Food
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Jan 21, 2026
It's deceptively humble, but when you want to make it rain, culinarily speaking, there's no better choice.
Politics
Jan 20, 2026
The administration clearly wants to kill tens of millions of people. But why?
Resistance
Jan 16, 2026
Allow me to rearrange your deck chairs.
Pop Culture
Jan 13, 2026
It's okay — I'm not, either. Notes on the death of a once-essential cultural attribute.
Travel
+1
Sep 12, 2025
My recollection of the past is crisp but scattered. Will a pile of ancient photos make sense of it all?
Violence
Jul 29, 2025
A deadly serious thought experiment.
Oct 29, 2025
For me, live-action movies and TV will always be secondary.
OMG, subscribe to Trying!
Sep 3, 2025
My brain makes it hard to live in the moment, but there's one place I've found I can truly be present: the highway.
Writing
Aug 6, 2025
'I hate poetry,' I used to say, half joking and half serious. But which half was which?
Maculinity
Jul 14, 2025
I'm not a lumberjack, but I'm okay.
Memory
Jul 1, 2025
An argument for the most uncomfortable emotion.
Jan 9, 2026
A foodie's guide to the next 12 months of existential despair.
Jan 5, 2026
It's an indulgence you should never feel guilty about — as long as it doesn't cost too much.
Dec 11, 2025
In which I more or less butcher the arguments for eating less (or more?) meat.
Nov 25, 2025
Why delivering pizza as a teenager was the best job in the world.
Sep 16, 2025
And it taught me the meaning of life.
Jul 17, 2025
What I learned (or didn't) at Condé Nast.
Jun 19, 2025
A single visit 25 years ago clarified my approach to food.
Oct 2, 2025
I built my career on artful narratives of adventure. But was I lying to my readers — and to myself?
Jul 24, 2025
How one terrible book of puns opened my eyes to the potential of language.
May 29, 2025
In the mid-1990s, Phuong Anh Nguyen made Q Bar the most important bar in Vietnam—and possibly the world.
May 28, 2025
Celebrity travel shows are the worst, even when you love the celebrity. But they don't have to be bad!
Apr 24, 2025
As a travel writer and a New Yorker, I'm supposed to say "on foot." I'm starting to think that's wrong.
Apr 7, 2025
Please enjoy this email I sent to everyone, written on a flight to Hong Kong, back in 2005.
Jan 1, 2026
Where's the line between outspoken critic and arrogant loudmouth?
Sci-Fi
Dec 31, 2025
Why all fiction is science fiction.
Dec 23, 2025
Am I? Is everyone now?
Parenthood
Dec 16, 2025
Are there too many people? Too few? Just use your imagination.
Language
Dec 9, 2025
In a world that coopts and capitalizes on quirks, it's ever harder to stand out as truly bizarre.
Trends
Dec 5, 2025
Are we beloved slackers or obsolete losers? Cultural saviors or whiny ironists? Whatever: I'm bringing data AND vibes to the never-ending argument.
Dec 3, 2025
For decades, I've been trying to observe absolutely everything. And the more I've witnessed, the more I've missed.
Nov 19, 2025
How irony can help us walk back our conspiratorial thinking.
Nov 17, 2025
Our bodies, our brains, our planet, our women? What their fictional desires reveal about our own failings — and whether 'Pluribus' and 'Bugonia' get it right.
Nov 14, 2025
You are welcome, even encouraged, to spread it around.
Nov 10, 2025
When a project is about anything and everything, it's also about nothing — and who'd want to read that?
Nov 6, 2025
Four short, sharp takes — plus a special appearance by a guest poet.
Nov 3, 2025
But you can still use your stupid brain to try!
Oct 31, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of words later, what's to become of this newsletter?
Oct 23, 2025
His writing shaped my life, and he's now at a literary and cultural apex. But is the mysterious postmodernist's work still any good?
Death
Oct 14, 2025
Don't worry, death isn't coming for you quite yet.
Oct 3, 2025
Yawning reflections of a radical left Democrat.
The Future
Sep 19, 2025
Does "When in doubt, cut it out" apply to body parts? Asking for, uh, a friend.
