead.

Leave a comment

1️⃣ A New York City Mover Who Carries More Than Your Boxes

Just by listening to him, it’s clear that Adonis Williams is a good, generous person. He’s a mover in New York City. Over the last 20 years, he has moved 3,500 people. With each move, Adonis has caught a glimpse of a life in transition.

He says there are happy moves and sad moves. The happy moves involve getting a bigger place, or couples moving in together, or kids going off to college. But then there are the sad moves — with sad stories of divorce, break-ups, and eviction.

Adonis talks with his customers about it all. “You become the bartender or the taxi driver that they need to vent to.”

By Anna Sale • Death, Sex & Money • 33 min • Apple Podcasts • Transcript

Listen to the podcast

2️⃣ Dan

Nineteen years ago, Dan went on a first date with a woman named Nancy. In many ways, it was a typical first date. (Evidence: They went to dinner at a restaurant.) But for at least two reasons, it was not typical:

1. Things actually went well! (Dan and Nancy are married now.)

2. At the end of the meal, a stranger took their picture and kept the photograph.

Now Dan wants the photo back. But who has it? With host Jonathan Goldstein’s help, Dan finds out. But there’s a problem. In order to get the photo, Dan will have to face the last person he wants to.

By Jonathan Goldstein • Heavyweight • 38 min • Apple Podcasts

Listen to the podcast

Ollie, who belongs to loyal reader Kati, is an Article Club Hall of Famer. In addition to taking human shoes outside, Ollie likes sticking out his tongue. Want your pet to appear here? Nominate them! hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ The Call

In Issue #412, I featured an article about a woman named Jessica Blanchard who volunteers for a hotline whose goal is to prevent drug users from overdosing. After I shared the piece, loyal reader Ben reached out. “Wasn’t that a podcast?” he asked. Indeed it was, and it’s beautiful. Hope you take a listen.

Here’s my blurb about the article. The podcast episode is even better.

Kimber King came close to dying after she overdosed on fentanyl the day after she got out of rehab. She survived because she called Never Use Alone, a hotline and nonprofit that focuses on ending accidental overdose mortality. Its motto is, “No stigma. No judgment. Just love.” This well-written article profiles volunteer Jessica Blanchard, who answered the phone and quickly noticed Kimber was in danger. Her training as a nurse certainly helped, of course. But so did Ms. Blanchard’s intuition and personal experience; her daughter has overdosed 11 times. “When you call,” she said, “my hope is that you’re speaking in print. Nice print, second-grade letters. You’re gonna use, you may move to cursive, you may move to calligraphy. I try to keep you out of the hieroglyphics. I can’t understand that,” she said. The paramedics made it just in time. Kimber calls Ms. Blanchard mama now.

By Mary Harris • This American Life • 61 min • Apple Podcasts • Transcript

Listen to the podcast

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

To our 10 new subscribers — including Maryanne, Jess, Jenny, Brooke, Elaine, Claudia, and Natalia — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Ramona! Ruby! Rhett!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Jason, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

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

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Rénee and Maryanne just did (thank you!). I’m biased, but I personally think it’s worth it, if you can afford it. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value Article Club. Plus you’ll gain access to our monthly discussions, our monthly quiet reading hours, and my personal audio letters from me to you. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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.

How come I get to interview these great writers?

A very legitimate question! — plus 3 lessons I’ve learned along the way

Dear VIPs,

Thank you for being paid subscribers and for supporting me and Article Club.

Today I have for you an audio letter, where I share some of my thoughts on interviewing. As in: How come I get to talk to these great writers? and What have I learned in the process?

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while. But my thoughts came together today as I was editing this month’s interview with Dashka Slater about her article, “The Instagram Account that Shattered a California High School.”

Arlo, Article Club’s mascot, is a very eager listener.

In this audio letter, I talk about three things I’ve learned over the course of interviewing 41 authors (along with the support of Sarai, Melinda, Anne, and Lauri, who have collaborated with me). They are:

1. Doing my homework

2. Listening

3. Being myself

These steps sound commonsensical, but at least for me, they’re easier said than done. I hope you’ll listen to my musings.

Also: I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Have a great week, and happy reading,

Mark

PS - Want to listen to these audio letters (and all other AC-related audio) on your phone? Click “listen on” to the right of the player above, then click “email link” to receive the private, subscriber-only RSS feed. Go to your phone, find the email from Substack, and click “add to podcast app.” Voila!

#415: “How do you take in the harm that you‘ve caused?”

An interview with Dashka Slater, author of “The Instagram Account that Shattered a California High School”

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

Today’s issue is dedicated to an interview with Dashka Slater, the author of “The Instagram Account that Shattered a California High School,” October’s article of the month.

Originally published in The New York Times Magazine in August, the piece explores a racist social media account created at a Bay Area high school in 2017 and its repercussions on young people and their community. The piece also raises the question: What does accountability really mean?

If you haven’t read it yet, I urge you to do so — and to join our discussion on October 29, if you’re moved.

Join our discussion

I got a chance to interview Ms. Slater a few weeks back with fellow Article Clubber Melinda. It was an honor. I won’t give everything away, because it’s better to listen, but we discussed a number of topics, including:

• how edgy humor is a premium in boy culture, how it causes harm, and how masculinity is contested terrority right now

• how even in progressive places like the Bay Area, we think of accountability as punishment — that justice is balancing out the pain someone else has caused

• how kids have a strong sense of justice, and how they want to do the right thing, but that they need guidance from their teachers and parents

• how we as adults often don’t know what we’re doing, and how our own emotions get in the way of supporting our children

Most of all, it became abundantly clear in our conversation that Ms. Slater is a thoughtful and compassionate reporter and writer. She sees nuance and complexity. She doesn’t throw anyone under the bus. She gets to know people and writes with a ton of empathy. But this is not to say that Ms. Slater is wishy-washy or doesn’t have strong feelings about what happened at Albany High School. She does. She just understands that healing does not come via punishment.

One of the hardest things for anybody, any human, is to take a breath and say, I don’t know. And I think that was really lacking in Albany and in most places in a time of crisis, because everybody’s having emotions and they want immediate action. And as a result, there was a lot of action that wasn‘t very well informed with all the dynamics that it took me five years to reconstruct.

So I always say, the first thing is don‘t rush. Because there‘s a lot that you don‘t know. And the more you talk, the less you‘re listening in general. I think the other piece for adults is to not become the story. We often forget in our relationships with young people that we are not the story, and our job is to be teachers, coaches, mentors. We are supposed to assist.

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

To our 7 new subscribers — including Dave, Janina, Anna, Shoshana, and Kerry — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Lauri! Lori! Larry!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Quan, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

❤️ If you like Article Club, I encourage you to become a paid subscriber. If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, and if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the plunge. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive personal audio letters, invites to events, and other perks and prizes. It costs $5 a month or $36 a year.

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.

#414: The Kids

Are we doing enough to support them?

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

This week’s issue is about young people. I know that “the kids are all right,” but I’m not as sure we adults are doing our proper part right now. For example:

• We’re letting the Internet (and Andrew Tate) raise our boys.
  Interested? Read this week’s lead article, “Boy Problems.”

• We’re afraid to teach our children the truth about our country.
  Interested? Read “War Against the Children.”

• If we don’t have children, we don’t want to hang around our friends who do.
  Interested? Read “Adorable Little Detonators.”

I hope that this week’s articles resonate with you. If they do, I encourage you to share your thoughts and feelings in the comments.

Leave a comment

⭐️ Join us for this month’s discussion of “The Instagram Account That Shattered A California High School” on Sunday, October 29. We’ll meet from 2:00 to 3:30 pm on Zoom. It’d be great to have you. In this excerpt from her book, Accountable, Dashka Slater tells the story of a racist social media account and its repercussions on young people and their community in the Bay Area. The piece also raises the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?

On the fence? Listen to fellow Article Clubber Melinda and I chat about the piece in this podcast episode. Don’t worry, there aren’t major spoilers, plus Melinda is great. Besides, listening might spur you to sign up for the discussion.

All right, have I convinced you? If so, it’s time to sign up! I’m looking forward to seeing you there. (Also, feel free to ask me questions about how it works.)

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ Boy Problems

It’s easy to make fun of Andrew Tate. For example: Why is he always smoking cigars? Why does he wear sunglasses when it’s dark? Does he really need all those cars? For a long time, I’ve tried to dismiss his influence. But the truth is, most 12-year-old boys know who he is. And sadly, many believe what he says — that to be a real man, you have to be strong and rich. Otherwise, you won’t have any chance with women.

Mr. Tate goes further: If you’re not happy, that’s the fault of women. The problem is feminism, plus all those weak guys who claim they want equality, when really they’re gay or emasculated. If you’re a boy and you have feelings, expunge them. If you’re a boy and you’re lonely or struggling, you’ve got to toughen up. The best way to do that is to treat girls badly and to bully other boys.

This guy is reprehensible to me. But I can’t pretend he’s not powerful. He knows the Internet is king, that we have abdicated our role as adults in raising our children.

By Eamon Whalen • Mother Jones • 17 min

Read the article

2️⃣ War Against The Children

This special report about the history of our country’s Native American boarding school system is both difficult and necessary to read. I didn’t learn about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in my AP U.S. History class. Did you? For more than 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were sent to more than 523 institutions, with assimilation as their guiding principle. “Don’t try to tell me this wasn’t genocide,” said Ben Sherman, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. “They went after our language, our culture, our family ties, our land. They succeeded on almost every level.” Now that we have a better accounting of what happened, shouldn’t that mean our young people should learn the truth? If you live in one of the 16 states that have banned Critical Race Theory, unfortunately, the answer is no.

By Zach Levitt, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Simon Romero and Tim Wallace • The New York Times • 18 mins

Read the article

Here’s loyal reader Clem proudly sporting an old-school, limited-edition T-shirt from back in the day when Article Club was called The Highlighter. Makes me think it’s time for some new merch! (Check out the old store.)

3️⃣ Adorable Little Detonators

Do you have kids? If so, did you notice that some of your closest friends ghosted you a few months right after your baby’s birth?

Or let’s say you don’t have kids. Are your friends with kids never free? Even if they are, all they do is bloviate about their baby, right?

This playful but well-researched article explains why friendships between parents and non-parents go south. The biggest reason? It’s the kids. A 2017 study in the journal Demographic Research concluded that friendships decline in both quantity and quality up until when kids turn 3 years old. But there’s good news: If you stick through it and wait a while, things get easier, kids grow up, and you can salvage your friendships — that is, as long as your friends are still talking to you.

By Allison P. Davis • The Cut • 26 mins

Read the article

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

To our 30 new subscribers — including Ruby, Susan, Lara, Saina, Liza, Lorena, Alva, Ines, Lena, Marta, Adriana, Susana, Ana, Carmen, Paula, Raquel, Bryan, Victoria, Fernando, Rosie, and Nena — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Quinn! Quinton! Quenton!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Hal, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

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

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Maria (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value Article Club. Plus you’ll gain access to our monthly discussions, our monthly quiet reading hours, and my personal audio letters from me to you. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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.

#413: The Instagram Account that Shattered a High School

Join us this month to discuss Dashka Slater’s outstanding article on accountability

Happy almost-October, loyal readers. I’m excited to announce that this month, we’ll be reading and discussing “The Instagram Account that Shattered a California High School” by Dashka Slater. It’s a big one, and important, especially if you’re a teenager, educator, or parent. Originally published in The New York Times Magazine in August, the article tells the story of a racist social media account and its repercussions on young people and their community in the Bay Area. The piece also raises the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?

Ms. Slater writes:

The questions that the account raised — about fighting bigotry, about the impacts of social media and about the best way to respond when young people in your community fail so utterly to live up to the values you thought you shared — had no simple answer. Whatever you believed about Albany, about America, about teenagers, racism, sexism, social media, punishment and the public discourse on each of these topics, the story of the Instagram account could be marshaled as evidence. It was the incident that explained everything and yet also the incident that couldn’t be explained.

I instantly connected with the article, not only because I’m an educator in the Bay Area, but also because of Ms. Slater’s riveting prose. Her reporting is spot on; she does an excellent job eliciting the perspectives of the boy who created the account, his friends who laughed and egged him on, the girls who he harmed, the school administrators who had no clue, and the parents who called for blood. I especially appreciated the care and nuance Ms. Slater brought to this piece.

The article also exposes the limitations of our current notions of justice and accountability. We know old-school punishment doesn’t work. It doesn’t heal. It doesn’t teach. But it’s comfortable. It makes us feel we’ve done something to address the harm. But in this piece, Ms. Slater reminds us that the harm is still there, for everyone involved, including the perpetrator.

Read the article

I’d love it if you read the article and joined our discussion on October 29. If you’re interested, this is how things will go:

• This week, we’ll read the article

• Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group and share our first impressions

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

• On Sunday, October 29, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom

Sign up for the discussion on Oct. 29

This article is adapted from Ms. Slater’s outstanding new book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. We’ll raffle off a copy at our discussion. In case you don’t win, here’s where you can get your copy.

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.

Also exciting, as with all Article Club monthly selections, the author will be participating in the festivities, recording a podcast episode for your listening pleasure. Ms. Slater is an award-winning journalist who has written for The New York Times Magazine and Mother Jones. She is also the author of eleven books of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. Her New York Times bestselling true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, won the 2018 Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association and the 2018 Beatty Award from the California Library Association. Ms. Slater has spent most of her adult life in Oakland, California.

So what do you think? Interested in reading the article and joining our discussion this month? Hope so! If you’re still a maybe, here are a few questions for you. If you’re a yes to one or more of them, you‘re a great candidate.

• Do you care about teenagers? Are you worried about their use of social media?

• Are you an educator who believes in restorative justice but struggles with how best to hold young people accountable for their actions?

• Are you a parent who is doing their best but feeling overwhelmed?

Sign up for the discussion on Oct. 29

This article is adapted from Ms. Slater’s outstanding new book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. We’ll raffle off a copy at our discussion. In case you don’t win, here’s where you can get your copy.

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

To our 6 new subscribers — including Angel, Paula, Emily, Marcela, Paula, and Hyeryun — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Matthew! Matty! Matt!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Reyna, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

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

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Brian and Brenda (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, or if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

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.

#412: Look Closely, Or You’ll Miss It

Four great articles on the practice of noticing

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

I’ve been told before that I’m a pretty good listener and that I can read people well. Those qualities have helped me in my roles as a teacher and supporter of teachers. But when it comes to noticing the physical environment, I’ve always been at a loss. That “new tree” I recently spotted in the neighborhood? It’s always been there. The name of the bird you saw down by the water’s edge? I couldn’t tell you it was an egret, because I didn’t notice it.

This week’s selections are all about noticing. As is typical for this newsletter, the articles range a variety of topics — from birdwatching to noticing when someone is overdosing on fentanyl, from listening to a kid who has lost a loved one, to being present with yourself when you’ve lost yours. This week’s pieces helped me pause and got me out of my head a little bit. I hope they’re helpful to you, too.

➡️ In your life right now, what are you noticing?

Leave a comment

1️⃣ Look Closely, Or You’ll Miss It

What’s the connection between the Great Migration and the migration of birds? Poet Natalie Rose Richardson explores that question with the help of an ornithologist, an historian, and a journey to the Middleton Plantation in South Carolina. “Until last summer I rarely considered birdwatching at all,” Ms. Richardson writes, calling herself a “city person” who lived near Chicago’s “L” train and who rarely sought out nature. She tries birdwatching one day, in Millennium Park, and finds herself unable to focus. But after researching her family’s migration from Louisiana to Arkansas to Indiana to Illinois, Ms. Richardson begins to connect the dots. She reads an essay by Leslie Jamison about the act of looking. Love, she reads, is focused attention. To love her family, Ms. Richardson reflects, is to center her attention on them, from their origin to their destination, as birdwatching "is “the act of centering the bird in one’s attention.”

By Natalie Rose Richardson • Emergence Magazine • 21 mins

Read the article

2️⃣ The Woman On The Line

Kimber King came close to dying after she overdosed on fentanyl the day after she got out of rehab. She survived because she called Never Use Alone, a hotline and nonprofit that focuses on ending accidental overdose mortality. Its motto is, “No stigma. No judgment. Just love.” This well-written article profiles volunteer Jessica Blanchard, who answered the phone and quickly noticed Kimber was in danger. Her training as a nurse certainly helped, of course. But so did Ms. Blanchard’s intuition and personal experience; her daughter has overdosed 11 times. “When you call,” she said, “my hope is that you’re speaking in print. Nice print, second-grade letters. You’re gonna use, you may move to cursive, you may move to calligraphy. I try to keep you out of the hieroglyphics. I can’t understand that,” she said. The paramedics made it just in time. Kimber calls Ms. Blanchard mama now.

By Aymann Ismail and Mary Harris • Slate • 13 mins

Read the article

Gus, who belongs to loyal reader Rebecca, enjoys being chased around the house and sending intimate moments with his bunny stuffy. He believes that all laps should be available 24/7, that cat toys require human operators, and that consoling head-butts will cure both yelling and uproarious laughter. Nominate your pet to appear here! hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Notes From Grief Camp

At Camp Erin outside Ontario, you’ll see kids participating in typical summer camp activities: singing songs, climbing the high ropes, jumping in the lake, and roasting s’mores around the campfire. But you’ll also see them talking about their feelings, engaging in sessions to process their grief. At Camp Erin, every camper has experienced the death of a loved one. Trained volunteers and psychotherapists understand that especially for children, grief isn’t always a vast, debilitating ocean. It’s sometimes more like a puddle — something you can jump in and out of. Kids can be devastated one moment, joyful the next. One key tenet is to keep the conversation going. Ultimately, the goal is to meet the kids where they are, to notice.

By Mitchell Consky • The Walrus • 15 mins

Read the article

➡️ If you’re interested in learning more about the work of bereavement camps, I recommend you take a look at Camp Kita, open to children who are survivors of a loved one’s suicide. My friend (and loyal reader) Steven serves on the board.

4️⃣ Decomposition

This is a beautiful piece that you might not want to read because it’s about death. But if you’re in the mood, you’ll be rewarded. Here are Sally Mann’s words:

My father knocked on my door at 6:00 a.m. the next morning to tell me she’d stopped breathing. I went downstairs in my pajamas. The hospital bed was in the living room, near windows that opened out into the backyard. Mom’s head was cocked to the side, her mouth slightly open, eyes closed. The part of her chest above the white V-neck T-shirt she was wearing had a yellow ochre tinge and was, for the first time in sixty-three years, not rising or falling. I touched it. It was still warm.

The others — my sister, my brother, his partner, my husband, and our 16-month-old son — emerged from their respective corners of the house, hugged, cried, laughed, touched Mom’s body, poured cereal. I called the hospice team. By the time the nurse arrived, a cool early-April light had begun to shine into the living room. The nurse herself was a peachy pink, both in color and in demeanor. She pronounced Mom dead at 7:25 a.m. She wished us well and told us to call the mortuary to come collect the body when we were ready to part with it, “no rush.” I appreciated her saying that: It was a rather cozy body to have in the house, even if Mom was no longer in it.

By Sally Mann • Hippocampus • 13 mins

Read the article

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

To our 8 new subscribers — including Mary, Joanna, Rish, Riffi, Beth, Caitlin, and Karen — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Lorenzo! Lauren! Leo!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Quince, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

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

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Molly and Karen (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, or if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

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.

#411: “The World Belongs to the Young”

An interview with Daniel Duane, author of “A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots, and My Mother‘s Berkeley Backyard”

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

Today’s issue is dedicated to an interview with Daniel Duane, the author of “A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots, and My Mother's Berkeley Backyard,” September’s article of the month.

Originally published in The New York Times Magazine in May, the piece explores the housing crisis in the Bay Area and the fears that emerge alongside the inevitability of change. If you haven’t read it yet, I urge you to do so — and join our discussion on September 24, if you’re moved.

Join our discussion

I got a chance to interview Mr. Duane a few weeks back, and it was an honor. I won’t give everything away, because it’s better to listen, but we discussed a number of topics, including:

• his fond memories of growing up in Berkeley

• his relationship with his mom, who was a radical activist in the 1960s, but who now feels scared about the changes coming to her neighborhood

• how the NIMBY / YIMBY debate could benefit from some compassion and nuance

Most of all, it became abundantly clear in our conversation that Mr. Duane is nostalgic but also does not find nostalgia useful. After all, we need more housing, he argues, even if that means having to make sacrifices for the common good. Sometimes, that sacrifice means realizing our time has come, that the world belongs to the young, that it’s time to let go.

At one point, when I was asking myself, Well, what is this story really about for me? I had sort of a moment of thinking about it as like, It‘s about the fact that the world belongs to the young, and it hurts when you find out that you’re no longer one of them. And that moment comes for everyone.

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

To our 10 new subscribers — including Sonia, Abigail, and Charles — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Kristen! Kristin! Krystyn!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Paul, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

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

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Opal (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, and if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

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.

#410: The Fat Girl Allegory

Four great articles about the body + an invitation to join our discussion this month

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

This week’s issue includes four great pieces exploring issues that involve the body. I’m excited for you to read the lead article, “The Fat Girl Allegory,” in which writer Andriana Mendoza recounts her coming-of-age as a fat queer Latinx woman. The prose is fresh and electrifying. Also thought provoking (albeit in an entirely different way) is the second article, which explains why nearsightedness has skyrocketed over the past half century, why it’s scary, and what can be done about the problem.

If those topics don’t interest you, scroll down past the pet photo, and you’ll find a pair of well-written (and intense) articles featuring the experiences of girls raising their children after the Dobbs decision made abortion illegal where they live.

This issue may hit hard. As always, I’d love to hear what you think. Leave a comment below, or if that’s too public for you, hit reply or email me. Thank you very much for trusting me to bring articles to you.

Leave a comment

⭐️ This month’s discussion: Are you concerned about the price of housing in your community? If so, I warmly invite you to this month’s discussion on Sept. 24, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT on Zoom. We’re going to be reading, annotating, and exploring “A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots, and My Mother’s Berkeley Backyard,” by Daniel Duane. It’s a great article about the state of housing in the Bay Area, the fear of change, the power of nostalgia, and the writer’s relationship with his mother.

I’d be delighted if you joined our discussion. All you need to do is sign up below. If it’s your first time, don’t be shy. I’m certain you’ll find other Article Clubbers kind, thoughtful, and inviting. Plus feel free to ask me questions so you feel comfortable.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ The Fat Girl Allegory

Andriana Mendoza — who grew up in Hayward, California — is a writer to watch. Let me get out of the way and get right to some of her words:

I’m ten and sad and fat and conditioned straight out the womb to base my entire value on what fourth grade kids thought of me. And I would’ve bought the kind words if soccer boys were nicer to me in school, if I had a recess boyfriend who sucked on my lips behind the pine tree. I looked too much like Mike Wazowski then; I had that body type: little titties, fat belly, my ass the ghost of almost something. In my fat origin story, I say I was born destined for frog bod, but really it all began with an equal mix of poor people problems and golden arches.

And you really shouldn’t be mean to fat kids because sometimes fat kid moms have two jobs and no mans and think $5 Family Combos sound a lot better than lugging exhausted limbs into tan kitchens to whip up something “balanced.” We ate well, went to sleep with our tummies full, money left over for gas the next day. It was fine really, you live and you learn, look at life like old bread (just pick off the fuzzy bits and keep eating). So I became big and I stayed big, my consistently dainty mother glowing like a woodland goddess next to me, silver-toothed classmates snickering on about Candy’s hot mom.

By Andriana Mendoza • The Audacity • 21 mins

Read the article

2️⃣ The World Is Going Blind. Taiwan Has The Cure.

Growing up, I prided myself on my impeccable eyesight, as if I had anything to do with my 20/20 vision. Then in college, my eyes changed. Like billions of people across the globe, I developed nearsightedness (myopia, if you’re feeling fancy). Turns out, it wasn’t just me who found their vision got fuzzy. Over the last 50 years, myopia has become a worldwide epidemic. Up to 90 precent of Chinese teenagers and 96 percent of Korean teenagers have nearsightedness. By 2050, more than half of the world population will need glasses or contacts. Many people will go blind. The culprit? It’s not what you might think. It’s not watching TV too close. It’s not looking at your phone too much. The cause is surprising; the cure makes sense. Taiwan is already doing it. Will the United States follow its lead?

By Amit Kawala • Wired • 17 mins

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Arlo, who belongs to Peter and me, is not only the newsletter’s mascot. He is a real dog with real feelings. The feeling depicted in this photo: a deep longing for chicken treats. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ She Wasn’t Able to Get an Abortion

This one is hard to read. It’s even hard to type this introduction. Ashley (not her real name) lives in Clarksdale, Mississippi. She was raped by a stranger in the yard outside her home. She wasn’t able to get an abortion because the closest provider is located in Chicago, a nine-hour drive away. Besides, her mother would have to take off work, pay for gas, and find a place to stay for a couple nights. “I don’t have the funds for all this,” she said. Now Ashley is a mother. She’s 13 years old and just started seventh grade. Yes, this is a disturbing article. But writer Charlotte Alter is careful to tell Ashley’s story with empathy. Ms. Alter also offers context of the Mississippi Delta, explains the impact of Dobbs, excoriates the local police department, and profiles the doctors who provide care. Ashley mom says, “This situation hurts the most because it was an innocent child doing what children do, playing outside, and it was my child. It still hurts, and is going to always hurt.”

By Charlotte Alter • Time Magazine • 14 mins

Read the article

4️⃣ Teen Parents, Two Years Later

Don’t worry: This story is more hopeful than the last. Brooke met Billy at a skate park two years ago in Corpus Christi, Texas. They were both 17 years old. A few months later, Brooke discovered she was pregnant. No way did Brooke feel ready to have a kid, but Texas banned abortions, and the closest clinic was a 13-hour drive away. She gave birth to twin daughters. This article tells the story of how the High family is making things work, day by day. First the positive: They got a place in Tampa, Florida. Billy is a mechanic for the Air Force. The twins take swim lessons and love their bedtime stories. Now the challenges: They fight a lot. Billy likes to play video games and go skating. Sometimes he sits in his car, thinking of leaving Brooke. But they’re in couple’s counseling, still in it, at 19 years old. They’re trying to make things work, for Kendall and Olivia, for their kids.

By Caroline Kitchener • Washington Post • 23 mins

Read the article

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

To our 12 new subscribers – including Melanie, Ruby, Siobhan, Shirley, Alessandra, Eli, Sam, Mary, and Amnic — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Jay! Jane! Janie!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Orion, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like 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 (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, and if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

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.

#409: Yes to Housing! (But not in my backyard.)

Let’s discuss “A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots, and My Mother’s Berkeley Backyard, by Daniel Duane”

Happy almost-September, loyal readers. I’m happy to announce that this month, we’ll be reading and discussing “A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots, and My Mother’s Berkeley Backyard” by Daniel Duane. Originally published in The New York Times Magazine back in May, the article is a poignant, nuanced look at the housing crisis in the Bay Area. I hope you’ll join us.

I grew up in the Bay Area, and went to college in Berkeley, so I know firsthand (as do many of you) that white progressives here really want social justice — as long as it doesn’t inconvenience us and everything remains the same.

In this piece, Mr. Duane recounts his idyllic childhood growing up in Berkeley in the 1970s, when fighting for a better world meant preserving People’s Park and protecting natural resources against capitalist intruders. But times have changed, Mr. Duane argues, and his mother, who still lives in his childhood home, has not. “Where are all the birds supposed to go?” she asks, when her younger neighbors call for new housing. “Are we just going to turn everything into Manhattan?”

Mr. Duane writes:

It was hard not to wonder if we all reach a point in our lives at which personal convenience and a fear of change become imperceptibly commingled with our sense of the common good.

What I like most about this piece is how Mr. Duane is able to criticize his mother and other Berkeley NIMBYs, but at the same time explain their perspective and practice empathy for their lived experiences. But there’s a difference between having empathy and allowing privileged people to maintain their comfort at the expense of others.

Do you need to be from the Bay Area to appreciate this article? No, not at all. The housing crisis is everywhere. Also, there’s so much more to this piece — nostalgia, fear of change, and the acknowledgment that we’re all getting older.

Read the article

I’d love it if you read the article and joined our discussion on September 24. If you’re interested, this is how things will go:

• This week, we’ll read the article

• Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group and share our first impressions

• The following week, we’ll hear from Mr. Duane in a podcast interview

• On Sunday, September 24, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom

Sign up for the discussion on Sept. 24

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.

Also exciting, as with all Article Club monthly selections, the author will be participating in the festivities, recording a podcast episode for your listening pleasure. The author of two novels and four books of non-fiction, Mr. Duane has written journalism about everything from politics and food to rock climbing and social justice, and for publications ranging from The New York Times Magazine to Wired, GQ, Esquire, and Outside. Mr. Duane won a 2012 National Magazine Award for an article about cooking with Chef Thomas Keller and has twice been a finalist for a James Beard Award. Duane has taught writing for the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference and the MFA program at San Francisco State University. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the writer Elizabeth Weil, and their two daughters.

So what do you think? Interested in reading the article and joining our discussion this month? If you’re still a maybe, here are a few questions for you. If you’re a yes to one or more of them, you‘re a great candidate.

• Are you paying too much for your housing, in a way that’s not sustainable?

• Are you concerned about the state of housing in your community?

• Do you feel nostalgic about your childhood home and neighborhood?

• Do you want there to be more justice but are sometimes fearful of change?

• Do you like reading and hanging out with other kind, thoughtful people?

Sign up for the discussion on Sept. 24

Longtime newsletter enthusiast Charli, who belongs to loyal reader Eva, doesn’t like change and will always refer to Article Club as The Highlighter. Nominate your pet to appear here! hltr.co/pets

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

To our 7 new subscribers – including Mike, Prakash, Caitlin, Alison, Peggy, and Kimberly — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Irene! Isodore! Ilene!), you’re pretty great, too. 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:

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share The Highlighter Article Club

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Matt (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. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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.

#408: Back to School

Racial (de)tracking, looping, boys, and chronic absenteeism

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

Just like that, we’re back to school. Where did the summer go? Oh, we’re still in it, you say? Right — that’s because school begins early now, at least out here in California, where students in Oakland returned on Aug. 7.

I’m going to tell you a secret: This is my 26th year in education. Now here’s another secret: This is the most excited and hopeful I’ve been in a long time. I’m still trying to figure out why I feel this way, but in the meantime, I’m not going to fight this feeling.

This week’s issue is dedicated to the start of the new school year. As usual, I’ve selected thought-provoking articles that explore a variety of issues. Here’s what’s down below:

• a school district’s effort to achieve racial equity by detracking its classes

• an “easy” reform that could improve academic achievement

• a call to action for us to focus on the struggles of boys

• the stubborn problems of student absenteeism and teacher shortages

Hope you enjoy this week’s articles, and have a great weekend.

✏️ If you’re an educator, student, or parent: How was your first day of school?

Leave a comment

1️⃣ Tracking Racial Equity

When David Glasner became the superintendent of Shaker Heights Schools in the suburbs of Cleveland in 2019, he thought he had arrived in a progressive place. After all, this was Shaker Heights — the community that had famously integrated its neighborhoods back in the 1950s, when the rest of America wanted the opposite.

But after visiting the district’s schools, Dr. Glasner soon realized that behind that noble facade stood a strong system of academic tracking. Enrichment classes available only to elite students in elementary school led to honors classes in middle school, then Advanced Placement classes in high school. It didn’t take Dr. Glasner’s doctorate to deduce that white students dominated those spaces.

What he did next was both bold and controversial. During the pandemic, without consulting families or engaging teachers, Dr. Glasner integrated courses at the early grades to dismantle the racist tracking system and to ensure that Black students would receive equitable educational opportunities.

Then all hell broke loose.

By Laura Meckler • The Washington Post • 13 mins

Read the article

2️⃣ An Old, Easy Way to Improve Public Education

As the last article demonstrated, detracking is not the easiest, smoothest way to improve public education. Why not try something simpler? asks Emmy-winning education journalist John Merrow in this concise essay. His answer: looping, or lengthening the time teachers have with their students.

Dr. Merrow writes:

The notion of finding a new dentist or physician each year for every child seems absurd. We want children to know their doctors and to feel comfortable with them. It’s important for physicians to know their patients as they grow. Yet for many of these same children, their schools assign them to a new teacher and require they learn a new set of classroom routines and adult expectations every year.

The logic makes sense. So does my lived experience; I taught three cohorts of students from ninth grade until they graduated. My memory says it was wonderful (overall, of course — maybe not every day). Furthermore, Dr. Merrow cites a recent study in Tennessee that found that looping improved academic achievement, especially among boys of color, and decreased chronic absences and suspension rates. What’s not to love?

By John Merrow • The Merrow Report • 5 mins

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Judy, who belongs to VIP Joel and loyal reader Christsna, is kind and has a lot of energy. Want your pet to appear here? Nominate them here: hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ What To Do With Boys

We already know the statistics: boys are struggling. For example, they perform worse (especially in English) than girls. They go to college less often. They get in trouble more. If boys underperform girls, shouldn’t we do something about it? Of course we should, argues Richard Reeves in this succinct essay. He even has concrete ideas that make sense. So what’s the problem? Unfortunately, in this piece, Dr. Reeves does not address why policy makers and educators bristle at instituting reforms that would benefit boys. I have my hunches. If you have a hunch, I’d love to hear.

By Richard Reeves • No Mercy/No Malice • 7 mins

Read the article

4️⃣ Where are the teachers? Where are the students?

I’m blessed to work at a school that is fully staffed. And I’m blessed that when my colleagues get sick, we have a pool of substitutes eager to teach our students. But I acknowledge that my experience is not the norm. The teacher shortage is significant and is not going away anytime soon. It’s deeply sad and disturbing to me. We have families sending their children to school to follow their dreams, and instead they’re being shuttled to multipurpose rooms to waste their days rotting their brains on their phones. If no teachers are there to teach them, why should students go to school in the first place? The answer? They’re not. Chronic absenteeism persists unabated.

“Millions of Kids Are Missing” • By Bianca Vázquez Toness • AP • 6 mins
”Schools Scramble to Find Teachers” • By Shannon Pettypiece • NBC • 7 mins

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

To our 9 new subscribers — including Dee, Danielle, Molly, Ella, Dashka, and Lance — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Steve! Steven! Stephen!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Jenn, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

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

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Dee (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value Article Club. Plus you’ll gain access to our monthly discussions, our monthly quiet reading hours, and my personal audio letters from me to you. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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.