Hari Kunzru’s Red Pill was my paperback companion during a fall 2021 vacation to Portugal with Iris. I was sitting on the white sand of a Portuguese beach, the sun warming my skin after an ocean swim, and excited to crack open my holiday novel. I was rested, happy, and…

Over the long, bloody haul of the 20th century, we replaced monarchy and religion with democracy and liberalism. No longer were we bound by the dogma of religious texts and the dictates of dictators; instead, we insisted on “individual freedom and collective self-governance.” …

Last week, I spent seven consecutive days hiking the middle section of the John Muir Trail — 100 miles of epic, high-altitude wilderness in Kings Canyon National Park. (And increasingly known by its Native American name, Nüümü Poyo.”) During the first few days, the weather was typical for the summertime…

I turned 15 on Twitter earlier this year, a long relationship by modern measures. We had our early infatuation when we probably spent too much time together. Then we had our glory years as we settled into a comfortable routine. But over the past five or so years we got…

The pandemic has been a boon to the social training platform Strava, which grew by about two million new athletes each month in 2020. Nearly twice as many cyclists shared their workouts between April and June of 2020 compared to the year before. …

Just a decade ago, to share one’s trauma was a recipe for shame and estrangement. This was especially true for men, who grew up modeling our masculinity on an imperturbable stoicism that masks the fears, anxieties, and resentments within. How quickly the pendulum swings. Popular culture today has, in the…

How lucky are we that the original variant of COVID-19 wasn’t as transmissible as Omicron? Imagine Omicron’s infectiousness in March 2020 — without the vaccines, treatments, and preparation that we have today? I had the same reflection as Paola after reading an incredible profile by Gina Kolata and Benjamin…

I saw The Matrix Resurrections — all two and a half hours — in the IMAX theater yesterday afternoon. Somehow, more than two decades have passed since I first (and last) saw the original. …

With this essay, I hope to resolve two related questions that I’ve struggled with throughout my 30s. First, why do I feel so much more authentically me when I’m in nature, even though I choose to spend 97% of my time in cities? Why do I become more observant, appreciative…