#433: In Flux

Happy Leap Day, loyal readers! Thank you for being here.

As you know, this newsletter focuses on the best articles on race, education, and culture. The past year or two, however, finding pieces on race has become more challenging. (It’s certainly harder than it was in 2020.) I could speculate as to why this is. I could comment on the state of journalism. I could share my gut feelings about what’s happening at publications and the decisions their editorial boards are making. But really, I just have to extend my reach and look for lesser-known journals — journals like Passages North, the annual literary journal sponsored by Northern Michigan University, “an accomplice to LGBTQIA+ communities, Black Lives Matter, and abolitionist movements wherever they may be found.”

I’m excited to announce that this month’s article comes from Passages North. We’ll be reading and discussing “In Flux” by Jonathan Escoffery.

Read the article

“In Flux” is an exquisitely written piece about race, growing up, and belonging. Here’s what I wrote when I first featured the article a couple weeks ago:

“It begins with ‘What are you?’ hollered from the perimeter of your front yard when you’re nine, younger probably. You’ll be asked again throughout junior high and high school, then out in the world. The askers are expectant. They demand immediate gratification. You immediately resent this question.”

This is how Jonathan Escoffery begins “In Flux,” a phenomenal coming-of-age story about identity, belonging, and what it means to be Black. It’s technically a work of fiction, an excerpt from If I Survive You, nominated for the National Book Award. Though not strictly autobiographical, the piece feels true to Mr. Escoffery’s views of his lived experience. Written in second person, it tells the story of an American boy, the son of Jamaican parents, who struggles to affirm his racial identity.

Depending on his context, the main character feels shame because he never fits in. Neighborhood kids want to know why his mom talks funny. When he asks his parents, “Am I Black?” they equivocate. At school his teachers wonder how he learned to speak so well. The Black kids on the playground find him befuddling.

“Somehow you keep falling short,” Mr. Escoffery writes. “How can your Blackness be so tenuous?”

As you may be able to tell from my blurb, “In Flux” contains many layers and nuances. It is not a piece that is easily taken in and summarized. And it will no doubt promote deep discussion. I highly encourage you to read it.

Read the article

In addition to encouraging you to read the article, I would like to invite you to join Article Club this month to discuss “In Flux” on March 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 listen to a podcast interview with Mr. Escoffery

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

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.

So what do you think? Interested in reading the article and joining our discussion? All you need to do is sign up below. Hope to see you there.

Sign up for our discussion on March 24

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

To our 5 new subscribers — including Joseph, Jana, and Elliot — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Wanda! Winter! Willow!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Clay, 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 Jeremiah (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.

Subscribed

📬 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.

#432: Moments of Decision

Hi there, loyal readers. Happy Thursday. Thank you for being here.

If you’re newish to Article Club, you’re in the right place if you’re kind and thoughtful and like to read the best articles on race, education, and culture.

On that note, I think you’ll appreciate this week’s issue. The articles I’ve chosen don’t all share the same theme. But they’re similar in that they’re all about regular men who face a moment of decision. It’d be easy to say that the first man responds with cowardice, the next man with shame, and the last man with agency. But as with most things in life, there are layers. I invite you to explore them, in considering:

• a police officer who freezes during a school shooting

• a soldier who desperately wants to be taken more seriously

• a father who worries about what his son might be missing

✏️ If you’re moved by any of these articles, please share your perspective. Feel free to email me. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

1️⃣ American Cowardice

At first I wasn’t going to select this article. It’s about guns and school shootings, after all, and nobody wants to read articles about guns and school shootings, especially not in this newsletter. But this one — a profile of Scot Peterson, the armed officer who stood by as the Parkland shooting unfolded — is sensitive and nuanced. In addition to telling the story of Mr. Peterson’s trial, the article explores what it means to be a coward, and how we expect heroism from regular people, as long as those regular people are not ourselves. We expect law enforcement to protect us without offering them proper training. We want our schools to be safe without giving them proper funding. And as a society, ever since Columbine and Sandy Hook, no matter how many shootings there have been, we still have done nothing about all the guns. “As a society, as citizens and legislators,” author Jamie Thompson writes, “we are those officers: equipped, well meaning—and paralyzed. Standing around, doing nothing, while children are slaughtered.”

By Jamie Thompson • The Atlantic • 47 min

Read the article

2️⃣ Shooting A Dog

You don’t need to have read George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” to appreciate this thought-provoking essay. While on deployment in Iraq, Hugh Martin and his fellow soldiers come across an injured stray dog and decide to put it out of its misery. A simple decision, right? Not when Iraqi soldiers are standing nearby, eyeing them, ready to laugh at them. In the moment, all at once, Mr. Martin questions his legitimacy, his confidence, his manhood. “People join the military for a multitude of reasons,” he writes, “but I can’t help but think that I, like so many other boys, joined in order to be taken more seriously.” He adds:

Today, we might call this “fragile masculinity.” But I think that’s too pat. Reductive. The phrase fails to account for the ways in which the very human feelings of loneliness, fear, self-doubt, and isolation account for enlistment. Most people don’t want to be laughed at. So many of our actions in Iraq—I naturally say our since one always, in any military unit, moves and thinks as a squad, a platoon, a company, a unit—were driven not by necessity but by wanting to control how both Iraqis and other soldiers perceived us.

By Hugh Martin • The American Scholar • 17 mins

Read the article

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3️⃣ We Are Changed By What We Witness

I’ve read hundreds of essays that tell us to get off our phones and pay attention to life. But most are not written as well as this one by

Christian Simamora

, a dad who wants the best for his son Pax. After noticing that YouTube for Kids was diverting Pax’s attention, Mr. Simamora asks, “What is my responsibility as a father to cultivate the attentional skills of my children?” His answer is deep. Mr. Simamora argues that attention is one of our remaining acts of choice and agency. He asserts that we must teach our children the art of beholding what is beautiful and important. He writes:

Life has beauty and joy to offer, but it requires contact with our attention for us to notice, perceive, and experience them. A poem only blossoms in the light of repeated contemplation. A sunset fading from orange to red to purple to midnight blue only provokes awe if we can take it in and not be dominated by the urge to capture it for later viewing. Reconciliation only happens when you can endure the discomfort of the difficult conversation and keep your attention steady despite strong emotions. A song, a dear friendship, a lover’s touch, a sublime bite of food, a riveting novel, the scents encountered walking through your grandmother’s kitchen — all of life’s treasures require us to pay attention. And when we do, we are enriched.

By Chris Simamora • The Practice of Fatherhood • 7 mins

Read the article

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

To our 13 new subscribers — including Claudia, Loris, Mila, Kaila, Louisa, Betty, Ana, Clark, and Nancy — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Vera! Vira! Violet!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Benson, 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 Nick (thank you). If you like what’s going on here, and if you appreciate the articles and author interviews, 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.

Subscribed

📬 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.

#431: What Are You?

Last week’s issue on tradwife life caused a stir. One loyal reader wrote, “This is patriarchy and nothing’s changed.” Another wrote, “I'm pretty sure I'm a raging feminist, but as I read the articles this week, I wonder if there is something to explore here.” Still another argued that capitalism is the real problem. “The toxic relationship is not inherent to marriage itself or to seeing specific roles in the marital arrangement. Rather, one could argue that the true toxicity is found in the pursuit of self and monetary gain.” As always, thank you for reading and contributing your perspectives.

This week’s issue includes four personal pieces about race and ethnicity. I think you’ll find all of the essays worth your attention. But if you don’t have too much time, the lead article, “In Flux,” is a must-read, in my humble opinion. It’s so good, in fact, I might have to choose it for our article of the month coming up in March.

In addition to “In Flux,” I encourage you to read about:

• how a microaggression leads a woman to ask if she is Black enough

• how a woman hears regret and resilience in her Mexican grandfather’s songs

• how a Filipina woman heals and recovers from being whitewashed

✏️ If you’re moved by any of these articles, please share your perspective. Feel free to email me. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

🎙️ There’s still time to sign up for our discussion this month of “Wider than the Sky,” by Phyllis Beckman. We’re meeting up on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 2 pm PT. There are a few spots left. Ms. Beckman’s essay is poignant and thought provoking — and extremely worthy of deep conversation with other kind, thoughtful people. Interested? All you need to do is sign up below. I’ll send you more details once you do.

Sign up for the discussion on Feb. 25

1️⃣ In Flux

It begins with “What are you?” hollered from the perimeter of your front yard when you’re nine, younger probably. You’ll be asked again throughout junior high and high school, then out in the world. The askers are expectant. They demand immediate gratification. You immediately resent this question.

This is how Jonathan Escoffery begins “In Flux,” a phenomenal coming-of-age story about identity, belonging, and what it means to be Black. It’s technically a work of fiction, an excerpt from If I Survive You, nominated for the National Book Award. Though not strictly autobiographical, the piece feels true to Mr. Escoffery’s lived experience. Written in second person, it tells the story of an American boy, the son of Jamaican parents, who struggles to affirm his racial identity.

Depending on his context, the main character feels shame because he never fits in. Neighborhood kids want to know why his mom talks funny. When he asks his parents, “Am I Black?” they equivocate. At school his teachers wonder how he learned to speak so well. The Black kids on the playground find him befuddling.

“Somehow you keep falling short,” Mr. Escoffery writes. “How can your Blackness be so tenuous?”

By Jonathan Escoffery • Passages North • 38 min

Read the article

2️⃣ Black Enough

After laughing off a microaggression from a white person, Christine Pride regrets her reaction. In this essay, Ms. Pride reflects on the shame she felt, wondering why she still experiences “racial impostor syndrom” and questions “the right way to be Black.” She recounts growing up in suburban Maryland, spending time with mostly white friends, and listening to Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls. Ms. Pride also shares “course correcting” in college: making a conscious decision to have only Black friends and wanting to prove she belonged. Despite coming from a long line of strong Black ancestors, “straight outta Alabama,” Ms. Pride says the struggle continues. She commits to living fully as herself, a Black woman.

I’m just gonna fully, wholly be myself and enjoy life, enjoy my rest, enjoy what I like, and not have to defend or prove it. I can’t let people limit me, white or Black. Instead of putting limitations and definitions on Blackness, which is playing into the hand of white supremacy in creating schisms between us for no real reason, we can all just be who we want and need to be.

By Christine Pride • Cup of Jo • 6 mins

Read the article

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3️⃣ My Grandfather’s Songs

Alondra Aguilar Rangel visits her grandfather, Papá José, every year over Christmas Break. He lives on the outskirts of Morelia, the capital of Michoacán, Mexico. He is a “reserved man,” she writes, with hair “now covered in white and his face in lines.” A working man of the countryside, Papá José prefers to share his feelings in song. He tells the story of the indignities he suffered when he immigrated to California as part of the Bracero program. He regrets leaving his family. He is sad his family has now left him. But Ms. Aguilar Rangel reminds us that in his songs, Papá José uses the verb “aguantar,” to endure. “We are constantly moving,” she writes, “living between different worlds, losing identities and creating new ones.”

By Alondra Aguilar Rangel • The Common • 10 mins • in English & Spanish

Read the article

4️⃣ How Do I Recover From Being Whitewashed?

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1990s, Filipina American

Stephanie Jucar Cooley

wanted to be white. She watched The Brady Bunch, Full House, 90210, and Friends. All the magazines she read had white women on every page. Except forThe Joy Luck Club(not even Filipino) and the “2-second part with the one Asian friend in Clueless,” there were very few depictions of Asian characters in pop culture. In this well-written essay, Ms. Jucar Cooley, now a mother of two, reckons with her own internalized racism, including her family’s fascination with being light-skinned.

I was whitewashed. Maybe I still am. But, unlike the skin whitening creams I was so offended by, I’ve decided there’s nothing to be fixed. Not my skin color, not my former self-loathing as a child, not my former feelings of my racial background, not even the lack of diversity in the books, art and pop culture of my childhood. I’m here today, a proud first-generation Filipino American and this pride is a culmination of everything I experienced and consumed until now.

By Stephanie Jucar Cooley • Unpacking • 9 mins

Read the article

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

To our 11 new subscribers — including Lili, Ashley, Linda, Mari, Katina, Ridaa, Karina, Lelly, Durga, Ramesh, and Oz — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Unique! Una! Uma!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Aaron, 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 (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.

Subscribed

📬 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.

#430: Tradwife Life

Modern life is exhausting. Who has the energy? Two weeks ago, we read articles on the theme of “walking away.” Today’s issue is dedicated to exploring another response to the ills of late-stage capitalism. It’s called tradlife.

Do you know about it? Maybe because of my age and gender and TikTok algorithm, I didn’t. And certainly my first impressions involved some feelings. But part of Article Club’s mission — and why we’ve built this reading community over nine years — is to learn, have empathy, and keep an open mind. After watching too-many-videos and reading what seems like the entire Internet, I’m fascinated by tradlife and the tradwives who promulgate the movement.

No matter if you’re an expert or a beginner, I hope you enjoy this week’s articles on tradwives and their interest in tradlife. You can choose from:

• an overview of the movement

• a personal account of a non-tradwife’s interest in tradlife

• a report on the experiences and perspectives of Black tradwives

• a thoughtful critique of tradlife

If any of the articles gets you to think something new, share your perspective by leaving a comment. I’d be delighted. (If you’re shy, email me.)

Leave a comment

🎙️ I warmly invite you to join our discussion this month of “Wider than the Sky,” by Phyllis Beckman. It’s a beautifully written essay about love and loss. Loyal reader Barry calls it “an absolutely brilliant and shocking and deeply human story.” Loyal reader Knitwish reminds us that “the heart doesn’t harden but must heal.” Please read the article and come talk about it on Feb. 25 with other kind, thoughtful people. All you need to do is sign up below. I’ll send you more details once you do.

Sign up for the discussion on Feb. 25

1️⃣ Cooking, Cleaning, and Controversy

Estee Williams doesn’t leave the house without asking her husband first. “I put my husband’s wants ahead of my own, and this has done nothing but benefit myself and my marriage,” she says. Ms. Williams is part of the #tradwife movement, a trend among mostly white, Christian, conservative millennial and Gen Z women who believe in traditional gender roles and re-creating the 1950s housewife ideal.

After all, feminism didn’t work, tradwives argue. Plus, capitalism has made things impossible for women. There’s no way you can have a job and a family. Why fight and suffer? This article is a great primer of the tradwife life and includes perspectives from Black women who advocate for traditional homemaking, albeit for different reasons.

By Elise Solé • Today • 12 min

Read the article

2️⃣ What The Trad Wives Taught Me About My Own Marriage

Jo Piazza and her husband were having an argument. “What do you want?” he asked in exasperation. “I want a wife,” she replied. Ms. Piazza reflects on the incident, wishing she had someone who would cook and clean and take care of the children while she focused on work. She sought out simplicity. She wanted less negotation with her husband about every little detail. She longed for order and calm.

In this personal essay, Ms. Piazza — certainliy not a tradwife — explores why the movement is popular right now. She writes, “If I could concentrate on my home and kids instead of on the six jobs I’m doing right now — in addition to running our household — would that make me happier?”

By Jo Piazza • Bustle • 8 mins

Read the article

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3️⃣ Black Tradwives Say Marriage Is Key To Escaping Burnout

It’s not only white women who are tradwives. A growing number of Black women are embracing traditional marriage as well. This clearly written article explores the reasons for the trend. One is a backlash to white feminism, which did not center the lived experiences of Black women. Another is as an exhaustion to capitalism, which has left Black women economically unstable, no matter their efforts. Despite the desires of some Black women to achieve a lifestyle away from the white gaze, writer Nylah Burton cautions against tradlife. “This feels like another means to control us,” she writes. “Our inclusion is also a tool of control, as traditional marriages are also dependent on capitalism and are institutions that can harm Black women. Whenever someone is selling you aspiration, I think alarms should be going off saying ‘I should be consuming this with a critical eye.’ ”

By Nylah Burton • Refinery29 • 12 mins

Read the article

4️⃣ The Agoraphobic Fantasy of Tradlife

Now that we’ve read a little bit about the phenomena of tradwives and tradlife, let’s spend some time breaking things down. Writer Zoe Hu explains the allure of tradlife (or, at least, the messaging of this allure) as an endeavor to save and protect the endangered state of love. She writes:

Love is the ultimate value, and love is under threat. That is the rumor we good, secular citizens are hearing, at a time when capitalism’s fatal drag on human affections has become harder than ever to ignore. Love is being lost to modern promiscuity, to social alienation, to the degraded hours of work and separation that spread, like static, between the members of your average American family. If only there was a way to save love—and them! Well, respond the reactionaries: the way to rediscover true feeling and value lies in tradition—in, more specifically, tradlife.

Appreciation goes to Article Club facilitator and podcast co-host Melinda, who shared this article with me.

By Zoe Hu • Dissent • 9 mins

Read the article

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

To our 9 new subscribers — including Mila, Emil, Adeeti, Branson, Iris, Homayoun, and Iroda — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Tina! Teena! Tinah!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Zolinda, 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 Noah (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.

Subscribed

📬 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.

#429: Wider than the Sky

I started this newsletter nine years ago because I believe that the best writing builds our empathy and brings us together. Early on, I also found out that the best writing doesn’t always come from the most famous writers.

For those two reasons, I’m excited to announce that this month, we’ll be reading and discussing “Wider than the Sky” by Phyllis Beckman.

Read the article

Published in the now-defunct True Story magazine, “Wider than the Sky” is an exquisitely written piece about love and loss, a moving braided essay that explores the meaning of consciousness, the question of free will, and the mystery of chance.

I appreciated this article so much that I chose it as one of my favorites of 2023.

Here’s what I wrote about it a couple months ago:

“The human brain,” Phyllis Beckman writes, “weighs approximately three pounds, resembles nothing so much as a shelled walnut, and is the texture, one neurosurgeon tells us, of soft tofu.” Yet our brains hold our memories, they direct our activities, they tell us when when to eat and sleep, they help us dream.

The love we experience in our lives, as well as the pain and sorrow, comes not from our hearts, Ms. Beckman reminds us, but rather from our brains.

One moment, Ms. Beckman and her husband, the love of her life, are enjoying a summer meal together — beef kabobs on the grill, yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes. The next moment, she notices something off. She says to her husband, “Your left pupil is dilated.”

As you can tell from my blurb, “Wider than the Sky” is difficult to summarize. But I know a few things for sure: If you’re in the mood to read about the big things in life, this essay will not disappoint you. You’ll find yourself stopping to take in the language. You’ll pause to reflect. And perhaps you’ll reconsider the cliché that “everything can change in the blink of an eye.”

Read the article

In addition to encouraging you to read the article, I would like to invite you to join Article Club this month to discuss “Wider than the Sky” on February 25.

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

• On Sunday, February 25, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom.

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.

In case you’re still a maybe: I’m excited to announce that author Phyllis Beckman will be joining our discussion. For an author to say yes to Article Club in any capacity, that is already kind. Participating in our actual discussion? That’s next level generosity. I am extremely grateful.

So what do you think? Interested in reading the article and joining our discussion this month? All you need to do is sign up below. Hope to see you there.

Sign up for the discussion on Feb. 25

At long last, the new Article Club mugs have arrived. Want one? They’re $20. Shipping is free. Order yours here.

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

To our 9 new subscribers — including Lauri, Mila, Nesaki, Inés, Anna, Lukas, and Sophia — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Steven! Stephen! Stephan!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Zee, 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 Inés (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.

Subscribed

📬 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.

#428: Walking Away

Hi there, loyal readers, and welcome, new subscribers. Thank you for being here.

When is it time to stop doing what you’ve been doing and just walk away? This week, I’ve selected three articles exploring that question. They include stories about:

• A woman who moves to Italy after saying good riddance to the United States

• A woman who asks, “Do we really have to be good at our job?”

• A woman who says we deserve to take an “absorption vacation”

Depending on your interest and time, I’d love it if you read one (or three) of these pieces and then shared your thoughts about them in the comments. Please enjoy!

✏️ What do you want to walk away from?

Leave a comment

1️⃣ The Way We Live In The United States Is Not Normal

We have a “learned helplessness” here in America, argues political analyst Kirsten Powers in this personal essay. Housing costs more, health care costs more, education costs more. Our politics is broken. People like money too much, people are mean, people don’t see their friends, people don’t have time to see their friends. We all know these things to be true, Ms. Powers says. But we convince ourselves that things aren’t that bad — indeed, things could be worse! — rather than doing something about it. “We don’t have to live this way,” she writes.

Though she recognizes that not everyone can move to Italy, as she did, Ms. Powers nonetheless stands by her family’s decision to ditch the United States. Now that she’s in Puglia, on 10 acres of land, she feels calmer, enjoys a glass of wine with friends after work, and can afford a root canal without worrying about her finances. “I want to learn how to live differently,” she writes.

By Kirsten Powers • Changing the Channel • 15 min

Read the article

2️⃣ The Case For Mediocrity

First it was the Great Resignation. Then came quiet quitting, languishing, and lying flat. Now we’re looking for lazy-girl jobs. Certainly our relationship to work has shifted since the pandemic. But the power of capitalism isn’t going anywhere. We’re ingrained to seek success, even if that means stress and burnout.

Finding a different job isn’t the answer, journalist Jamie Ducharme argues. Neither is going on a long vacation. The key is embracing mediocrity. “Mediocrity,” she writes, “is a far better fate than misery.” It should be good enough, she adds, to be a “good person, a good friend, a good wife, a good dog owner.”

Of course, if mediocrity is your goal, it helps to be white. Writer Michael Harriot says, “A Black person has to work twice as hard as a white person to get half as far.”

By Jamie Ducharme • Time • 20 mins

Read the article

Riley, who belongs to loyal reader Dee, is a cancer survivor and total cuddler. She loves her old plush toy, Allie the Alligator, which she’s carried into each of her multiple surgeries. Want your pet to appear in the newsletter? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ The Absorption Vacation

One of my favorite perks of being educator is getting significant time off. Before a break, I’m always asked, “What are you going to do?” There’s pressure to say something fancy, like, “I’m going to the South of France to make my own lavender essential oil.” But I usually tell the truth. “I’m going to rest.” Which, of course, means read. A lot. And not much else.

I’m happy to report that writer Anne Helen Petersen agrees with my approach. She calls it an “absorption vacation.” Instead of traveling, instead of “taking a trip,” Ms. Petersen encourages us to find something we love, that we can absorb ourselves in, and do that one thing fully.

It doesn’t have to be reading, she writes. “Maybe it’s knitting, or puzzling, or skiing, or hiking, or meditating, or cycling, or baking. What matters is that you create a scenario that allows you to do an abundance of it, a veritable profusion of it, a beautifully satiating amount of it, with as little thought to logistics or meals as possible.”

By Anne Helen Petersen • Culture Study • 7 mins

Read the article

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

To our 12 new subscribers — including Emanuele, Jay, Adam, Herni, Rich, Melanie, Shah, Mark, and Scott — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Ray! Rey! Raya!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Yolinda, 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 Melissa (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.

Subscribed

📬 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.

#427: “It’s the inequality of higher education that makes me mad.”

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

Today’s issue is dedicated to an interview with Paul Tough, the author of “Saying No to College,” January’s article of the month.

Published in The New York Times Magazine last September, the piece explains the significant shift in Americans’ views on the value of college over the past decade. Whereas in 2010, when nearly all families wanted their children to attend college, now only half do. And 45 percent of Gen Z says a high school diploma is sufficient to “ensure financial security.”

What explains this trend — this darkening mood about college? Two things, Mr. Tough explains:

• There’s a difference between the college wage premium and the college wealth premium. In other words, you’ll make more money if you graduate from college. But that doesn’t mean you’ll become more well-off.

• Going to college is a little like going to a casino. If you graduate, you’re largely good (unless you pay full price at NYU and get a Humanities degree). But if you drop out, and you’ve got debt — that’s another story.

There’s much more in the article, but I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. If you haven’t read it yet, I urge you to do so — and to join our discussion if you’re intrigued. We’re meeting on January 28 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT.

Join our discussion

I got a chance to interview Mr. Tough (again!) last week, and it was an honor. If you’re a long-time subscriber, you know that Mr. Tough helped get Article Club off the ground. Back in February 2020, he shared his thoughts on “Getting an A,” a chapter from his book, The Inequality Machine. He was generous and thoughtful then. Nothing has changed.

About our conversation: I won’t give everything away, because it’s better to listen, but we discussed a number of topics, including:

• how there’s a major disconnect between “college experts” and regular American families on the value of higher education

• how this piece required a different kind of reporting and approach to writing

• how giving college advice to young people is way more complicated than it used to be

• how even though there’s “something really wrong in higher education,” our country is doomed if this current trend continues

Most of all, it became abundantly clear in our conversation that Mr. Tough knows what he’s talking about and knows how to write. Most of all, I appreciate his clarity and compassion. Especially if you’re a student, parent, or educator, this is an article that is worth your time and attention.

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

To our 6 new subscribers — including Scott, Hoa, Sammy, Amimul, and Kevin — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Quincy! Quinn! Quince!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Wayne, 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 (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.

Reflection and Gratitude

Dear Loyal Readers,

Hope you’re having a relaxing (and reading-heavy) end of the year.

I’ll be back next Thursday to reveal our January article of the month. It’s going to be a good one, and I urge you to join our discussion.

Until then, I welcome you to listen to Article Club’s first-ever end-of-year podcast reflection episode, in which Melinda and I discuss some highlights from 2023 and what’s coming up in the new year.

Among other things, we chat about:

• our favorite articles of the year (can you guess?)

• our favorite moments from our monthly discussions

• what we’re looking forward to in 2024 (will Roxane Gay be joining us?)

• how Melinda is going to read Middlemarch

To listen: Hit the play button up top or add Article Club to your favorite podcast player.

Here’s loyal reader Blevins being cozy and reading “Wider than the Sky,” one of the best articles of the year. Do you agree with Blevins that reading on paper is the way to go? (Tell me if you do.)

In the episode, Melinda and I also share our deep appreciation of our reading community here at Article Club. In other words: This means you.

Thank you for subscribing, reading the articles, listening to author interviews, joining the discussions, and sharing your perspectives.

Thank you for being thoughtful and kind.

As we head into 2024 — which will no doubt be a roller coaster — I’m reminded that authentic connection does not come easily. True empathy does not come easily. What we continue to build here is special. In fact, in this clip, Melinda calls it magical.

Thank you again, and see you in the New Year!

Mark

#426: The Friendship Problem

Plus: Melinda and I share our first thoughts on “Saying No to College,“ by Paul Tough

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. In case you’re new here, or the holidays scrubbed your memory: Hi, I’m Mark, an educator in Oakland, and for the last 8-plus years, I’ve been sharing with you the very best articles on race, education, and culture. Thank you for being here.

This week, let’s read, listen, and talk about friends. Or to be more specific, let’s reflect on the friendship problem — how many of us say we want to spend more time with our friends, but rarely do. Scroll down to explore:

• What’s going with our friendships?
  Interested? Read this week’s lead article, “The Friendship Problem.”

• What can we do to decrease our loneliness and improve our friendships?
  Interested? Listen to this week’s podcast, “The Quiet Catastrophe.”

Then, after you read and listen, I’d love it if you shared your thoughts. Our reading community is full of kind, thoughtful people. My hope this year is that we forge deeper connections through shared reading and conversation.

➡️ Do you wish for more or stronger friendships? What’s getting in the way?
➡️ What can we do to address “the friendship problem?”

Leave a comment

⭐️ Join us for this month’s discussion of “Saying No to College,” by Paul Tough. It’s a great article about why more Americans are questioning the value of college. ICYMI, here’s last week’s issue with more info.

We’re meeting on Zoom on Sunday, January 28, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT. So far we have 18 people signed up (with a cap of 24), so if you’re interested, I urge you to take the leap — especially if you’re a parent, student, educator, or first-timer.

Sign up for the discussion

📚 If you’re already a yes: This week, let’s annotate the article together.

🤔 If you’re a maybe: Listen to fellow Article Clubber Melinda and I chat about the piece in this podcast episode. Don’t worry, there aren’t major spoilers!

1️⃣ The Friendship Problem

Rosie Spinks is a millennial mom living in London. This means we’re in no way alike. But the way she writes about friendship — it resonated deeply with me. And I have a feeling her essay will do the same with many of you.

Ms. Spinks explores what’s changed with modern friendships and why she feels less interested in making plans. It’s tiring, she writes:

It seems normal now that plans are made far in advance — scheduled around myriad travel and wedding weekends and kids and work commitments —  and then canceled right before. Someone doesn’t follow up, or cancels and then never proposes an alternative plan. Similarly, promising new adult friendships never seem to blossom into the kind of quotidian check-ins and week-to-week ephemera that the friendship of our younger years is based on. Life-long friends make new life choices, drift apart. The friendship fizzles into WhatsApp volleys back and forth, and then someone doesn’t answer the last message, and then it’s a year before you ever talk again.

Has any of this happened to you? (For me, all of it.)

But instead of blaming motherhood, or the pandemic, or inflation, Ms. Spinks explores the “matrix of factors” that figure into the friendship burnout she’s experiencing. For guidance, she turns to Esther Perel (maybe we all should?), who explains that hyperconnectivity is to blame. “People have easily 1,000 virtual friends,” Dr. Perel says, “but no one they can ask to feed their cat.”

What to do, then? It’s time to remember our childhoods, Ms. Spinks suggests, especially as late-stage capitalism atomizes us into our lonely fiefdoms. It’s time to “play freely on the street.”

By Rosie Spinks • What Do We Do Now That We’re Here • 13 min

Read the article

Say hi to loyal reader Rebecca (right), sporting the new Article Club T-shirt, and loyal reader Mike — who seems happy but is secretly jealous of Rebecca.

2️⃣ The Quiet Catastrophe

Picking up where “The Friendship Problem” leaves off, this conversation between Ezra Klein and Prof. Sheila Liming examines the structural issues underlying our friendship and loneliness crisis. In a freewheeling conversation, the two talk about a raft of problems, including the housing crisis, children living far from their families, the nuclear family itself, the ubiquity of phones, the rise of social media, the pervasiveness of AirPods (and the Sony Walkman!), and the loss of public spaces.

In our modern world, casual conversation, much less deep friendship, is now an intrusion, Dr. Liming suggests.

The remedy — hanging out with people, ideally in unplanned, unstructured, spontaneous ways — is easier said than done. After all, as Mr. Klein points out, class matters. The rich can hire a babysitter for a friends’ night out. They can pay a housecleaner while they grab a coffee with a bestie. But despite the inequities, Prof. Liming reminds us, friends don’t come easily. We have to keep reaching out.

With Sheila Liming • The Ezra Klein Show • 64 min • transcript • Apple Podcasts

Listen to the podcast

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

To our 5 new subscribers — including Amimul, Austin, PJ, and Jeff — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Peter! Pedro! Pietro!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Vera, 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 Lisa (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.

#425: Saying No to College

Join us this month to discuss Paul Tough’s outstanding article on the value of college

Happy New Year, loyal readers. I’m excited to announce that this month, we’ll be reading and discussing “Saying No to College” by Paul Tough.

It’s a great piece, especially if you’re an educator, parent, or teenager. Published in The New York Times Magazine last September, the article explores two big questions:

• Why are Americans losing faith in the value of college?

• What will happen to our country if this downward trend continues?

Mr. Tough writes:

For the nation’s more affluent families (and their children), the rules of the higher education game are clear, and the benefits are almost always worth the cost. For everyone else, the rules seem increasingly opaque, the benefits are increasingly uncertain and the thought of just giving up without playing seems more appealing all the time.

There are many reasons I loved this article. One is that this is my 28th year in education (wow, oh my), and up until recently, I’ve been unabashedly pro-college. My advice to students was simple and direct: Go to the best college you can get into, and you’ll figure out the finances down the road. But a few years back, I realized that this simplistic message was, for many students, lacking in nuance and potentially harmful. It was certainly informed by my own privilege, college experience, and life trajectory. Reading this article helped me understand how I can better guide my students when they’re considering their next steps after high school. (Step #1: Listen.)

Another reason I loved this article is that I’m a huge fan of Mr. Tough. He understands education, he knows how to write clearly, and he’s thoughtful and compassionate. I’m proud to say that he’s our first returning writer at Article Club! He was great back in February 2020, when we were launching this experiment in community reading. I’m deeply honored he’s back, generously participating again.

Read the article

I’d love it if you read the article and joined our discussion on January 28. 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. Tough in a podcast interview

• On Sunday, January 28, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom

Sign up for the discussion on Jan. 28

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.

Mr. Tough is the author of The Inequality Machine: How College Divides Us. His three previous books include How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, Mr. Tough’s writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, GQ, and Esquire, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. He has worked as an editor at the New York Times Magazine and Harper’s Magazine and as a reporter and producer for the public-radio program This American Life. He lives with his wife and two sons in Austin.

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.

• Are you an educator who no longer knows how to give college advice to your students?

• Are you a parent questioning how best to guide your kid’s next steps?

• Did you go to college and you’re still paying off your student loans?

Sign up for the discussion on Jan. 28

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

To our 22 new subscribers — including Carl, Ashley, Irene, Fiona, Alessandro, Jay, Barry, Kat, Pamela, Mike, Baidu, Ruchir, Gupta, Eleni, Sean, Ibrahim, Anna, SJD, Matt, Rebecca, Bilo, and Joel — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Olga! Osai! Osiel!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Toni, 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 Joel (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.