#486: College Isn’t For Everyone

This is my 28th year in education (wow, oh my). Up until recently, I’ve been unabashedly pro-college, like most educators. My advice to students was simple and direct: Go to the best college you can get into, because it’ll lead to better life outcomes. Don’t worry, 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 unhelpful. It was certainly informed by my own privilege, college experience, and life trajectory. And it didn’t emerge from listening deeply to my students about their hopes for the future.

This week’s issue is focused on the declining trend of college and the rising trend of career and technical education. I’ve selected four articles for you. They explore:

• how even the college-preppiest schools are no longer adamant on college

• how economics and politics explain the trend away from college-for-all

• how many young people are flocking toward career education

• how focusing on vocational education may not yield long-term benefits

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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➕ Melinda says hi and thank you for your kind words about her inaugural post over at Melinda’s Grief Corner. She’ll be back with another installment this Sunday at 9:10 am PT. Be on the lookout for it! (I’ve seen a draft; it’s great.)

1️⃣ Why Some Schools Are Rethinking ‘College for All’

KIPP is the largest network of charter schools in the country. For most its 31-year history, the organization adopted a no-excuses approach: Every single young person was going to college. It didn’t matter your zip code, your economic status, or your academic skills. College was the way for all.

Not anymore. KIPP is now opening up their definition of success and offering its students post-secondary options that do not involve college. Shavar Jeffries, chief executive of the KIPP Foundation, is cautious about the shift. “We have to be very, very careful, particularly for younger people of color,” he said, suggesting that (white) educators might begin to hold lower expectations for their students.

Also notable: Mr. Jeffries concedes that trends in philanthropy and politics have contributed to the shift in KIPP’s policy.

By Dana Goldstein • The New York Times • 7 min • Gift Link

Read the article

2️⃣ Saying No To College

Why are Americans losing faith in the value of college? What will happen to our country if this downward trend continues?

Those are questions that author Paul Tough poses in this outstanding article, which I selected as Article of the Month in January 2024. 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.

For first-generation college students, college is like entering a casino, Mr. Tough writes. It’s great if you graduate — that is to say, if you major in a lucrative field and leave college without big loans to pay off. But many young people and their families are not interested in taking this risk, especially if they’re lukewarm to academics.

➕ Listen to my interview with Mr. Tough, in which he excoriates the inequality of higher education.

By Paul Tough • The New York Times Magazine • 18 min • Gift Link

Read the article

Melissa Osborne, author of Polished: College, Class, and Social Mobility, quoted in Anne Helen Petersen’s newsletter, “Culture Study.”

3️⃣ Meet The Toolbelt Generation

If you read Mr. Tough’s article above, you may have been startled, as I was, about this statistic: “Among young Americans in Generation Z, 45 percent say that a high school diploma is all you need today to ‘ensure financial security.’ ”

But young people are finding success in careers right out of high school. As a result, more and more high schools are changing their curriculum to promote pathways in career and technical education. Author Windsor Johnston writes, “With the use of artificial intelligence on the rise, many Gen Zers see manual labor as less vulnerable to the emerging technology than white-collar alternatives. They also say vocational schools are a straight path to well-paying jobs.”

By Windsor Johnston • NPR • 4 min • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ ‘Retirement Is A Distant Dream’

I fully understand that for many young people, pursuing a career that does not require college is the right choice. But I worry that the labor industry will continue to shift, especially given the acceleration of technology, leaving some people stuck in jobs (or losing jobs) without the flexibility to change fields.

Reading this article by Alana Semuels certainly did not lift my spirits. Ms. Semuels follows Walter Carpenter and other retirees in Vermont who are still working in their 70s, barely scraping by. They’ve worked all their lives doing honest work, but the labor market has not afforded them an opportunity to save. “About 1 in 5 people over 50 have no retirement savings at all,” she writes, and the problem is worsening — “20% of low-income workers had a retirement-account balance in 2007, but oly 10% had one in 2019.”

By Alana Semuels • Time Magazine • 15 min • Gift Link

➕ Here’s the original article with my highlights and annotations.

Read the article

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

To our 4 new subscribers — including Camille, Sab, and Josie — 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. I am very appreciative of Kathleen, our latest paid reader. Thank you!

Subscribe

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. My favorite two ways right now would be to leave a comment or email me at mark@articleclub.org with your thoughts.

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.

#485: The End of Children

Dear Readers,

First off, thank you for your interest in our new feature at Article Club, Melinda’s Grief Corner, which launched on Sunday. It was great to see so many people engaging, sharing hearts, and writing comments. If you missed it, I hope you take a look. Melinda will be back in two Sundays with her next installment, which will include a grief-y reflection plus a resource.

Now let’s shift to this week’s issue. If you asked me before last Saturday, “Hey Mark, do you care about the worldwide birth dearth and its potential doomsday impact on human civilization?” I would have likely replied with a quick “not-so-much.” While I understand that pronatalists like J.D. Vance and Elon Musk are obsessed with this topic (for example, “childless cat ladies”), I didn’t put it on the top of my list.

But then I read this week’s lead article, “The End of Children.” Although the article didn’t convince me to shift my position — I still consider climate change as the biggest existential threat to our planet — writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus captivated me from beginning to end. In fact, after finishing the piece, I was so enthralled that I began looking for other articles on the pronatalism movement, rather than waiting for articles to come to me. For that reason, this week’s issue is dedicated to the imminent decline of our world’s population and why so many people are freaking out about it.

If you have time for just one article, definitely read “The End of Children.” It’ll offer an outstanding overview. But if your week or weekend is free and expansive, I recommend all three additional articles. They are about:

• how late-stage capitalism is to blame for the “end of babies”

• how pronatalists take seriously Shakespeare’s mantra, “The world must be peopled!”

• how if you don’t care about the birth dearth, you can lavish your one kid with hundreds of thousands of dollars, even into adulthood

My hope is that you get something out of one (or more) of the articles and then leave a comment, or tell me about it. All you need to do is hit reply or email me at mark@articleclub.org. Hope you have a good weekend ahead!

Leave a comment

🎙️ This month, we’re reading and discussing “Radicalized,” a 2019 novella by Cory Doctorow about the injustices of the health care insurance industry. You are warmly invited to join our discussion on Sunday, March 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. As always, we’ll meet on Zoom. Everyone is welcome. Let me know if you have any questions, too.

☀️ If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year. (Be like Briana! Thank you, Briana.)

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1️⃣ The End of Children

Growing up, I worried about many things. One source of worry was my family’s evacuation plan in case of fire; it wasn’t robust enough. Another source was the world’s exponential population increase, which would inevitably doom us.

Turns out, at the time, my concern was not unfounded. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich wrote in The Population Bomb that millions of people would die of starvation unless governments aggressively curtailed the fertility rate. But instead of population rising without bound, the opposite has happened. In 2023, for the first time ever, because on average each woman had fewer than 2.1 children (the “replacement rate”), the world’s population shrank. All projections say this trend will continue, until one day, there won’t be enough people for us to sustain as a species.

In Seoul, where author Gideon Lewis-Kraus focuses this article, “children are largely phantom presences.” There are more dogs than children. Ask anyone on the street, a Korean demographer said, and they’ll know the country’s fertility rate. (It is 0.7, the lowest in the world.) Kids bring ick. Many businesses are “no-kids zones.”

The United States (fertility rate: 1.6) is headed in a similar direction, Mr. Lewis-Kraus argues. The truth is, for whatever reason (and there are many), younger Americans no longer think having children is an inevitability. As immigration declines, and climate concerns rise, and structural inequities worsen, our country may face the same problem as Korea. And that could lead to catastrophe.

By Gideon Lewis-Kraus • The New Yorker • 42 min • Gift Link

➕ Bonus: Here’s the article with my handwritten highlights and annotations.

Read the article

2️⃣ The End of Babies

Why are we having fewer kids? According to Anna Louie Sussman, the reason is part economic, part cultural. Most prominently, she blames late-stage capitalism, which not only has exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor, but also has caused us to optimize every conceivably marketable commodity, including our children. Ms. Sussman writes:

Our current version of global capitalism has generated shocking wealth for some, and precarity for many more. These economic conditions generate social conditions inimical to starting families: Our workweeks are longer and our wages lower, leaving us less time and money to meet, court and fall in love. Our increasingly winner-take-all economies require that children get intensive parenting and costly educations, creating rising anxiety around what sort of life a would-be parent might provide. A lifetime of messaging directs us toward other pursuits instead: education, work, travel.

But Ms. Sussman also follows the research that the culture has shifted away from believing that having children is the primary way to find meaning and fulfillment in our lives. Religion is down. Workism is up. We send “little moral signals” to our friends, she writes, that promote individualism and independence. Having kids can get in the way of all the other things we want to do in life.

By Anna Louie Sussman • The New York Times Magazine • 19 min • Gift Link

Read the article

Growing up, I didn’t appreciate that there was an open space preserve a mere 10-minute walk from my house. (I will be going back.) Thank you to loyal reader Randy for the good walk and conversation.

3️⃣ Having Tons Of Kids To Save The World

So what should be done to curb this population drop? For pronatalists, the answer is simple: It’s time to have more kids — and plenty of them. Malcolm and Simone Collins are on a mission to save humanity by having as many babies as possible. The Collinses are atheists and do not subscribe to the precepts of tradlife. Believers in data and science, they embrace the hyper-rational effective altruism movement, which makes plain and clear that having more children is what’s best for life on Earth.

At first glance, yes, the Collinses are a bit kooky. But this article by Jenny Kleeman does a great job challenging the reader to stay curious and practice empathy. As much as I don’t think having 10-plus kids is the answer, I did appreciate parts of the Collinses’ parenting philosophy. For instance: “Humanity will survive if we all decide to be a little less precious about our children; if we are prepared to take a financial hit and change our lifestyles to accommodate more of them; if we all adjust our expectations and attitudes.”

By Jenny Kleeman • The Guardian • 22 min • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ Adults Lavishly Subsidized By Their Parents

If one approach to the birth dearth is to have more children, I suppose another path forward is the total opposite: to spoil rotten the kid(s) you already have — and continue to do so, even after they have become full-grown adults.

This article — about how rich parents in New York subsidize their adult children’s New York lifestyles — is entirely over the top. Yes, I know: New York is expensive. And being a Millennial or a Gen Z is not easy. But these stories are wild. We’re not just talking down payments here. We’re talking home purchases, kids’ private school tuitions, keratin treatments, and my favorite, $500,000-per-year allowances.

One 34-year-old (who has received only $335,000 from her parents) writes: “I sometimes think to myself, Am I a trust-fund baby, or are we middle class? I can’t even tell what middle class means in Manhattan. I know parents who bought their kids $4 million apartments in Tribeca or Hamptons homes. My parents are not giving me anything like that, so I’m conditioned to think this is kind of the bare minimum.”

➕ Want a few doozies? Here are 14 short personal accounts of people with parents with money, and the decisions they made. (So much for the level playing field.)

By Madeline Leung Coleman • Intelligencer • 9 min • Gift Link

Read the article

✏️ It’s time to hear from you.

Last week, the great majority of you said you’d love it if we wrote more comments, shared our thoughts more, and built this reading community. So let’s do it!

If you’re comfortable to share, I’d love to open up a conversation about the role of children in our lives. How have you thought about it? What has felt right? What hasn’t?

If you feel moved, please share your perspective. Thank you!

Leave a comment

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

To our 8 new subscribers — including Briana, Jack, Emmanuel, Allison, Hali, M.S., Ann, and Shantee — 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. I am very appreciative of Briana, our latest paid reader. Thank you!

Subscribe

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. My favorite two ways right now would be to leave a comment or email me at mark@articleclub.org with your thoughts.

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.

Melinda’s Grief Corner

Hi, Mark here! In case you missed Thursday’s issue, I’m very excited to announce a new feature at Article Club. It’s called Melinda’s Grief Corner. As some of you know, Melinda and I co-host a podcast in which we preview the article of the month. Now she will be sharing her reflections on grief, as well as a resource, for everyone who is interested. I’m looking forward to it, and I’m confident you’ll find the corner illuminating and supportive. The first installment is here below. Take it away, Melinda!

One year ago, on March 9, 2024 at 4:37 pm, my dad died after complications from a stroke. And since then I’ve been learning how to live with what I’ve been calling my new life-long roommate - grief.

I’m what you call an ‘over-intellectualizer.’ I’ve had several therapists (hello, out there if you’re reading!) tell me that I like to write dissertations about my emotions, but not necessarily always feel them.

You know when someone says something about you and you feel both seen and attacked? That is how I felt, y’all! Guilty as charged!

So in the early days of grief, I joked to my friends (and therapist!) that I was trying to get a Ph.D. in grief. I felt like if I could just really study grief, really get in there and stick grief under a microscope, that maybe I’d be able to get a handle on it. And by getting a handle on it, I mean feel like I’m not constantly drowning.

I read every article on grief I could find, I listened to dozens of podcast episodes, I watched the interview between Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper about their shared father-loss at least 10 times.

Just trying to tether myself to anything to help me make sense of this new world I was trying to live in. And trying to make sense of who I was without someone I have never had to live without.

Me and my dad during a vacation in Hawaii in 2004

I’m no expert in grief despite me trying to desperately earn a Ph.D. in it. And I’m definitely not a mental health professional who is giving professional advice to the grieving.

But one thing I know to be true is that grief is not something to be fixed.

It is something to be witnessed.

And that’s why I’m here.

Welcome to Melinda’s Grief Corner. A place where your grief will be witnessed and held. And in the spirit of Article Club, this is a corner where I hope you find support through articles, podcasts, and grief resources that I will share.

Every other week I’ll share a grief-y reflection in newsletter format right here in Article Club and I’ll also share a resource I’ve come across that has helped me. And folks will be able to comment on these reflections and resources to share their own thoughts and feelings.

This is open to all folks on a grief journey (or not yet on a grief journey!). If you want to just read these reflections and other people’s comments that is completely fine! There is no pressure to comment or share. And if it’s too much for you to sit with that, then that’s ok too! The newsletters will always be open whenever you’re ready.

And here’s the deal. Grief is big. Grief for me feels a bit like a suitcase. And inside of that suitcase are memories of my dad and also just dozens of emotions - sadness, pain, joy, love, longing, etc. etc.

And you know sometimes that suitcase is super organized with my REI packing cubes bento box style. And other times that suitcase has lost a wheel, I’ve had to duct tape it shut, and TSA is like “ma’am no way can you bring that on this plane.”

Each day the suitcase is different. But each day, the suitcase is still there and we have to carry it forward. And we do not have to do it alone.

And that’s what I hope this grief corner is. A place for us to come together, to support each other, and hopefully for you to find something that helps you in your grief journey.

Bring your suitcase of grief-y ness. Hopefully gain some insight on grief. Cry with me. Laugh with me. Honestly laugh and cry at the same time with me because the journey of grief is a weird road that is anything but linear or logical.

Thank you for witnessing a part of my grief-y journey today. In two weeks I’ll share what happens when you ask Google how to grieve (spoiler alert - it’s messy!).

In the meantime, I’d love for you to share one word in the comments about how you’re feeling in your grief journey. Today mine is “heavy.”

Big hugs, see you soon.

#484: The Languages Lost To Climate Change

Dear Thoughtful Readers,

Welcome to March! Thank you for being here. As many of you know, my father passed away a long time ago, and ever since the beginning of this newsletter, 10 years ago, I’ve often shared articles with you about death, in part to grieve, in part to remember him, but also to remind us of this gift called life.

I’m very excited to announce a new feature that is coming to Article Club. It’s called Melinda’s Grief Corner. As some of you know, Melinda and I co-host a podcast in which we preview the article of the month. Now she will be sharing her reflections on grief, as well as a resource, for everyone who is interested. I’m looking forward to it, and I’m confident you’ll find the corner illuminating and supportive.

You’ll receive the first installment of Melinda’s Grief Corner this Sunday at 9:10 am PT as a separate email. Be on the lookout for it, and if it resonates with you, I warmly invite you to engage in whatever way that makes sense to you.

Now let’s get into this week’s articles. Even though I’ve been doing Article Club for a long time, I never can predict which topics will rise to the top. This week, it was climate change. Today’s lead article, “The Languages Lost to Climate Change,” elegantly helped me understand an additional impact of climate change without leaving me forlorn and paralyzed. I recommend the piece highly.

If the loss of linguistic diversity does not interest you, why not try one of the other outstanding articles in today’s issue? They’re about:

• How our love of technology requires the constructon of data centers, which hog water and electricity, which means building power lines that devastate the landscape, and which widen the gap between the rich and poor

• How the mother of a mass shooter has tried to make sense of the horror her son unleashed, and how she navigates her life, 10 years later

➕ In addition, check out my invitation to join this month’s discussion of “Radicalized,” by Cory Doctorow, coming Sunday, March 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT.

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribe

1️⃣ The Languages Lost To Climate Change

We know that languages are going extinct at an astounding rate: one every 40 days, according to linguist Gary F. Simons. Although more than 7,000 languages remain, more than half are spoken by communities of 10,000 or fewer people. This well-written article draws a tight connection between climate change and the acceleration of language loss. “Where plant and animal species are disappearing,” author Julia Webster Ayuso writes, “languages, dialects and unique expressions often follow a similar pattern of decline.”

I appreciated this article for many reasons, including Ms. Ayuso’s ability to help build my background knowledge without coming across as too basic. She explains how language has been used as a weapon of colonization, quoting Spanish scholar Antonio de Nebrija, who wrote in 1492, “Language has always been the companion of empire.” In addition, the piece includes an exploration of the conservation movement and the erection of national parks as yet another destroyer of Indigenous languages. To preserve and separate, Ms. Ayuso argues, means also to subjugate and eliminate the diversity of cultures.

By Julia Webster Ayuso • Noema • 17 min • Gift Link

Read the article

2️⃣ Come join our discussion on March 23

In case you missed last week’s issue, this month, we’re reading and discussing “Radicalized,” a 2019 novella by Cory Doctorow about the injustices of the health care insurance industry. You are warmly invited to join our discussion on Sunday, March 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. As always, we’ll meet on Zoom. Everyone is welcome. Let me know if you have any questions, too.

Sign up for our discussion

Here is Primo, who belonged to loyal readers Tony and Ziba. Primo passed away last weekend. He was a gentle and noble companion who loved being outdoors in the sun. hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Power Failure: On Landscape And Abandonment

Whenever I use ChatGPT — which is rarely, mostly because I’m quickly becoming a dinosaur — I’m reminded of how much water I’m wasting. (Estimate: a bottle every 20 questions.) This article follows the construction of new electrical lines in Ohio, which will power data centers for Amazon and Intel. Author Mya Frazier illustrates how our insatiable demand for technology inexorably leads to the destruction of our country’s rural landscape.

Ms. Frazier also does an outstanding job highlighting how our unbridled desire for artificial intelligence also results in deepening conflicts between rich suburban cities (like New Albany, the beneficiary of the data centers) and their rural counterparts (like Sunbury, through which the power lines run). What is making some of our lives more convenient is making others’ lives significantly worse.

By Mya Frazier • Switchyard • 18 min • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ Lessons From A Mass Shooter’s Mother

In 2014, Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others in a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California. I remember following this story, quickly concluding that Mr. Rodger was a misogynistic incel who not only hated himself but also found himself superior, bemoaning his virginity while recording videos with sunglasses on inside his BMW.

Therefore I began this profile of Mr. Rodger’s mother, Chin, with some hesitation. But I’m happy I read it. By no means does this article try to forgive Mr. Rodger’s horrific actions. At the same time, it reminded me that his mother did nothing wrong, yet she still has to live with the consequences, 10 years later. Author Mark Follman writes:

Yet, for years she felt that she had no right even to acknowledge her own grief, out of deference to the victims’ families. “They lost their children to what he did. They had no say in that. Elliot made the decision to do what he did.”

There are ways in which she still can’t confront his violence. “I have not put myself there yet, to visualize the horrible things he did,” she said, tearing up. “It’s still just so hard.” She was quiet for a moment. “Even saying the words ‘mass shooter’ is still really hard for me. But I’m working through it.”

By Mark Follman • Mother Jones • 53 min • Gift Link

Read the article

✅ It’s time for a quick poll. I’d love to hear from you.

Last week, we learned that half of you like to go back to the archives to read articles from the past. But the other half says no way, the past is history, let’s keep moving.

This week is about writing comments. Some newsletters have a robust comments section. Ours is great but a little sparse. Would you like hearing from fellow Article Clubbers? (This would mean you would comment, too!)

POLL

Should we build out our comments section?

Yes. I would appreciate this.

75%

No. I’m happy with how AC is now.

25%

POLL CLOSED

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

To our 6 new subscribers — including Amb, Rod, Wangui, Jane, and Marianne — 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. I am very appreciative of Janet, our latest paid reader. Thank you!

Subscribe

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 Anabelle!), leave a comment, buy me a coffee, 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.

#483: A Regular Guy, Radicalized

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Welcome back, loyal readers. First off, we had another strong week, with 18 new subscribers joining, thanks to Sunday, Sarah, Gotelé, Loque, Coree, Claire, Elizabeth, Lauren, Marina, Imma, Patricia, Beth, Mahesh, Olga, Heriberto, Leer, and Melissa. Thank you for trying Article Club, and I hope you like it here.

This week’s issue is dedicated to our article of the month. For all of you who are interested, we’ll be reading, annotating, and discussing “Radicalized,” by Cory Doctorow. You’ll learn more about the piece below, but here are a few tidbits:

• It’s a fictional novella written in 2019 about a man who becomes radicalized after his health insurance denies his claim. Sound familiar?

• I read this piece in December, the week after all-things-Luigi Mangione

• Mr. Doctorow‘s writing is fast-paced and his details eerily prescient

Sound compelling? If so, you’re invited to join our deep dive on the article. We’re meeting up to discuss the piece on Sunday, March 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. All you need to do is click the button below to sign up. 📖

Sign up for the discussion

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribe

1️⃣ Radicalized

Originally published in 2019, this novella follows Joe Gorman, a regular guy with a wonderful wife. One day she calls him at work with horrific news: Stage 4 breast cancer. They find a treatment that offers hope, but their health insurance denies their request. Reeling, Joe goes online for comfort. He discovers a discussion forum of men facing similar challenges. He feels safe online; he feels a sense of community. Over time, Joe finds himself on his computer in the middle of the night, as men on the forum writhe in pain and discuss ways to achieve vengeance. What will it take, they ask, in order for things to change? What will it take to achieve justice?

To say that the story is prescient would be an understatement. Don’t worry, Article Club is not going to rebrand as a Luigi Mangione fan newsletter. Nevertheless, Cory Doctorow’s writing is eerie, down to the details.

+ Content warning: violence

By Cory Doctorow • The American Prospect • 65 min • Gift Link

Read the short story

⭐️ About the author

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently Picks and Shovels. His most recent nonfiction book is The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Mr. Doctorow also coined the term “enshittification,” also known as platform decay, used to describe the pattern in which online products and services decline in quality over time.

⭐️ About the podcast

This month’s podcast is a two-parter. You get:

1. An introduction to the story, brought to you by Article Club co-host Melinda and me. You’ll also hear our first impressions — and don’t worry, there are no spoilers!

2. An interivew of Mr. Doctorow, in which he shares his thoughts on his novella.

I’m always deeply appreciative that authors agree to do an interview for Article Club. It’s a gift that they share with us their process, their craft, and their perspective. Thank you, Mr. Doctorow, for saying yes to participating in our reading community!

In the interview, Mr. Doctorow and I talked about a number of topics, including:

• how he reacted to the breaking news of Luigi Mangione’s actions

• how he conceived of the piece — which emerged from his Canadian background, his understanding of America’s predilection toward gun violence, and his father’s health journey

• how he can empathize with people who become radicalized online

I encourage you to listen to the podcast if you have the time. Thank you!

🙋🏽‍♀️ Interested? I encourage you to sign up.

You are certainly welcome to read the article, listen to the podcast, 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 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 if you have questions, hit reply or email me at mark@articleclub.org.

Sign up for the discussion on March 23

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

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, especially during “these times,” please consider a paid subscription. (Big thanks to Jenn, Article Club’s latest paid subscriber.)

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If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Share the newsletter with a friend (thanks Zelda!) or buy me a coffee for $3 (so I can read more articles).

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.

#482: Dear White Sister

Dear Readers,

They say in schools, February’s no joke. Alongside my colleagues, I’ve certainly been putting in the hours in order to serve our students the best we can. But there’s always still reading to be done — not only for this newsletter and our reading community, but also for my own self-care. It makes me happy that I keep getting to do this, week after week. Thank you for reading and supporting Article Club.

I have a feeling you’re going to like this week’s issue. Instead of the regular offering (i.e., four articles), I’m switching things up and sharing with you some great writing and thinking from a variety of genres. Scroll down and you’ll find:

• an essay about racial appropriation and the end of an interracial friendship

• an interview with Susan Dominus about IVF and her article, “Someone Else’s Daughter”

• an article about the care a park ranger takes in order to support unhoused people in Golden Gate Park

• a podcast episode about how young people definitely don’t think using generative AI is cheating

Also, don’t miss our pet photo, as well as our poll toward the end. Hope you enjoy.

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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1️⃣ Dear White Sister

I appreciate the work of Tressie McMillan Cottom, so when she recommended Don’t Let It Get You Down, a collection of essays by UC Berkeley Law professor Savala Nolan, I knew I needed to check it out. I was not disappointed. As the book’s subtitle makes clear, Prof. Nolan writes plainly and thoughtfully about race, gender, and the body. In the chapter, “Dear White Sister,” Prof. Nolan decides whether to approach a close and long-time white friend after an objectionable post on Instagram. In short, the friend quotes Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” to celebrate her love for roller skating and progress in roller derby.

Prof. Nolan writes: “I feel a peculiar sensation when white people borrow — take — something Black: it’s like there’s an octopus in my chest, peacefully afloat, when danger suddenly appears. The animal contracts its jellied body and expels a gush of protective ink, then darts away in panic. Don’t belittle ‘Freedom,’ I hissed inside. ‘Freedom’ isn’t for a white girl in the Midwest taking up roller derby.”

By Savala Nolan • Don’t Let It Get You Down • 25 min

Read the essay

2️⃣  An Interview With Susan Dominus: “I was just so inspired by the goodness of the people involved.”

Many of you read and appreciated January’s article of the month, ”Someone Else’s Daughter,” by Susan Dominus, which told the story of a horrible IVF mistake that resulted in two women giving birth to the other woman’s genetic baby. More importantly, the piece illuminates the generosity of the human spirit, as the mothers, filled with grief and shame for an error they didn’t make, embrace each other and figure out a way to raise their children together.

I got to interview Ms. Dominus a few weeks back, and hope you take a listen. Over and over again in our conversation, she shared how reporting and writing the piece left her inspired and hopeful. Here’s an excerpt:

 I would say the main thing that I really did want people to feel reading the piece was that same inspired feeling I felt in hearing their stories — that there is always a way, not always, but that when there is conflict or crisis, if you respond with openness and generosity, sometimes beautiful things come of that. That's what I took away as a human being, just being part of it. I was so inspired by the goodness of the people involved and the way that their goodness allowed them to turn something awful into something really beautiful.

➡️ Listen to the interview by clicking the play button below.

Longtime favorite pet Ollie, who belonged to loyal reader Kati, passed away last month after a short illness. He loved carrying his owners’ shoes outside and disliked clothes dryers. Ollie always preferred his tongue out. He will be missed. hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Her Job Is To Remove Homeless People From SF’s Parks. Her Methods Are Extraordinary.

It’s easy to bewail the rise and intractability of homelessness. It’s much harder to do something about it. That’s why I appreciated reading this article about the efforts of Amanda Barrows, a park ranger for San Francisco Recreation and Parks. In 2015, the government agency launched a new program designed to connect unhoused people with the services they need. Since Ms. Barrows joined the force in 2021, she has helped 60 people leave Golden Gate Park and accept more permanent housing.

Reporter Susan Freinkel does an excellent job following Ms. Barrows as she builds relationships with her clients, earns their trust, and listens to what they need. Having grown up in public housing, having lived in a “dodgy SRO” for five years, and having lost her father to a fentanyl overdose, Ms. Barrows says that her work feels natural. “I can relate to a lot of the people who I contact through my own lived experience.”

By Susan Freinkel • The San Francisco Standard • 16 min • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ Playboi Farti And His AI Homework Machine

In case there’s any doubt: How teenagers think about using generative artificial intelligence in school is very different from how most educators think about it. In essence, we think it’s cheating (or plagiarism, or whatever big word we want to use), and they don’t. To them, ChatGPT is like a word calculator. Why slog away at a boring five-paragraph essay about The Great Gatsby that’s been done millions of times when a robot can do you it for you?

That’s the essential question of this podcast episode, in which host PJ Vogt tests a theory he holds — that writing is more than answering a teacher’s prompt, and that generative AI is more than just a labor-saving tool. It’s thinking, he argues, and if we give away thinking to a computer, then our humanity is doomed.

By PJ Vogt • Search Engine • 61 min • Apple Podcasts

✅ It’s time for a quick poll. I’d love to hear from you.

Last week, we confirmed that there’s no widespread conspiracy to keep this newsletter out of your inbox. Delivery is working well most of the time.

But what about your reading habits? Do you focus on the current week’s issue? Or do you like diving into the archives to check out past issues?

POLL

Do you ever go back and read an issue from the past?

Yes

50%

No

50%

POLL CLOSED

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

To our 8 new subscribers — including Hilary, El, Christopher, Brimbus, Gloria, and Paul — 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. I am very appreciative of Gary, our latest paid reader. Thank you!

Subscribe

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 Yolanda!), leave a comment, buy me a coffee (thank you, Anonymous Coffee Giver!), 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.

#481: Reading As A Scavenger Hunt?

Dear Loyal Readers,

You and me, I’d venture to say, we like to read. This is why I put together this newsletter week after week. And this is why you generously subscribe to it. After all, this is Article Club, right? We’re here to read.

But we also know (though I don’t like to admit it): Reading isn’t for everyone. This month’s article of the month, “Is This the End of Reading?” follows the downward trend of reading, especially among Gen Z college students. In her piece, writer Beth McMurtrie looks at the problem straight on: listening to professors, considering causes, and most importantly, thinking of ways to respond.

There’s still room to join our discussion on Feb. 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. For more information and to sign up, click the button below.

Sign up for our discussion on Feb. 23

Leading this week’s issue is a conversation I had last week with Ms. McMurtrie. Especially if you’re an educator or a parent, I highly recommend that you listen. In the interview, Ms. McMurtrie shares the feelings of professors dealing with the abrupt shifts they’re witnessing in the classroom. Reading stamina has significantly declined, and so have critical reading skills. Gone are the days when students could read a book or an article on their own. Now, according to one professor, reading has become a “scavenger hunt,” in which students search for discrete answers to discrete questions, dipping in and out of short excerpts, rather than taking in a whole text.

If that interview does not catch your interest, never fear. I urge you to read one of the other three articles in this week’s issue. They are about:

• how we shouldn’t blame phones and the pandemic on the decline of reading

• how a woman visiting an abortion clinic finds Christianity confusing

• how a college in Texas espouses free speech, unless they don’t like it

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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An interview with Beth McMurtrie, author of “Is This the End of Reading?”

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Beth McMurtrie this week. Senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ms. McMurtrie knows what she’s talking about when it comes to the status of reading among college students. It was a delight to talk to her. I encourage you to listen to our entire conversation. Here’s an excerpt:

If you think of teaching as a vocation, a calling, which a lot of academics do, [the decline of reading] is really an existential crisis because you’re seeing harm come to your students. I didn’t find many professors who were angry at their students; they were sad for their students. They were certainly frustrated and sometimes wanted to beat their head against the walls, but they were sad for their students because they could see the anxiety that the students felt when they couldn’t do the work.

[The professors] would often say to me, These students have no idea how much less I’m asking of them than I asked of students 10 or 15 years ago. It changes what you can do in the classroom and how you can teach. You can’t get through as much material, which means students just simply aren’t as learning as much content. If you can't get through as much content, you may end up having to teach the skills that you thought students had learned in high school. So then your teaching becomes a different kind of teaching.

And if you don't do those things, then you kind of have a dead classroom, or you might have a discussion that goes off the rails because the students are not interpreting kind of what they're learning in a useful way.

Sign up for our discussion on Feb. 23

2️⃣ The Loss Of Things I Took For Granted

I included this fair, well-written piece last year when it was published, but I’m sharing it again, especially since Ms. McMurtrie highlighted it in our interview. Focusing on the decline of reading among college students, it’s a great companion piece to hers.

Prof. Adam Kotsko writes: “For most of my career, I assigned around 30 pages of reading per class meeting as a baseline expectation — sometimes scaling up for purely expository readings or pulling back for more difficult texts. (No human being can read 30 pages of Hegel in one sitting, for example.) Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding. Even smart and motivated students struggle to do more with written texts than extract decontextualized take-aways. Considerable class time is taken up simply establishing what happened in a story or the basic steps of an argument — skills I used to be able to take for granted.”

By Adam Kotsko • Slate • 7 min • Gift Link

Read the article

Seneca, who belongs to loyal reader Kira, enjoys his stuffies and is working on delaying gratification (as we all are). Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Two Days Before Abortion Stopped In Kentucky

Savannah Sipple: “I grew up in a conservative, religious part of eastern Kentucky where fundamental Christianity rules. For most of my upbringing, I recognized the pastors, choir leaders, and Sunday school teachers as the folks who lived the kindness they preached. When someone’s family member died they cooked food, cleaned house, and prayed with the grieving. They regularly took up offerings and gave food to those struggling.

“What I didn’t recognize at the time were the microaggressions. They’d say slight comments about Catholicism, which confused me as a kid because part of my family was Catholic. They’d make jokes about gays. Preachers pronounced lesbians the scourge of the nation because they dared to live without men. I was closeted, but I was both the butt of the joke and then the monster. Still, I was devout. This kind of confusing Christianity where hate is enmeshed with love was the only kind of sacred available to me. Even when my personal beliefs stood in contrast to what I was taught, I remained silent. I heard church folks disparage women who sought abortions. I heard their judgments, the way words like abomination, backslider, and sin always carried a tone of disgust and dismissal. And I stood by.”

By Savannah Sipple • The Arkansas International • 8 min • gift link unavailable

Read the article

4️⃣ An American Education

Noah Rawlings: “A revolution in education! A resuscitation of the university mission! To happen in, of all places, not the pompous old northeast or the debauched West Coast, not New York or California but the country’s southern reaches — in the Texas Hill Country, in the city of Austin, where already technologists and venture capitalists had swarmed, drawn by the absence of income tax and the looseness of labor regulations, pulled by the mild zoning laws and the natural beauty and the food trucks and the good vibes. Austin, because it was a ‘hub for builders, mavericks, and creators.’ Here a new university: the University of Austin, or UATX.

“UATX is a ‘genuinely safe space,’ in the sense that it isolates students from the inconvenient opposition of other peers and professors. It is a monoculture of free-market faith which provides, in the end, a venue for young people seeking success in tech and finance to network and to fortify the rightwing ideas that brought them here in the first place.”

➡️ Big thanks to loyal reader Tim for recommending this article. Want to nominate an article to appear in the newsletter? Click here.

By Noah Rawlings • The New Inquiry • 26 min • Gift Link

Read the article

✅ It’s time for a quick poll. I’d love to hear from you.

Last week, we confirmed that most of you read Article Club via email. That’s what I suspected. (But no problem if you use the app!)

This week, let’s solve a mystery.

POLL

Email readers: Has an issue ever skipped your inbox or not been delivered?

Yes

8%

No

92%

POLL CLOSED

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

To all of our 9 new subscribers — including Ines, Julia, Maira, Kate, Lex, and Jasun — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Lee! Leo! Leonel!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Zaira, thank you for getting the word out.

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. I am very appreciative of Kate and Carol, our latest paid subscribers. Thank you!

Subscribe

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways to support this newsletter. My favorite would be if you recommended Article Club to a friend. Other great options include buying me a $3 coffee, leaving a comment, or sending me an email at mark@articleclub.org. 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.

#480: After All This

Dear Readers,

First things first: Let’s welcome our 51 new subscribers Violet, Rae, Olga, Taylor, Joyce, Sogo, Emily, Callie, Angelina, Peter, Tya, Emily, Natalie, Christine, Heather, Mary, Hannah, Marie-Pierre, Kristy, Fernanda, Maurtini, Helen, Angelina, Colette, Ronald, Courtney, Kelley, Jaymi, Katy, Steph, Deborah, Cathy, Christina, Brenna, Megan, Jacki, Alina, Cynthia, Caryn, Brittany, Nimi, Katie, Shell, Jamie, Candice, Samuel, Leslie, and Stephanie. New subscribers, I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club. Make yourself at home. 🏠

A big thank you goes to Katy O, who writes The Mindful Librarian, for writing about ast week’s issue and sharing it with her kind readers. I’m very grateful.

As you can see, this week was a joyous one. Here are some more highlights:

• HHH was a big success (see below)

• We reached 1,500 subscribers (thank you for your readership!)

• I interviewed Beth McMurtrie, author of “Is This the End of Reading?” (coming next week)

• I interviewed Susan Dominus, author of “Someone Else’s Daughter” (coming later this month)

• I got to chat with Melinda about “Is This the End of Reading?” (see below)

Not a bad week at all, don’t you think? Let’s keep up this momentum.

This week’s lead article, “After All This,” caught my interest from the first paragraph. Author Dana Salvador is a teacher and a parent who cannot fathom why we’ve done so little to protect our children against mass shootings. You might not want to read another article about guns in schools, but this one is tightly and beautifully written. I especially appreciated Ms. Salvador’s ability to create vivid images with spare, succinct prose.

If that article does not catch your interest, never fear. Choose between:

• reading about the end of reading and signing up for our discussion Feb. 23

• learning about what it takes to live like a hermit in the woods of central Maine

• reminding yourself to follow your gut when searching for an apartment

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribe

1️⃣ After All This

Dana Salvador was in college in 1999 when two young people killed 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School. That fall, she became a teacher, and remains one to this day. Throughout her career, Ms. Salvador has ruminated on the vast harm that guns in schools have caused. She is devastated by our country’s inability to protect our children. In this powerful piece, Ms. Salvador juxtaposes her personal experiences as a teacher alongside our failures as a nation to stop the killing. “Every day I know I could be shot,” she writes. “I understand how someone who feels powerless might crave dominance, how someone who feels fragile might long to feel control.” Not to give away any spoilers, but the end is particularly illuminating, and sad.

➡️ In case you’re interested, here’s my hand-written annotated version.

By Dana Salvador • The Sun Magazine • 10 min • Gift link

Read the article

2️⃣ “Is This the End of Reading?” Join our discussion Feb. 23

Last week, I revealed February’s article of the month, “Is This the End of Reading?” Written by Beth McMurtrie and published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the piece focuses on the decline of reading among college students. I highly recommend the article, especially if you’re a parent, educator, or worried about the state of reading. (I am worried. 😬)

Already, several of you have signed up for our discussion on Feb. 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. This is great news. If you’re still on the fence, click on the play button below to listen to an introduction to the piece, which Melinda and I recorded last weekend. (Plus there’s an extra perk if you listen to the end!)

Everyone is welcome to sign up for the discussion. This is how it’ll go:

• We’ll sign up by clicking the button below

• We’ll read and annotate the article together on this shared Google Doc

• We’ll listen to an interview with author Beth McMurtrie (coming next week)

• We’ll gather on Zoom to discuss the article in facilitated small groups

Are you interested? I hope so!

If this will be your first time, rest assured: Like you, Article Club readers are kind and thoughtful. We love the best writing that’s out there, and we appreciate building connection and empathy across difference. If you have any questions, hit reply or email me at mark@articleclub.org.

Sign up for our discussion

It was great to see all 32 of you who gathered last Thursday for our 24th HHH. As usual, it was a great event of kind and thoughtful people. Big thanks to everyone who braved the cold, and to John and Ingrid for their latest raffle gift. See you at the next HHH in March or April.

3️⃣ The Last True Hermit

Reading this article about Christopher Thomas Knight, who lived for 27 years as a hermit in the woods of central Maine — never talking to anyone — confirmed for me, once again, that I dislike camping and do indeed prefer the comfort of my abode.

But Mr. Knight’s story, brilliantly told by Michael Finkel, certainly earned my respect of the North Pond Hermit, who survived bitter winters without once lighting a fire. Doing so, he said, would give away his location. The trick was to wake up early, around 2 a.m. “If you try and sleep through that kind of cold, you might never wake up.”

But true hermits and survivalists might scoff at Mr. Knight’s dependence on plundering homes and businesses — at a rate of 40 burglaries per year, always in the dead of night — in order to stock up on food and provisions. His favorites included propane (to cook with and to melt ice, for water) and candy, especially Smarties.

After all, how can you look down on Henry David Thoreau (as Mr. Knight does) when you’re rummaging around for bacon and burgers?

By Michael Finkel • GQ • 32 min • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ A Hellish Apartment

If the last article convinced you that living by yourself in the middle of the woods might not be the ticket to bliss, this article will remind you of the importance of knowing your housemates before entering into a lease agreement. Also, if your gut says no (see below), then maybe your gut is correct.

A few years back, Tabatha Pope was down on her luck, living with her boyfriend at a $35-a-night motel in the West Side of Houston. Desperately needing a permanent place, she heard about an open apartment in a three-story house downtown. Perfect, Ms. Pope thought. Let’s take a look.

The tour of the house went smoothly — that is to say, until the owners showed Ms. Pope the available apartment. “When she started to open the door, an intense, rotten stench flooded the hallway. [The owner] told Pope not to worry about the smell: A refrigerator had stopped working, spoiling some meat.”

By Ian Frisch • Curbed • 27 min • Gift Link

Read the article

✅ It’s time for a quick poll. I’d love to hear from you.

Last week, we learned that you definitely click on gift links (95% yes, 5% no). To be clear, these are made possible by our generous paid subscribers.

This week, let’s learn more about your reading habits. (My gut says I know this answer, but I want to make sure.)

POLL

How do you usually read Article Club?

In my email, on my computer

48%

In my email, on my phone

35%

In the Substack app, on my computer

0%

In the Substack app, on my phone

9%

On my iPad or tablet

9%

POLL CLOSED

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

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. I am very appreciative of Seewan and Courtney, our latest paid subscribers. Thank you!

Subscribe

If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. My favorite would be if you shared Article Club with a friend and encouraged them them to subscribe. (This is what happened this week.) Or buy me a $3 coffee, leave a comment, or send me an email at mark@articleclub.org. 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.

#479: The End of Reading?

Dear Loyal Readers,

Last week’s lead article, “Women Have Been Misled About Menopause,” prompted a deluge of kind words, emails, and phone calls. Thank you for reaching out and sharing that the piece connected with you.

This week, we’re focusing on a topic near and dear to my heart: the state of reading. It’s an understatement when I say I’m a fan of reading. After all, I publish this newsletter, lead a reading nonprofit, support teachers to promote literacy, and extol the virtues of reading to anyone who will listen.

The past few months, I’ve noticed an uptick in voices claiming that young people don’t or can’t read anymore. Much of this sentiment is not new. Every generation, when they’re no longer young, likes to complain about young people. (If you want an article to go viral, the best recipe is to blame teachers without providing evidence.)

Because there’s so much bad writing out there about the fall of reading, I want to share a few articles that might ground us in thoughtful, productive conversations.

Today’s lead article — “Is This The End of Reading?” — is also our February article of the month. It’s written by Beth McMurtrie, whom I selected Best Author of 2024. Ms. McMurtrie is a real reporter; she steers clear of the sensational. This won’t be a gossip column about Lucy Calkins or a hatchet job on the Science of Reading. I highly recommend it, especially if you are a parent, educator, or advocate of reading. If the piece resonates with you, I invite you to our discussion on Feb. 23. You can find out more information below.

If that article does not catch your interest, never fear. Choose between:

• an article exploring the effects of artificial intelligence on reading

• an article reminding us of the benefits of reading, in case we forget

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribe

1️⃣ Is This The End Of Reading?

Some of this, we’ve heard before: Young people aren’t reading as much, and they’re not as skilled in reading, so they’re coming to class unprepared to read complex texts. Whether or not this is true, or a new phenomenon, it certainly doesn’t help to bemoan the state of reading without trying to do something about it.

That’s why I appreciated this article so much. Reporter Beth McMurtrie follows college professors as they grapple with how to teach their students in a post-print world. After all, as one professor says, “If you design a class based on the assumption that students will do the reading, you’ll get nowhere.”

After listing a litany of causes that explain the decline of reading — here we go: smartphones, the pandemic, poor reading instruction, testing culture, less homework in schools, less writing in schools, grade inflation, anxiety, isolation, that school is boring, that parents don’t read to their children, and more — Ms. McMurtrie focuses on the successes and failures of real teachers doing the real work. It’s not all happy and triumphant. “We all kind of feel lost these days,” one professor says.

➡️ In case you’re interested, here’s my hand-written annotated version.

By Beth McMurtrie • The Chronicle of Higher Education • 18 min • Gift Link

Read the article

2️⃣ Come join our discussion on February 23

I’m happy to announce that we will be discussing “Is This The End of Reading” on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, on Zoom.

I warmly invite you to participate this month in our deep dive and to join the discussion. Everyone is welcome to sign up. This is how it’ll go:

• We’ll sign up by clicking the button below

• We’ll read and annotate the article together on this shared Google Doc

• We’ll listen to an interview with author Beth McMurtrie (coming next week)

• We’ll gather on Zoom to discuss the article in facilitated small groups

Are you interested? I hope so.

If this will be your first time (this is most of you!), rest assured: Like you, Article Club readers are kind and thoughtful. We love the best writing that’s out there, and we appreciate building connection and empathy across difference. If you have any questions, hit reply or email me at mark@articleclub.org.

Sign up for our discussion

Morris, who belongs to loyal reader Janine, would prefer having fewer dogs in this newsletter. Please nominate yours for publication: hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ When AI Does The Reading For Students

We know this to be true: ChatGPT is writing our kids’ essays. It doesn’t matter what we do. Pretty soon, unless we bring back Blue Books, generative AI will complete a larger percentage of writing assignments than our students themselves.

But what if the computers do the reading, too? It’s already happening. Google NotebookLM is like CliffsNotes on steroids. Young people won’t have to fake that they’ve done the reading. They’ll just say their digital companion has prepared for them a summary brief. After all, why suffer for hours, slogging through text, when technology will do the grunt work for you?

By Marc Watkins • The Chronicle of Higher Education • 6 min • Gift Link

Read the article

4️⃣ The Need To Read

Whenever I feel hopeless about the future of reading, I return to this piece, which loyal reader Lynn recommended in November 2016. Will Schwalbe reminds us why we read and why we should strive to continue to do so. Here’s one of my favorite passages:

Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny — but only as long as people are free to read all different kinds of books, and only as long as they actually do so. The right to read whatever you want whenever you want is one of the fundamental rights that helps preserve all the other rights. It’s a right we need to guard with unwavering diligence. But it’s also a right we can guard with pleasure. Reading isn’t just a strike against narrowness, mind control and domination: It’s one of the world’s great joys.

Yes, this is an ode to reading, and a bit syrupy at times, but I feel like that’s what we need right now. Unless we state with conviction that reading is important, and what reading is for, I’m afraid we might lose it as part of our culture, entirely and forever.

By Will Schwalbe • The Wall Street Journal • 12 min • Gift Link

Read the article

✅ It’s time for a quick poll. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks to paid subscribers, I’m able to provide gift links for anyone who hits a paywall. Do you use them?

POLL

Have you ever clicked on a gift link?

Yes

95%

Not yet

5%

POLL CLOSED

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

To our 15 new subscribers — including Joanna, Pamela, Modern Reproduction, Helena, Elaine, Gregory, Aisling, Lucinda, Manisha, Robyn, Samir, and Martha — 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. I am very appreciative of Glenda, our latest paid reader. Thank you!

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If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. Recommend the newsletter to a friend, leave a comment, buy me a coffee, 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.

#478: Misled About Menopause

Dear Readers,

I hope you are taking good care. This week, I scoured what seemed like the entire Internet for good articles to share with you. We’re talking about many hours here! (My gut says that the inauguration probably consumed the attention of many publications.)

The good news is, after sweat and tears, I was able to find three pieces that passed my high standards and thereby are worthy of bringing to you. In usual Article Club fashion, they explore various topics and emerge from various sources.

I highly recommend this week’s lead article, “Women Have Been Misled About Menopause,” by Susan Dominus. As someone who personally knows little about menopause, but who seeks to learn more, I found this piece extremely informative. It’s a good companion piece to Issue #457, “The Female Body.”

If that article isn’t for you (even though it won a National Magazine Award), scroll down past Mouse, this week’s pet, to find two more great selections about:

• the power of music and violence in one woman’s family

• the steps we can take to not frustrate our friends

I hope you appreciate this week’s articles. Also, I’m looking forward to our two upcoming in-person gatherings: this Sunday’s discussion of “Someone Else’s Daughter” (sold out) and next Thursday’s reader event in Oakland (still room).

If you like what we’re doing here at Article Club, and want to support this venture with a paid subscription, I would be very grateful. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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1️⃣ Women Have Been Misled About Menopause

Susan Dominus: “Imagine that some significant portion of the male population started regularly waking in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, a problem that endured for several years. Imagine that those men stumbled to work, exhausted, their morale low, frequently tearing off their jackets or hoodies during meetings and excusing themselves to gulp for air by a window. Imagine that many of them suddenly found sex to be painful, that they were newly prone to urinary-tract infections, with their penises becoming dry and irritable, even showing signs of what their doctors called ‘atrophy.’ Imagine that many of their doctors had received little to no training on how to manage these symptoms — and when the subject arose, sometimes reassured their patients that this process was natural, as if that should be consolation enough.”

By Susan Dominus • The New York Times Magazine • 30 min • Gift Link • Audio

Read the article

2️⃣ The Charango

Valerie Argentina Calvo: “I can see him. He stands proud, with his shoulders back; he’s short and stocky like a pitbull. His voice is just as proud as his posture, loud and deep, with a thick, warm, Andean accent. His wide jaw and square head make him look stern when his face is resting. But my dad is a performer, so his face is not often resting. Most of the time it is in a wide, amicable grin. He holds the neck of the charango in his left hand, and his right hand strokes it, smoothing down the hair, as though it were still living. His big hand covers almost its entire body.

“I remember the night my father choked me. I spoke back at him, and he grabbed my thin neck, pushed me up against a bookcase, and lifted me until my toes were reaching for the carpet. A vase fell off the bookcase and shattered; the next day at school my best friend would ask me about the cuts on my feet. I remember his eyes looked so hard, like black marbles, and his firm, calloused fingers closed off my air like pressing down on a fret. I wonder what strained, high-pitched cries he squeezed out of me.”

By Valerie Argentina Calvo • Longreads • 10 min • Gift Link

Read the article

Mouse, who belongs to loyal reader Corinne, enjoys road trips to Crescent City. Would you like your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Go Where You’re Invited

Katherine Johnson Martinko: “There's nothing wrong with turning down an invitation clearly and politely when you receive it. I'm all for emptying the calendar of superfluous events, especially if you want to focus on other projects. But I take issue with not showing up for good friends, cancelling within a couple days, using a lame excuse, or leaving your RSVP status vague until the last minute.

“ ‘Self-care’ is often used as an excuse, and while it is important to attend to one's personal well-being, I am not a fan of self-care that marginalizes other well-meaning people. There's a time and place for spending a night on the couch in your PJs, but there's just as much a time and place to show up for the people who want to be your friends — assuming you want friends.”

By Katherine Johnson Martinko • The Analog Family • 6 min • Gift Link

Read the article

✅ It’s time for a quick poll. I’d love to hear from you.

POLL

What do you want more articles about?

Race

0%

Education

9%

Culture

22%

Mark, keep doing what you’re doing!

70%

POLL CLOSED

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

To our 16 new subscribers — including BN, Ming, SD, Grace, Phil, Nicole, Alexis, Laura, Bert, Erna, Aileen, Bonnie, Thomas, Julie, and Cardinal — 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. I am very appreciative of Fern, our latest paid reader. Thank you!

Subscribe

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 Vivian!), leave a comment, buy me a coffee (thank you, Anonymous Coffee Giver!), 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.