#455: Making The Case For Public School

Dear Loyal Readers,

August has arrived. This means (at least) three things are true:

1. It’s my birthday tomorrow. (Because I’m a Leo, I’ll be celebrating all month.)

2. School is starting soon (very soon).

3. You deserve a blockbuster issue. Because why not?

We’ve had a ton of new subscribers lately, so before launching into today’s issue, I want to say thank you for signing up. Welcome to Article Club. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community that believes that reading and discussing the best articles on race, education, and culture will grow our empathy.

One thing we do here (if you’re interested) is a deep dive on one article a month. We read it, annotate it, listen to the author’s viewpoints on it, and discuss it on the last Sunday afternoon of the month, on Zoom.

That’s what today’s issue is all about. No matter if you’re a new or longtime reader, I encourage you to participate. If you’re feeling extra bold, why not sign up now, even before I reveal the article?

Join our discussion on August 25

All right, in case you need more information before you take the leap, I’m excited to announce this month’s article: “Is the hardest job in education convincing parents to send their kids to a San Francisco public school?” Written by Gail Cornwall and published in The Hechinger Report, the article is perfect for us to discuss as we head into the new school year.

If public schools matter to you, if you’re a parent or a teacher, if you care about issues of race and class, if you are feeling hopeless, if you want to feel hopeful, if you worry about whether public schools will survive — this article might be for you.

Here’s what you can expect in today’s issue:

• My blurb about this month’s article

• Some information about the author

• A double feature podcast episode: interviews with both the author of the article, Gail Cornwall, and the subject of the article, Lauren Koehler

• Information on what comes next if you want to join us this month

All right, let’s get to it. 📖

Is the hardest job in education convincing parents to send their kids to a San Francisco public school?

Traditional public schools are in a bit of trouble. Between the pandemic, private schools, charter schools, virtual schools, homeschooling, unschooling, and school refusal, does your neighborhood school stand a chance?

Of course, says Lauren Koehler, the executive director of San Francisco Unified School District’s Enrollment Center. Public schools face a bad rap, and it’s her job to convince leery families that their child will get an excellent education in SFUSD.

This is a task easier said than done. There’s plenty standing in the way, like:

• Decades of racism, white flight, and failed attempts to desegregate

• A bewildering lottery system that determines where students go to school

• We love reading stories about failed schools, so the press keeps publishing them

• White parents want diversity but don’t want their kid learning next to a Black kid

I found this article illuminating because it combines an historical look at enrollment issues in San Francisco, while also featuring Ms. Koehler and what her office is doing right now, on a daily basis, to keep the school system solvent.

By Gail Cornwall • The Hechinger Report • 22 min

Read the article

Gail Cornwall

⭐️ About the author

Gail Cornwall’s award-winning writing covers education, parenting, psychology, and a smattering of other issues impacting current and former children.

Her qualifications are cobbled together from a series of roles, including stay-at-home mother, higher education lawyer (Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, LLP), ninth-grade English teacher (Crossland High School), federal law clerk (U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit), special education intern (Stanford’s Youth & Education Law Project), research assistant, teacher’s assistant, elementary and secondary education intern (U.S. Department of Education), and history major (University of California, Berkeley).

​Gail’s work has been published online by the Atlantic, Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, Salon, and U.S. News & World Report, among others – as well as in print by national glossies (the Nation, Good Housekeeping, and Real Simple) and newspapers (the LA Times, SF Chronicle, Boston Globe, and more).

Lauren Koehler

⭐️ About the interviews

What usually happens for our article of the month is that the author generously agrees to participate in a podcast interview. That’s what happened again this time, and I’m very thankful that Ms. Cornwall said yes to answering our questions. We discussed a number of topics, including:

• How Ms. Cornwall met and built trust with Ms. Koehler

• How it felt to report a day-in-the-life of the SFUSD Enrollment Center

• How racism is a prime reason for the district’s enrollment challenges, and how Ms. Koehler is tirelessly working to counteract systemic inequities

It was a delight to speak with Ms. Cornwall. Our conversation made clear not only how much of an expert she is on this topic but also how compassionately she approaches her reporting and writing.

Now comes the part that has never happened before an Article Club: a bonus podcast interview with the subject of the article. This came about thanks to the kindness of longtime subscriber Tim, who reached out to me after reading the piece earlier this year. “Mark,” he said, “did you know that I work with Lauren? Want me to reach out to see if she’d be interested in being interviewed?” Well, of course!

Given that Ms. Koehler is at the center of this piece, it was an extra gift getting to interview her. We discussed a number of topics, including:

• How Ms. Koehler felt when she first got the job

• How she makes decisions about allocating the enrollment center’s resources

• How she approaches engaging white families on their decision making process

I encourage you to listen to both interviews if you have the time. You’ll likely notice how the conversations complement one another, and how Ms. Cornwall and Ms. Koehler’s thinking intersects on a number of issues that urban school districts face.

🙋🏽‍♀️ Interested? Here’s what’s next.

You are certainly welcome to read the article, listen to the interviews, and call it a day. But if you’re intrigued, if you’re interested, you might want to discuss this article in more depth with other kind, thoughtful people.

If so, here’s more information about how the rest of the month will go:

• Week 1: We sign up below and begin reading the article on our own.

• Week 2: We annotate this shared version of the article (optional but encouraged).

• Week 3: We share our first reactions on a discussion thread (optional but encouraged).

• Week 4: We discuss the article together on Zoom on Sunday, August 25, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT.

If you sign up, I’ll be sure to get you all the info you need, including the Zoom link and what you can expect from the discussion.

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community.

What do you think? Interested? All you need to do is sign up below. Or reach out with all of your questions.

Sign up for the discussion

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

To all of our 12 new subscribers — Nancy, Scott, Nicole, Maria, Mariana, Bexy, Abdullahi, MJ, Heather, Tom, Moses, and Siddhi — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Christopher! Christian! Chris!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Ulysses, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you appreciate these interviews, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. (Big thanks to Erik, Article Club’s latest paid subscriber.)

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Mary!), leave a comment, send me an email, or send me a voicemail. I’d like to hear from you.

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

#454: Stain

Hi there, loyal readers. Thank you for making Article Club a regular part of your reading routine. And welcome, new subscribers!

This week’s search for great articles on race, education, and culture took me across the Internet. As you know, part of the point of Article Club is to immerse ourselves in various viewpoints from a range of publications, toward the goal of noticing nuance and expanding our empathy.

This means my looking through the annals of the literary journal Shenandoah, from Washington and Lee University. The publication has a storied history — once edited by Tom Wolfe, and having helped writers like e e cummings, William Faulkner, and Flannery O’Connor get their starts. Shenandoah is where I found this week’s lead article, “Stain,” written by Sarah Fawn Montgomery. The piece explores menstruation, pregnancy, abortion, and the policing of women’s bodies. The writing is riveting and thought-provoking, and I urge you to read it.

If reading about women’s reproductive rights does not interest you, do not fret. I have three more great pieces for you in today’s issue. They’re all on the serious side (as is my wont). (I blame summer being over.) Here they are:

• A memorable daughter-father trip to Europe, in the midst of Alzheimer’s

• What it’s like living with the knowledge that you’re at a higher risk of dementia

• A look inside a community fighting about how to protect their children

If you like one or more of the articles, go ahead, hit reply or email me. I’d love to hear from you. Or if you prefer, tell your friends and family to sign up for Article Club.

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1️⃣ Stain

Sarah Fawn Montgomery: “The day I begin to menstruate, my mother picks me up from middle school. She is off work early to celebrate. We go to Kmart, and she takes me to the aisle where the feminine-hygiene products sit on shelves next to diapers. The pads are huge, and I’m worried people will know that I am bleeding. I hope the boys at school tomorrow don’t write slut on my music stand.

“On the way home I cry because my mother is going to tell my father. The boys at school shout ewww whenever a girl bleeds through her pants, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to climb in bed with my parents on Saturday mornings anymore. My mother laughs and says my father would never think I am gross, but she reminds me again to carefully roll up my used pads into tiny balls, wrap them in the packaging of the new pad, then in several layers of toilet paper. Like wrapping a present or a mummy. My father doesn’t think I’m gross, but he does not want to see any evidence of my body.

“I cry and cry, and my mother buys me a chocolate milkshake and tucks me into her bed to watch TV. When my father comes home, my mother tells him, and he pokes his head in the door to check on me but does not come inside. He asks if I’m feeling better but does not speak about why. I know, instinctively, not to burden him with the details of my body.

“At dinner we eat in silence, each of us staring at our plates stained with the meat’s dark blood.”

By Sarah Fawn Montgomery • Shenandoah • 29 mins • Gift Link

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2️⃣ Before Dementia Takes Everything

Francesca Mari’s father is losing his memory. He’s 72 years old. A few years back, he took a battery of tests, and his doctor diagnosed him with Alzheimer’s. “Your cognitive abilities aren’t going to get any better,” he said.

Ms. Mari remembers that when she was growing up, her dad talked about taking a trip to Europe with his parents when he was 14. It was to Switzerland and Sicily, and it was glorious — the “window boxes fizzing with flowers,” the alcoves filled with “drying clothes” and “warming bread.” With her father’s dementia progressing, Ms. Mari decides it’s time to embark on a daughter-father trek back to the homeland.

This is the touching story of that trip. It’s a testament to the power of families spending time together. It’s also a testament to the effectiveness of reminiscence therapy, which argues that reviewing one’s strongest memories helps people with dementia to live better in the present.

By Francesca Mari • The New York Times Magazine • 26 min • Gift Link

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✚ Ms. Mari joined us at Article Club in April 2021, when we discussed “A Lonely Occupation,” about gentrification and the housing crisis in Los Angeles. Here’s her interview with me and Sarai.

Mr. Benny, who belongs to loyal reader Brooke, likes taking baths and putting his head in a ground squirrel’s hole at Alameda Beach. Want your pet to be featured here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ When You Know You Might Forget Everything

Have you taken a DNA test? I have, on 23andMe. It was mostly for fun — but also to confirm what my dad made sure I understood growing up, that Italy is where we’re from.

But in no way was I tempted to take up 23andMe’s offer to “discover [my] past” and “take charge of [my] future” by unlocking the optional health report. When it comes to Alzheimer’s, I don’t want to know. It’s too scary.

But some people find comfort in finding out if they carry the APOE4 gene variant, associated with a higher likelihood of developing the disease. In this article, you’ll meet 10 people — young and older — with two copies of the gene. They explain, in a wide diversity of ways, how their lives have changed.

By Amelia Schonbek • Intelligencer • 24 mins • Gift Link

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4️⃣ The Girl And Her English Teacher

Last month, I featured a podcast series called Southlake, which explored how an affluent, mostly white suburb in Texas failed miserably to address racism in its schools. Many of you let me know that you found the podcast transfixing. I did, too. It was wonderful to interview co-author Mike Hixenbaugh and to discuss the series with a group of you last Sunday afternoon on Zoom.

While I was listening (and re-listening!) to Southlake, I noticed that Mr. Hixenbaugh and co-author Antonia Hylton had completed another podcast series about another affluent suburb in Texas. Of course I was intrigued, and so, of course, I listened to the whole thing. And I have a little secret: I think this one — called Grapevine — is even better. It’s about faith, power, and what it means to protect LGBTQ+ children.

By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton • NBC News • 43 min • Apple Podcasts

Listen to the podcast

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

To our 30 new subscribers — incuding Trisha, Chloe, Julie, Chris, Wayne, Cooky, Vicky, Liz, Michelle, Arjun, David, Jen, Brittney, Kat, Ashley, Katy, Usfret, Nicolee, Sally, Wil, Naomi, Laura, Tina, Carmen, Ann, Elaine, Pattee, and Megan — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club. Make yourself at home.

If you appreciate the articles, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription.

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Doreen!), leave a comment, or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

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

#453: “I wanted to understand why people were so angry.”

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

Today’s issue is dedicated to an interview with Mike Hixenbaugh, co-author of Southlake and author of They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms.

Published by NBC News, Southlake is a six-part podcast about how a mostly-white community in a Texas suburb failed to respond to the harm that white students caused when they chanted the N-word in a video after a homecoming dance in 2018. (It’s about a whole lot more, too.)

I highly encourage you to listen to the podcast (if you haven’t already), then take in the interview with Mike, then sign up for our discussion on Saturday, July 20, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. I’d be very happy if you were there.

Sign up for the discussion

⭐️ About the author

Mike Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, co-creator of the Southlake and Grapevine podcasts, and author of They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms.

Mr. Hixenbaugh’s reporting in recent years on the battles over race, gender, and sexuality in public schools won a Peabody Award and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

While working as a newspaper reporter in Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas, Hixenbaugh uncovered deadly failures in the U.S. military, abuses in the child welfare system, and safety lapses at major hospitals, winning numerous national awards and triggering reforms aimed at saving lives and keeping families together.

Mr. Hixenbaugh lives in Maryland with his wife and four children.

⭐️ About the interview

I got a chance to interview Mike last week, and it was an honor. Our conversation was one of my favorites ever at Article Club. In addition to talking about Southlake, we really went deep into his book (which I highly recommend).

We discussed a number of topics, including:

• how he got interested in the story in the first place

• how his identity as a white man influenced his reporting

• how he tried to take in the viewpoints of conservative Southlake residents

• how listening to young people was paramount

Most of all, I appreciated Mike’s generosity and thoughtfulness. It was abundantly clear from the interview how deeply Mike has gotten to know this community and how thoroughly he has reported this story. He is not afraid of nuance — and he is not afraid to tell the truth. As an educator and a journalism fan, I could have talked to Mike for much longer. Our conversation made me very excited to discuss Southlake with you.

🙋🏽‍♀️ Come Join Our Discussion on July 20

I urge you to join us on Saturday, July 20 as we discuss Southlake. We’ll be focusing on Episodes 2 and 3, “Just a Word” and “The Not-So-Silent Majority.” It’ll take a little over an hour to listen to the two episodes.

If you’re interested, I’ll be sure to get you all the info you need, including the Zoom link and what you can expect from the discussion.

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community.

What do you think? Interested? All you need to do is sign up below. Or reach out with all of your questions.

Sign up for the discussion

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

To all of our 12 new subscribers — including Dave, Emily, Roni, Hadiya, Laura, Juho, Aida, Yvonne, Adonis, and Morgan — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Ben! Benji! Benjamin!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Tyren, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you appreciate these interviews, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. (Big thanks to Cruise, Article Club’s latest paid subscriber.)

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Kate!), leave a comment, send me an email, or send me a voicemail. I’d like to hear from you.

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

#452: The Shapes of Silence

Hi there, loyal readers. I hope you’re getting some time to relax. Thank you for making Article Club a regular part of your reading routine.

Summer must be at full tilt, because I’m noticing that my selections lately have been on the shorter side and more lighthearted than usual. Will this trend continue for the long haul? We’ll have to see.

One trend that is definitely happening is that articles about relationships are rising to the top. Last week, we had two articles about marriage. This week, our lead article, “The Shapes of Silence,” is about the relationship between a woman and her father and the ways that family members communicate. It’s beautifully written, in letter form, and I’m hopeful that you’ll read it.

If you’re not interested in articles about daughter-father relationships, don’t worry. I’ve got three other pieces worthy of your attention. They are:

• a humorous account of a traumatic haircut

• a heartwarming essay by a reluctant dog owner

• a creepy podcast about the next stage of artificial intelligence

If you like one or more of the articles, go ahead, hit reply or email me. Or if you prefer, tell your friends and family to sign up for Article Club.

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⭐️ There’s still time to join us for this month’s discussion of Southlake, by Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton. We’re going to focus on Episodes 2 and 3 of the podcast series: “Just a Word” and “The Not-So-Silent Majority.”

If you’re an educator, a parent, or if you care about issues of race and racism in schools, I encourage you to participate.

Interested? We’re meeting on Zoom on Saturday, July 20, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT to discuss the podcast. If this will be your first time, I urge you to take the leap!

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ The Shapes of Silence

This is a beautiful letter by a daughter to her father. It’s about their relationship. Jennifer Thuy Vi Nguyen wants to come out to her dad. But she struggles with the words. So for a long time, she remains silent.

Ms. Nguyen notices that this tendency toward silence also describes her father, a refugee and a veteran of the South Vietnamese Air Force. She reflects on the reasons for his silence:

Không thể,” you said once. You can’t say because it’s too hurtful.

“I love you, I want you to know. But not too much,” you said a few times before.

In the letter, Ms. Nguyen considers how secrets can protect and harm us. She thinks back to her childhood, when love was not “proclamations of feelings for one another,” but rather “the ability to live through pain.” She concludes that Vietnamese history is “a long list of people trying to silence us.”

Still, Ms. Nguyen wants to connect more deeply with her father. She wonders if there are different types of silence — if silence has contours, has shapes. She writes:

You always taught me to trust actions, never words. What was more important than talking was our ability to hold secrets. From you, I learned the many shapes of silence — how it can be used violently or as a powerful form of restraint. Rarer was silence as the embodiment of peace, where two people can sit together without words, but in mutual understanding.

By Jennifer Thuy Vi Nguyen • Longreads • 20 min • Gift Link

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2️⃣ The Kaleshion: What a Haircut Can Do to a Person

Something must be in the water, because all of a sudden, I’m featuring funny articles. Who knew this was possible? Last week, it was mewing; this week, it’s haircuts.

Ever since he was in preschool, Jared Walker has not enjoyed going to the barber. That’s because way back when, his dad always insisted on a “kaleshion” — not an actual hairstyle, Prof. Walker says, but rather a made-up word on the barber’s wall, beneath a photo of a bald head. Anything is better than bald — an Afro would do, or a Jheri curl, or a flattop, or wearing your hair an inch long all around. But over the years, no matter what he does (including years of cutting his own hair), Prof. Walker cannot manage to escape the gravitational inevitability of the kaleshion.

✚ This is an essay from How to Make a Slave and Other Essays, published in 2020. In the Black community, Prof. Walker writes, “anger is often a prelude to a joke, as there is broad understanding that the triumph over this destructive emotion lay in finding its punchline.”

By Jerald Walker • Creative Nonfiction • 8 mins • Gift Link

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Sid, who turns 14 1/2 this week, and who belongs to VIP loyal reader Abby, is wonderful. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Not a Dog Person

For a newsletter that regularly features photographs of dogs, Article Club has mostly steered clear of selecting schmaltzy articles about our canine friends. But again, something has come over me, which means you get this heartwarming article about a woman who didn’t want a dog, got one anyway, and the unadulterated joy that follows.

You’ll meet Lincoln, a floppy-eared spaniel mix with deep brown eyes — rescued from long days languishing in a crate, a bark collar around his neck, and a big gash on his face, the result of a mean ranch dog. For Lincoln’s owner, Nina McConigley, things are going well. “Lincoln doesn’t work hard at anything besides chasing bunnies in our yard and barking at the doorbell,” she writes. But he has expanded my world. He’s taught me to see the land with joy and wild abandon, and he is goodness on a planet that seems increasingly bleak at times.”

By Nina McConigley • High Country News • 5 mins • Gift Link

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4️⃣ Shell Game: Quality Assurance

It’s happening, even if we don’t want to admit it: Artificial Intelligence is taking over. Ever since last March, when we discussed “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston, I’ve found myself more and more interested in pieces that explain the human impact that AI will cause (or, to be more accurate, is already causing).

Shell Game, a new six-part podcast “about things that are not what they seem,” is equal parts illuminating and creepy. In the first episode, journalist Evan Ratliff clones his voice, hooks it up to an AI chatbot, and unleashes it into the world. Its first job: to talk with customer service agents about problems with his credit card bill. Although not perfect, his voice agent doesn’t do poorly. But is this a good thing?

For Mr. Ratliff, cloning his own voice — which in later episodes will hoodwink his friends, family, even his therapist — is part exploration, part preservation. After all, he thinks, if we don’t replace ourselves, surely someone else will. He asks, “What should we expect from a future in which more and more of the people we encounter in the world aren’t real?”

By Evan Ratliff • Shell Game • 32 min • Apple Podcasts

Listen to the podcast

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

To our 8 new subscribers — incuding Alberto, Jenni, Zahira, Marina, and Megan — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club. Make yourself at home.

If you appreciate the articles, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. That would make me happy, plus help me retire earlier. (I like my job though!)

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Cathy!), leave a comment, or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

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

#451: Creation of Woman

Happy Fourth of July, loyal readers. I hope you’re spending the day blowing things up with friends and family. (Sorry, I was never a big fan of fireworks. 🧨)

This morning I’m inside enjoying the second week of my summer break. This means reading, relaxing, and getting ready to eat a hot dog — my first of two this year. 🌭 (The other hot dog will be eaten at a Giants game with my mom later this month.)

Even though you’re likely busy today, my hope is that you’ll find time to check out this week’s selections, because they’re good ones. I was particularly impressed with the two that explore the complexities of marriage: the lead article, “Creation of Woman: Evangelical And Transgender In The Bible Belt,“ and the third article, “The Extra Mile.” They’re both thought provoking and very well written.

If you’re not interested in articles about relationships, especially as they’re influenced by gender identity or random catastrophe, don’t worry. I’ve got two other pieces worthy of your attention. They are:

• Article Club’s first-ever article on mewing (finally! 😀)

• A collection of articles on the 50th anniversary of Boston’s “busing crisis”

If you appreciate one or more of the articles, go ahead, let me know. Or if you prefer, tell your friends and family to get off X and sign up for Article Club. (X is a bad name.)

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⭐️ Join us for this month’s discussion of Southlake, by Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton. It’s a podcast about how a mostly-white community in a Texas suburb failed to respond to the harm that white students caused when they chanted the N-word in a video after a homecoming dance in 2018.

Instead of tackling the entire six-part series, we’re going to focus on two main episodes: “Just a Word” and “The Not-So-Silent Majority.” It’ll take a little over an hour to listen to the two episodes.

If you’re an educator, a parent, or if you care about issues of race and racism in schools, I encourage you to participate.

Interested? We’re meeting on Zoom on Saturday, July 20, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT to discuss the podcast. If this will be your first time, I urge you to take the leap!

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ Creation of Woman: Evangelical And Transgender In The Bible Belt

Lane Scott Jones grew up in North Carolina, spent most of her time at church, and dreamed of escaping the conservative lifestyle her family had planned for her. She loved trying on imaginary identities — a journalist, a visual artist, an author — and she saw herself living abroad or in New York City, enjoying the “breathtaking collective possibilities” of many feasible futures.

But when she met her husband (at church), Ms. Jones gave up on her fantasies and acquiesced to a life that promised certainty. She loved him. He was gentle. She writes, “It felt so easy to become the kind of woman I was supposed to be.”

The marriage begins well. But then her husband tells her he wants to explore his gender identity. He becomes they, then she. Once open and expansive, Ms. Jones feels territorial and possessive about womanhood and their relationship.

I felt a churning unease at the renegotiation of the terms of our marriage. Until then, we had played our roles perfectly: good Christian man and woman, husband and wife. Resentment tightened in my throat. I had sacrificed so much of myself to fit into this marriage. So why couldn’t he? Of course, we both felt claustrophobic. Of course, we both felt stifled, suffocated, desperate with grief at the parts of ourselves marriage required us to abandon. I thought that’s what we’d agreed to.

By Lane Scott Jones • Longreads • 16 min • Annotated Gift Link

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2️⃣ Swallowing: I Was Mike Mew’s Patient

Yes, this is an article about mewing — the practice loved by looksmaxxing influencers and middle school students who like to torment their teachers. The piece is by Gabriel Smith, an actual former patient of the actual Dr. Mike Mew, the orthodontist who practices his father’s unconventional methods that promise to reshape our jawlines and rearrange our faces, thereby improving our appearance and self-worth. He writes:

Mike Mew is a small and bizarre-looking man. He has a perfectly square head which, when Mike was a child, his dentist father molded using prototypical orthotropic methods. He is very short, and very slim, which gives the impression of his skull being about the same width as his waist. The impression he leaves is of an almost total cubeness, like a minor antagonist in a PlayStation game. He undoubtedly believes that his own physical format is somehow inherently correct, and in what he is selling: he has made himself into an example of it. “Look at your lips,” he said in one session. “Too big, too droopy, ugly. Now look at mine.” He turned to my mother. “This is how lips are meant to look. Firm and tight. Attractive.”

An important note: Despite what TikTok says, nobody really knows if mewing works. Dr. Mew and his dad (still alive) insist they didn’t invent the term. If you’re looking for lasting changes to your appearance, you might want to try leg lengthening.

By Gabriel Smith • The Paris Review • 14 mins • Gift Link

Read the article

Moby, who belongs to loyal readers Caitlin and Jason, is an adventurous and loyal 14-year-old. His passions include howling with sirens and scoring stale bread on neighborhood walks. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ The Extra Mile

You don’t have to be a distance runner to appreciate this article about a lovely couple who runs ultramarathons. Ever since a horrific car accident that impaled his left leg and mutilated his face, Todd Barcelona, 57, has felt the urge to run as far as possible. His wife Allison, 55, shares his enthusiasm.

The couple doesn’t fool around. They decide on running the Last Annual Volunteer State Road Race, a 10-day, 314-mile endeavor that begins in southeastern Missouri, continues all the way across Tennessee, and ends on a ranch in northern Georgia. Through rain, blistering feet, hallucinations, and very little sleep, “Team Barcelona” not only succeeds on its journey, but Todd and Allison reaffirm their commitment to each other. I hope you enjoy this feel-good summer pick.

By Maggie Gigandet • The Atavist • 32 mins • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ The Empty Promise Of Diversity

May was the 70th anniversary of Broad v. Board of Education. Everyone knows that landmark decision. But June was the 50th anniversary of another important but less-well-known case, Morgan v. Hennigan, in which U.S. District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity ordered Boston Public Schools to desegregate by means of integrated busing. While Brown theorized about integrated schools, Morgan made them a reality.

Until the white backlash came, of course.

This collection of five short articles gives an excellent summary of what happened in Boston in 1974 and the legacy of busing in general. Pieces include a first-person account of riding the bus, an analysis of why integration failed, and a critique on diversity as a goal in the first place.

By The Emancipator • Collection of 5 articles • 20 min

Read the article

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

To our 6 new subscribers — incuding Liebre, Raymond, Nina, and Laura — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Make yourself at home.

If you appreciate the articles, like the gift links, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. (Big thanks to Grace, Article Club’s latest paid subscriber.)

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Bill!), leave a comment, send me an email, or send me a voicemail. I’d like hearing from you.

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

A summer gift for you

Dear VIPs / Paid Subscribers,

Hope your summer is going well. Mine is great because I’m getting more time to rest and read. Plus, the plums from the backyard are coming in. They’re tasty.

The other day, I was thinking that it’s been a while since I’ve sent you a gift in the mail. Because I can’t send you a plum, I’d like to send you an article.

Yes, a real article, on real paper, sent to you via the real postal service.

You might not be interested. That’s OK! But if you are, here’s how it’ll go:

1. You’ll share your mailing address here.
   (I’ll keep your address safe and won’t share it with anyone.)

2. Sometime this summer, I’ll send you an article that I hope you’ll enjoy.

Simple, right? I think you’ll like it.

As always: Thank you for reading my newsletter, and thank you for supporting me,

Mark

P.S. See you tomorrow for Issue #451.

#450: Article Club Is 9 Years Old 🎂

Today is Article Club’s ninth birthday. Thank you for celebrating with me. 🎉

I started this newsletter in the summer of 2015 when I was living in the Bay Area and working as an instructional coach. The point of it was to share with you the best articles on race, education, and culture — with the hope that doing so might help us expand our empathy, build our connections, and think of ways we might make ourselves a better world.

On the surface, not much has changed since then. I still live in the Bay Area. I still work in education, now as an assistant principal in Oakland. And I’m still reading a ton and sending you articles week after week (after week).

But there’s one thing that has significantly shifted. It’s the reading community we’ve built over the years. There used to be four of you; now there are 1,400. Thanks to you, we’ve made this a kind and thoughtful place. I’m grateful that I get to share and discuss what I read with you. I’m looking forward to seeing where Year 10 takes us.

Leave a comment

I’m pleased with what I have for you this week. Hope you check these out:

• An invite to discuss Southlake with fellow Article Clubbers (see below)

• An article about the anger a woman experiences from not having a father

• An investigation into the broken promise of “40 acres and a mule”

• A look at how artificial intelligence will revolutionize reading

🎁 Next month, I warmly invite you to a series of gatherings to discuss Southlake, the six-part podcast about how a mostly-white community in a Texas suburb failed to respond to the harm that white students caused when they chanted the N-word in a video after a homecoming dance in 2018. It’s very well done.

If you’re an educator, a parent, or if you care about issues of race and gender identity in schools, I encourage you to participate.

We’ll meet on Zoom three Sundays in July, discussing two episodes each, like this:

• Sunday, July 14, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 1-2

• Sunday, July 21, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 3-4

• Sunday, July 28, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 5-6

In addition to talking about the podcast, we’ll also build relationships and support one another to make a difference on an issue in our own school communities. After all, what happened in Southlake is happening all over our country, in various ways.

I’m very excited to bring this to you alongside fellow educators and long-time Article Clubbers Telannia Norfar and Abby Benedetto. They’re wonderful.

And one last perk: Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh will be doing an interview.

⭐️ Are you interested, or at least intrigued? Here are two things to do:

1. Type “I’m in!” in the comments below (even if you’re a maybe).
   I’ll email you with more details.

2. Come to an optional info session on Sunday, July 7, 2:00 - 2:45 pm PT.
   You’ll meet me, Telannia, and Abby, plus get a sense of what we’re hoping to do. That way, you can decide whether you want to do this.

Leave a comment

1️⃣ There Was A Father

Ijeoma Oluo’s has only one childhood memory of her father. She’s 2 years old, crawling in between her father’s legs underneath chairs at the airport. She’s laughing and giggling amongst ankles and calves.

Soon after, her father left her and his family. Except for a phone call or two, his absence during her childhood was near total. Ms. Oluo writes:

As I grew older, my father became less of a person in my life and more of the annoying ghost of a person. His memory existed only to make things more difficult. His whole being in our lives revolved around what wasn't. He wasn't there to help our mom with bills. He wasn't there to cheer on our sports games. He wasn't there to help mom.

I appreciate this piece for the reason I appreciate Ms. Oluo’s writing in general: It’s direct, raw, and unflinching. For example, there are moments when her mother and her siblings want Ms. Oluo to forgive her dad. She wants nothing to do with it. “I never thought, ‘I wish I had a dad.’ What I remember thinking was, ‘I wish my mom wasn't so heartbroken all the time, and crying all the time. And I wish that she was happy.‘ ”

But just when you’ve settled on agreeing with Ms. Oluo wholeheartedly, or perhaps reserving some compassion for her father, the piece opens up and becomes bigger in scope. I won’t spoil the ending for you, except to hope that you read it.

By Ijeoma Oluo • Behind the Book • 27 min • Gift Link

✚ Ms. Oluo has appeared in Article Club many times. Here’s “The Heart of Whiteness,” her classic takedown of Rachel Dolezal, way back in Issue #89.

Read the article

Judy, who belongs to longtime loyal reader and VIP Joel, is getting ready for summer with her new lifevest. Judy enjoys wading in the water and drinking water, but more extreme water sports are yet to be determined. Want your pet to grace these pages? hltr.co/pets

2️⃣ 40 Acres And A Lie

Even though (white) Americans are fond of forgetting, and even though we may not have learned much about Reconstruction back in high school, most of us are familiar that General William T. Sherman famously promised “40 acres and mule” to thousands of Black people as reparations for slavery.

The prevailing story is that Gen. Sherman reneged on that promise. But the reality is that at least 1,250 formerly enslaved men and women received land titles in Georgia and South Carolina after the Civil War. In fact, the law founding the Freedmen’s Bureau also included a provision that Black families had the option to purchase the land after a three-year lease. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The backlash came.

This investigation by Mother Jones does an outstanding job connecting the dots among millions of documents. It also identifies 41 living descendants of those who were given land. One is Mila Rios. She says she doesn’t expect compensation for the land taken away from her great-great-grandfather, Pompey Jackson. “I’ve had a fabulous life. I’m proud of what my ancestors did, or else I wouldn’t be who I am today or where I am today.”

By Alexia Fernández Campbell • Mother Jones • 14 mins • Gift Link

Read the article

3️⃣ Making Reading Sexy Again (With AI)

Pretty soon, you won’t need Article Club. Or book clubs, for that matter. (Or friends, or reading buddies, or teachers.) That’s because you’ll be able to read with the company of an AI version of your favorite author. How about The Age of Innocence with Roxane Gay’s AI? Or A Room With a View with Lena Dunham’s AI? With Rebind Publishing, you’ll “bring pages to life” and “experience a whole new way to read.”

In this essay, author Laura Kipnis reports from the inside, after Rebind asks for her commentary on Romeo and Juliet. Her job was to provide 12 hours of conversation on the play’s themes and essential questions, like “Is love at first sight trustworthy?” Ms. Kipnis writes: “The content was entirely up to me: My job wasn’t to be a Shakespeare expert, it was to be interesting.” In short, her job was to make her AI happy.

What sets Rebind apart, its founders say, is that readers will feel the support of having a guide as they engage in meaningful texts. “It comes back to authenticity,” one owner said. “If you just had the bot, you’d lose that connection.”

By Laura Kipnis • Wired • 14 mins • Gift Link

Read the article

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

To our 6 new subscribers — incuding Quinn, Lisa, Trudy, Robin, and Elaine — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club. Please make yourself at home.

If you appreciate the articles, like the gift links, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. My favorite two ways are sharing Article Club with a friend and sending me an email. I’d love hearing from you.

Share Article Club

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

A summer invitation

Dear VIPs / Paid Subscribers,

Today is my first day of summer vacation, which means three things:

1. You get my profound appreciation and gratitude

2. You get a cute photo of my dog

3. You get an invitation to a series of gatherings coming up in July

1️⃣ Let’s begin with the profound appreciation and gratitude. Article Club is coming up on nine years (birthday this Thursday!), and even though I tend to be a consistent type of guy in general, there’s no way I could have kept up this publication schedule week after week (after week) without your support.

Thank you.

2️⃣ I’m not sure when the first pet photo appeared in the newsletter. (Editor’s note: Issue #29, February 2016, here’s Indie, Marni’s dog.) There have been hundreds over the years, to the delight of most (but not all!) readers. (I still remember one email I received: “More articles, fewer pets,” it read.)

From time to time, my dog (and this newsletter’s mascot) Arlo makes an appearance. Like now, as part of my thanks. Here’s a photo of him, slightly maniacal from joy.

3️⃣ Next month, I warmly invite you to a series of gatherings to discuss Southlake, the six-part podcast about how a mostly-white community in a Texas suburb failed to respond to the harm that white students caused when they chanted the N-word in a video after a homecoming dance in 2018. It’s very well done.

If you’re an educator, a parent, or if you care about issues of race and gender identity in schools, I encourage you to participate.

We’ll meet on Zoom three Sundays in July, discussing two episodes each, like this:

• Sunday, July 14, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 1-2

• Sunday, July 21, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 3-4

• Sunday, July 28, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 5-6

In addition to talking about the podcast, we’ll also build relationships and support one another to make a difference on an issue in our own school communities. After all, what happened in Southlake is happening all over our country, in various ways.

I’m very excited to bring this to you alongside fellow educators and long-time Article Clubbers Telannia Norfar and Abby Benedetto. They’re wonderful.

And one last perk: Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh will be doing an interview.

⭐️ Are you interested, or at least intrigued? Here are two things to do:

1. Type “I’m in!” in the comments below (even if you’re a maybe).
   I’ll email you with more details.

2. Come to an optional info session on Sunday, July 7, 2:00 - 2:45 pm PT.
   You’ll meet me, Telannia, and Abby, plus get a sense of what we’re hoping to do. That way, you can decide whether you want to do this.

Leave a comment

All right, that’s it for now. Thank you again for all your support. I’m looking forward to sharing Issue #450 with you all this Thursday.

Wishing you a great week,

Mark

#449: “How can I protect you in this moment?”

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

Today’s issue is dedicated to an interview with Amanda E. Machado, the author of “The Abstract Rage To Protect,” June’s article of the month.

First published in The Adroit Journal, “The Abstract Rage To Protect” is about masculinity, the need for men to protect women, the violence that follows, and what we can do about it.

I highly encourage you to read the piece (if you haven’t already), then listen to the interview, then sign up for our discussion on Sunday, June 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. I’d be very happy to connect with you in conversation.

Sign up for the discussion on June 30

⭐️ About the article

“There is a difference between a man’s sense of protection and a man’s sense of violence,” a male friend once reassured me. But I never could tell the difference.

When Amanda E. Machado tells men that she was once sexually assaulted at a festival, with her ex-boyfriend nearby but lost in the crowd, they instantly become ashamed of him. “How could he let this happen?” they ask. “He was supposed to protect you.”

In this enlightening essay, Amanda explores notions of masculinity, weaving personal experiences with the work of Phil Christman, a lecturer at the University of Michigan. Christman writes, “When I try to nail down what masculinity is — what imperative gives rise to all this pain seeking and stoicism, this showboating asceticism and loud silence — I come back to this: Masculinity is an abstract rage to protect.”

The biggest problem with this “abstract rage to protect,” Amanda argues, is that there is a fine line between a desire to protect and a desire to inflict violence. “The aggression men learn to protect the women they love, becomes exactly how they hurt the women they love.”

⭐️ About the author

Amanda E. Machado (she/they) is a writer, public speaker and facilitator with ancestry from Mexico and Ecuador. Their work has been published in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Washington Post, Adroit Journal, Slate, The Guardian, Sierra Magazine, among many other outlets. In addition to their essay writing, Amanda is also a public speaker and workshop facilitator on issues of justice and anti-oppression for organizations around the world. They are also the founder of Reclaiming Nature Writing, a multi-week online workshop that centers the experiences of people of color in how we tell stories about the outdoors.

Amanda currently lives on unceded Ohlone land in Oakland, California.

⭐️ About the interview

Alongside fellow Article Clubber Sarai Bordeaux, I got a chance to interview Amanda a few weeks ago. It was an honor. We discussed a number of topics, including:

• that we all have a desire to be protected

• that we’re socialized that protection must be physical and therefore may involve violence

• that we have a collective responsibility to find ways to redefine protection

Most of all, I appreciated Amanda’s generosity. It was clear that their thinking is expansive and non-judgmental. Listening to Amanda got me to want to be more imaginative in how I support others and how I show up for other people when they seek emotional protection. And it made me excited to discuss their piece with you.

🙋🏽‍♀️ Come Join Our Discussion on June 30

I urge you to join us on June 30 as we discuss our article of the month.

If you’re interested, I’ll be sure to get you all the info you need, including the Zoom link and this version of the article, where you can annotate and share your thoughts with other Article Clubbers.

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.

What do you think? Interested? All you need to do is sign up below. Or reach out with all of your questions.

Sign up for the discussion on June 30

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

To our 13 new subscribers — including Lex, Charlotte, Aoife, Martin, Susan, Ana, Alla, Rosie, Simone, Sham, Riccardo and Maarten — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Alison! Allison! Allyson!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Salvador, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you appreciate the articles, like the gift links, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. (Big thanks to Boris, Article Club’s latest paid subscriber.)

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Juan!), leave a comment, send me an email, or send me a voicemail. I’d like hearing from you.

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

#448: Running From Blackness

Hi there and happy summer, loyal readers. I’m happy you’re here. ☀️

This week’s search for a great lead article took a circuitous route via The Audacity, Roxane Gay’s newsletter. Because many of you are subscribers, you may have seen last week’s emerging writer piece, “Black Negation,” by Allen M. Price. Reading that article led me on an online reading binge of Mr. Price’s essays. He writes clearly and directly about race, and his prose is unvarnished and unapologetic. I think that you’ll find reading “Running from Blackness,” valuable and thought provoking.

Because sometimes articles are best read in conversation, I’ve paired this week’s lead article with a best-of-AC selection — “Twelve Minutes and a Life,” by Mitchell S. Jackson. Published in June 2020, Mr. Jackson’s profile of Ahmaud Arbery is stunning. My hope is that you’ll read it (if you haven’t already).

Not interested in heavy (and important) articles about race and identity? Here are a couple more pieces to check out. They’re about:

• the death of student writing in the age of artificial intelligence

• the battle against the anti-LGBTQ backlash in California in the 1970s

⭐️ Join us for this month’s discussion of “The Abstract Rage To Protect,” by Amanda E. Machado. It’s a deep, thought-provoking article about about masculinity, the need for men to protect women, the violence that follows, and what we can do about it. ICYMI, here’s last week’s issue with more info.

We’re meeting on Zoom on Sunday, June 30, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT to discuss the article. If you’re interested, I urge you to take the leap.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ Running From Blackness

Allen M. Price grew up in an all-white neighborhood in Warwick, Rhode Island, because his mother did not want him to be hurt, kidnapped, or killed. He began running in the sixth grade because he wanted to fit in with his white friends. Then he kept running, got good, and never looked back.

For much of his youth and adulthood, Mr. Price writes, “running took my mind off of knowing and understanding my Blackness or rather my lack of wanting to.” But the murder of Ahmaud Arbery caused him to reflect on how his childhood conditioned him to struggle with racial embarrassment. Now in his 40s, his relationship with running — and its influence on his identity — has shifted. Mr. Price writes:

When I ran, the layers of my identity that I had gathered in my life, that white America had put on me, the labels, names, cruel names, all of it fell away, leaving me with the raw soul of my being. By running harder, faster, deeper, further away from those almost irreparable scars on my developing young mind that burdened me with unrelenting stress, anger, and melancholy drove me to lose all sense of my lost identity and low self-esteem. All the hurt, frustration, and fatigue disappeared, and what appeared was a spiritual enlightenment, a meditation through movement, a connection beyond this physical world, beyond this earthly realm. By tiring, wearing down my body, my ego, running allowed my consciousness to appear and feel a sense of unity with the universe.

By Allen M. Price • The Masters Review • 15 min • Gift Link

Read the article

2️⃣ Best Of Article Club: Twelve Minutes And A Life

I’ll keep recommending this article until everyone reads it (or purposely chooses not to read it). It’s probably my #2 all-time selection, after “When Things Go Missing,” by Kathryn Schulz. I wouldn’t say “Twelve Minutes and a Life” is one of my favorites; that would suggest I enjoyed reading it. Enjoy isn’t the word I’d use. But in terms of the quality of its writing, and in terms of its message, and how brilliantly Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Mitchell S. Jackson makes certain we remember that Ahmaud Arbery was a person who was loved — well, this piece is unparalleled. Mr. Jackson writes:

Ahmaud Marquez Arbery was more than a viral video. He was more than a hashtag or a name on a list of tragic victims. He was more than an article or an essay or posthumous profile. He was more than a headline or an op-ed or a news package or the news cycle. He was more than a retweet or shared post. He, doubtless, was more than our likes or emoji tears or hearts or praying hands. He was more than an R.I.P. t-shirt or placard. He was more than an autopsy or a transcript or a police report or a live-streamed hearing. He, for damn sure, was more than the latest reason for your liberal white friend’s ephemeral outrage. He was more than a rally or a march. He was more than a symbol, more than a movement, more than a cause. He. Was. Loved.“

✚ This article won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, “for a deeply affecting account of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery that combined vivid writing, thorough reporting, and personal experience to shed light on systemic racism in America.” It was also chosen one of Article Club’s best articles of 2021.

✚ Mr. Jackson joined us in October 2022 to talk about his piece, “Looking For Clarence Thomas” (gift link). It was one of my all-time favorite Article Club interviews, mostly because Mr. Jackson gets into it about his writing process.

By Mitchell S. Jackson • Runner’s World • 26 mins • Gift Link

Read the article

Here’s young Article Clubber Ayka reading a book about a cat and a trombonist. Know the title? Big thanks to loyal reader Sele for the photo.

3️⃣ AI And The Death of Student Writing

For the past 12 years, Lisa Lieberman has been teaching freshman composition at community colleges in California’s Central Valley. She loves discussing feminism in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and totalitarianism in The Handmaid’s Tale. But lately, she doesn’t enjoy grading. But it’s not because grading takes forever. Rather, it’s because at least one-third of her students are using artificial intelligence to write their essays. What is there to do about it? she asks in this well-written essay.

If you like a good dose of nostalgia, you’ll love this piece, especially toward the end, when Ms. Lieberman remembers her days at UC Berkeley, a young English major, reading Chaucer on a grassy knoll, under a shady tree. “There was nothing better,” she writes. “It felt like magic.”

By Lisa Lieberman • The Chronicle of Higher Education • 6 mins • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ Gays Against Briggs

Since its founding three years ago, Moms for Liberty has urged its supporters to stand up for parental rights so that teachers don’t groom their kids to become trans. “It is not a question of civil rights or human rights, but it is one of parents’ rights and simply one of morality,” they might say.

Except they didn’t say this. This is what California State Senator John Briggs said in 1977, in his quest to ban gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools.

The Slow Burn podcast — always outstanding at pointing out the connections between present-day controversies and their historical counterparts — is dedicating Pride Month to tell the story of how the LGBTQ community fought back against Proposition 6, otherwise known as the Briggs Initiative. Even though I don’t know what déjà vu really means (it’s French!), listening to this podcast, that’s how I felt.

By Christina Cautericci • Slow Burn • 50 min • Apple Podcasts

Listen to the podcast

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

To our 8 new subscribers — incuding Warren, Anya, Erin, Terri, Meredith, Tabitha, and Leo — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Make yourself at home.

If you appreciate the articles, like the gift links, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. (Big thanks to Terri, Article Club’s latest paid subscriber.)

Subscribed

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend (thanks Tsoniki and Christian and Hoang!), leave a comment, send me an email, or send me a voicemail. I’d like hearing from you.

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