Sleep
Story Stream
Sleep Training the American People January 10, 2025
As a new chapter opens for American politics, it is natural to feel a certain uneasiness. What lies ahead? Will Americans continue to enjoy the peace and prosperity with which we have for so long been blessed, or will our way of life be torn asunder,...
My Machine and Me January 06, 2025
ONCE A DAY, at a random time, my laptop webcam photographs me. A masochistic ritual that still startles: to open a new Google tab and see my own face. I dash off a response to the prompt—What are you thinking about?—and this capture is added to my pe...
The Sleep Mask November 22, 2024
Almost every night for a year now, I’ve followed the same routine. I take five milligrams of melatonin, put my phone across the room, read for a while or watch part of a movie with my husband, then turn off my light between 10:30 and 11:00. An hour l...
James Baldwin’s Fraught Relationship With His Stepfather November 21, 2024
Baldwin describes how his father’s illness led to him “hating and fearing every living soul including his children who had betrayed him, too, by reaching towards the world which had despised him.” As my father’s illness took over his brain, he would ...
The Bewilderment of the Pod Boys November 13, 2024
On a long drive the day after Trump’s victory, after absolutely no sleep, deeply hungover, I turned to liberal radio as a much-needed painkiller. First I tried NPR, but even their coping and seething was too appalling to bear. So I sought out another...
