Public Health Experts, They’re Just Like Us!

It’s Easy to Forget That Our Scientific Community Is Learning About COVID in Real Time, Too

A friend recently reminded Kavita, a physician epidemiologist, about a text exchange the two had shared in February 2020. When he asked how worried he should be about SARS-CoV-2, then a “novel coronavirus,” Kavita had told him to get his flu vaccine, texting that influenza was the most important respiratory virus circulating in the U.S. at the time.

Today their conversation seems darkly humorous. Kavita’s recommendation to get the flu shot held up. But as we all know now, SARS-CoV-2 rapidly became the most important pathogen of concern. The friend was …

More In: Essays

Please Tweet @ Your #History Teacher

Navigating Misinformation, Hashtags, and Trolls Helps Teach Our High School Students to Be Good Digital Citizens

For most teachers, social media has no place in a classroom. When they do use it, they often retreat to or remain within the safer confines of “walled garden” discussion …

Who Benefits From ‘Buckxit’?

A Wealthy, White Atlanta Neighborhood’s Bid to Secede Shows What Happens When the Toxicity of National Politics Seeps into Local Affairs

Former House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill’s observation that “all politics are local” has been borne out in countless cases where divisions over hot-button state and local issues have derailed efforts …

Is Black Veganism the Future of Soul Food?

What Animates the Cuisine Isn’t the Chicken or the Hog—It’s the Spirit of Preservation and Promotion of Black Identity

Soul food is famously revered for pork and barbecue, for savory side dishes cooked in lard. I am a Black man who grew up loving my mother’s cornbread dressing and …

Now Entering Make-Believe Country

Urbania, My Imaginary Land, Gave a Weird, Curious, and Somewhat Lonely Kid a Shorthand for the World at Large

Last year, my friend Jesús passed away when he was hit by a car while riding his bike. He was one year older than me. We both had been college …

When Music Became Therapy in Interwar France

In the Face of Uncertainty, Trauma, and Extreme Isolation, Musicians Turned to Their Art

In March of 2020 I found myself alone (except for my two cats) in a small bungalow in Bloomington, Indiana, trying and failing to distract myself from COVID-19. I was …