Delving into the moral and environmental dangers of a battery-powered future. Think about family secrets. Celebrating Diné cultural traditions. A deeply personal investigation in Pennsylvania and the complex relationship between Barbie and feminism.
Nick Bolin | Drift | July 9, 2023 | 7,602 words
The mining sector is in a temporary situation. As people become increasingly concerned about climate change, there is a surge in demand for alternative materials that can power the future. We’re talking about lithium, cobalt, and copper, which are needed to make electric car batteries, solar panels, and other items that are likely to become staples of a decarbonized economy. It’s no surprise, then, that mining interests are talking a lot about being on the right side of environmental history. Journalist Nick Bowlin heard this voice loud and clear while covering the world’s largest mining conference in Toronto, Ontario, earlier this year. As Bolin wisely details, this story, once again, mining conference, this real green propaganda has an ugly underside. Extractive industries are notorious for their ruthless colonialism, and above all for profit. They will seize land, exploit people, and smile as they make billions off their rampant devastation.If the mining sector Really If we’re serious about a green future, we’ll have to abandon our maximalist mindset. Surely everyone would think so. “The mining industry is benefiting from the complacent consumerism of EV buyers,” Bowlin wrote. Despite its disdain for environmentalists, the industry needs green consumers seeking freedom from carbon-intensive lifestyles. These consumers are so indifferent and indifferent to the injustices brought about by the green economy that they not only finance the expansion of the industry, but also provide the moral protection of the industry. ” —SD
Rachel Priest and Emily Strasser | Bitter Southerners | July 11, 2023 | 3,069 words
Emily Strasser said that in Quaker schools, scoring during recess soccer games was considered a form of violence and was prohibited. Imagine learning that your grandfather worked for 30 years as a chemist at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, that helped make the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Like everything about family, it’s complicated. In this subtle Q&A with him, bitter southerner, Rachel Priest spoke to Strasser about her 10-year quest to understand more about her grandfather’s work, why he chose it, and the impact it had on him, his family, and his mental health. US nuclear weapons program. Priest’s tough, necessary questions and Strasser’s thoughtful answers make reading more than your average Q&A. “It started as a way of thinking about how I exist in the world I was born into, my own origin story, and then it became confronting this vast legacy of nuclear weapons in our country and the world. ” Strasser says. How can we consider the immeasurable damage and immeasurable sacrifices? What becomes clear is that while the most important questions are often the most difficult to answer, Strasser shows that this is the only way we humans can learn to behave better in this world. It means that there is. —K.S.
Rachel Yoder | harpers magazine | June 20, 2023 | 7,350 words
As Rachel Yoder points out at the beginning of this inquisitive personal article, the phenomenon she writes about has many names. “Powwow” and “Braucherei” are simply two of the most common, but “pulling pain” and “natural healing” are also popular. What they all refer to is Amish folk rituals, which Yoder calls “one of the most fascinating parts of my Amish and Mennonite traditions.” That tradition, and Yoder’s uneasy relationship to it, propels one of the most beautifully written works I’ve read this year. She came to Pennsylvania in search of magical books, but also in search of answers to the existential pain that plagued her, and importantly, from her own Amish upbringing years earlier. Her father, who had washed up in the present day, was also with her. There’s tension everywhere, from the dynamics between her father and her daughter to the Amish’s reluctance to Yoder’s refusal to embrace the culture that created her. There’s also love, especially between Yoder and her father. His poise and humor leaven what might otherwise be damp and provide a delightful contrast to her haunting, rhythmic prose. “It’s comforting to imagine that things will go away if you let them go long enough,” she writes. Of course not. But in the words of one healer, Yoder is kind enough to take us as we search for parts of ourselves. —PR
Jake Skeets | Emergence Magazine | June 22, 2023 | 3,901 words
Every once in a while, I come across an essay that not only teaches me, but also gives me something good, something real, and gives me a sense of hope.Jake Skeets’s recent essays emergence magazine The journey of cultural discovery was very satisfying as I recalled the time when my younger relative slaughtered a sheep to celebrate Kinauda, the Diné ritual of puberty. Skeets enjoys the cycle of stories and knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation. He is at times a child and learner, and at other times an educator who conveys a deep love and respect for animals and the land. His prose is spare as he explains the influence food and stories have had on his life, but there is a deep beauty in his minimalism. “Stories have a unique ability to collapse time,” he writes. “Food is like that. Stories follow the passage of time differently than we do. They can move through time, slow time, or stop time. Food is a metaphor as well. ” Skeets’ dedication and commitment to educating himself in traditional ways and passing it on to others is like helping with nutritious comfort food. Thing. It is something to be savored and something to be celebrated. —K.S.
Willa Paskin | New York Times Magazine | July 11, 2023 | 6,671 words
After the barrage of Barbie-related content ahead of Greta Gerwig’s next film, I wasn’t sure I was ready to say another 6,000 words on the subject. Luckily, I gave in and read Willa Paskin thoughtfully discussing the Barbie movie she was embarrassed about being allowed to make with Greta Gerwig. Paskin understands why she did this:[T]His whimsical marriage of filmmaker and material would break through the cacophony of modern life and bring the post-retirement plastic hunk back into the zeitgeist. ” That’s smart, Mattel. (And the bits and pieces of the film that Paskin describes sound pretty good.) But what I enjoyed most was the coverage beyond the film. Is Barbie a feminist, or is she really not? Why did Barbie doll’s creator, Ruth Handler, refuse to let Barbie have children? How did Mattel reinvent the Barbie doll in 2015? Read on to find out. As someone who grew up with the classic Barbie doll, a doll with proportions that would be impossible to stand up in real life, I was intrigued to learn about her evolution. But while she may have evolved now, it remains my favorite quote from this piece. “Psychological studies have shown that after playing with Barbie dolls, girls believe that they are less capable of pursuing various professions than after playing with the control Mrs. Potato Head.” ” ” Go, Mrs. Potato Head. —C.W.
audience award
Here are our readers’ favorite pieces this week:
The last place on earth that tourists should visit
Sarah Clemens | The Atlantic | July 3, 2023 | 1,532 words
In this work, Sarah Clemens relentlessly questions the privilege and indulgence of those who travel to the only places on Earth that still belong to nature simply because they can. Given these tourists’ self-centered rationalizations, their frustration with humanity will only increase. Clemens is right: don’t go. —C.W.