Travel memoir and political argument aren't as different as they look. Both start with arrival — in a place, in a situation — and ask what the map got wrong.

Dispatches

Ecuador

Birthday #59

Ecuador doesn't care how old you are. It has other things going on.

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Ecuador

Sardines in Crucita

A beach, a catch, a town that hasn't been discovered yet.

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Alabama

Montgomery, Alabama

The monuments are new. The resistance isn't. A country still arguing about what happened.

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Michigan

Not in America (Flint)

They told Flint residents the water was fine. They knew it wasn't. This is what that looks like from the ground.

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Arguments

HuffPost

Social Security

The most successful anti-poverty program in American history. They came for it anyway.

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Essay

Ageism Kills

Not slowly, not metaphorically. It shortens lives and we've decided that's acceptable.

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Essay

My Peloton Doesn't Lie

At 72, the leaderboard doesn't know my age. Neither does the body — if you refuse to hand it the script.

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Essay

Exercise Wasn't in It

On the medical-industrial complex, its stenographers, and the system that isn't failing — it's working exactly as designed.

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Essay

The Senate Is Not a Democracy

Two senators represent 40 million Californians. Two represent 580,000 in Wyoming. This was a design choice.

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Essay

Opus Dei

An organization that holds significant power in courts, governments, and universities. Most people have no idea it exists.

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On the Horizon

Pitched

Assignment America

An Internet that no longer exists. Submitted to the Guardian US.

Pitched

Death of DEI

Diversity programs are collapsing. What dies with them — and what deserved to — are not the same thing. Submitted to Jacobin.

In Development

Aging as Resistance

The culture wants you to fight aging. There's a different argument worth making.