Climate misinformation affects democracy. Orion's 'Deny and Delay' series outlines the history behind that misinformation, the primary purveyors of it, and where to go from here. And as part of that series, Leah Stokes investigates a quiet culprit: the electric utility industry.

Cities are environments, too. What of the rock that makes up buildings? The routes that trace old paths from centuries before? The menagerie of animals, both carved and alive? Here, David B. Williams offers you another way of seeing the cities around you.

Before any of this, there were plants, and the women who knew how to use them. Kea Krause reaches back in time to show us how women turned to nature to find effective abortifacients and preventatives throughout history, all around the world.

"Someday we’ll live in the sky. / Meanwhile, the house of our lives is the world." Mary Oliver, Orion magazine orionmagazine.org/article/boun...

Arthur Sze learned to forage mushrooms over 30 years ago. These days, hunting for them in the Santa Fe Basin, the act is a source of noticing, of grief.

"I find a belonging in the natural world that I rarely experience among humans," writes Eli Clare. "Trees don’t gawk. Boulders don’t call me inspirational… Sitting in the woods or at the ocean, I glimpse a world that relishes crookedness, wholeness and brokenness, an explosion of sizes and shapes."

A Poet Laureate indeed 🌱 "Back-Lit," a poem by the 25th U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, published in Orion. May poetry help you slow down, deepen your attention, connect, and live more fully, as Sze said in his acceptance remarks. orionmagazine.org/article/back...

I love the idea of celebrating someone’s love and care for the Earth as our great honoring.

I had a blast answering the @orionmagazine.bsky.social questionnaire :) feat. many of my favorite things: fruit, grubs, words, and smells orionmagazine.org/article/sabr...

Enjoy this poetic conversation between Alison Kafer and Eli Clare, author of "Unfurl." via @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/on-t...

Today! Join us for this lunchtime conversation about the crises we’ve inherited and the uneasy compromises they’ve forced upon us. Madeleine Watts, Diane Wilson, and Nathaniel Rich join forces at 1 p.m. ET, and attendance is free. Register right here: orionmagazine.org/event-worksh...

"Everyone says that Monet’s true subject is light, but I say that it is time." Beautiful, beautiful read.

💚

I love this interview. He was authentic and used his life to make a difference in his two passions. More than a handsome “ movie star.” A good guy. Definitely a life to be celebrated. Thanks, Mr. Redford.

He was one of the good ones 🌱

Plastic, wrote Roland Barthes in 1957, “is less an object than the trace of a movement.”

Mark your calendars! September 17 at 1 p.m. ET, we’re hosting a conversation with Madeleine Watts, Diane Wilson, and Nathaniel Rich about our series Future Imperfect, dedicated to the crises we’ve inherited and the uneasy compromises they’ve forced upon us. Register and join us right here.

Heads up! Today is the last day to apply to TWO of our open writers' workshops! Join us this fall and dedicate some time to elevating your writing practice. See what's open and apply right here. orionmagazine.org/events-works...

“What does a water lily say? It says petiole, rhizome, muck, grenouille. The water lily opens. It becomes a singing bowl. A cup on a plate. A spiral galaxy.” Katrina Vandenberg shows us what happens when a poet writes prose. On time, aging, and Monet's cataracts.

“An empty bag reminds me of how full I felt just from going to the library. How rich.” In praise of books, barreleye fish, and family.

Anyone remember the game Oregon Trail? Here, Sarah Giragosian plays the game with her wife as a reprieve from — and a reminder of — the political moment.

“When people forecast a relentlessly bleak future, disaster becomes almost erotic, a release for our despair and apathy.” A Saturday read on the uses of disaster films and the obligations of storytelling.

Take a breath. Pause your scroll. Consider this line of a poem by William Stafford: “Your job is to figure out what the world is trying to be.” Krista Tippett on hope.

Three years ago, four writers wrote to us from the ground in Odesa, at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Their words are more relevant than ever today.

A story about climate change and all of the lives caught up in it. Psst! Join us on September 17 for a conversation with Madeleine Watts, Diane Wilson, and Nathaniel Rich about our series Future Imperfect, of which this story is a part. Read now, and register in comments below. 👇

You might know @sabs.bsky.social from their column with the Defector, their essay in Orion’s Spring issue, their award-winning book ‘How Far the Light Reaches,’ or some other miraculous encounter… but do you know how their cat Melon smells? This key detail and more in the latest Orion Questionnaire.

What does it mean, in this warming world, not just to be hot but to also practice rituals of heat? Carmella de los Angeles Guiol writes of encounters with heat in life—the sticky humidity of Miami, the inescapable nights in Cartagena, the ‘canicule' or “dog days” in Paris—and in spiritual practice.

Did you know? Subscriptions make up about 35% of the funding that helps Orion thrive. The rest? Donations. In a landscape that aims to defund arts and media, our generous readers help us stay afloat. It all makes a difference. Consider donating to Orion today. orionmagazine.org/donate/

Writer friends, FYI!

Mark your calendars! September 17 at 1 p.m. ET, we’re hosting a conversation with Madeleine Watts, Diane Wilson, and Nathaniel Rich about our series Future Imperfect, dedicated to the crises we’ve inherited and the uneasy compromises they’ve forced upon us. Register and join us right here.

Get those applications in for our online workshops before we close on September 15! Find where to apply and all of the juicy details right here. orionmagazine.org/events-works...

A poem about the story behind an inaccurate note Jennifer L. Knox found in her father’s sleep study interview, conducted before they knew about his Parkinsonian syndrome/Lewy body dementia diagnoses.

How do you talk to your child about climate change? Do you? Here, five responses for the modern child looking for answers.

Poetry is, as Roque Dalton wrote, like bread. It’s like bread and coffee and socks and the many items that are shared, swapped, passed around on the streets. Here, documentary verse from five poets, who spend or have spent their lives on those streets.

Canine Superpowers, a poem to guide walkies: "We stroll the grounds and stop at every tree./Their noses lead to every thing I see." — Michael Kleber-Diggs @mkdordiggsy.bsky.social in @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/you-... #dogs #poetry #poems #sniffari #sniffwalks #villanelle

Need a pick-me-up? Take notes from a kindergartener.

Diane Wilson writes about her desire to restore the ten acres of Minnesotan bog she had shared with her late husband. When she learns that healing her land will require further destruction, she must ask herself whether what she seeks is restoration or reinvention.

More McKibben!

Writers! The incomparable @jessicajlee.bsky.social and Lauren Camp are hosting two separate workshops beginning this October, and we’re accepting your applications until Sept 15. We can’t wait to read them. Learn more and apply here: orionmagazine.org/events-works...

Bill McKibben has authored more than twenty books and his research and activism earned a Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the “alternative Nobel.” But can he snap his fingers? We ask him the hard-hitting questions in the latest Orion Questionnaire.

Looking over her shoulder at her dark past, Emily Meg Weinstein tells the story of the time she almost died in the mountains before she ever really got to climb one—and how it taught her to live.

From Daisy Hildyard comes this piece of fiction based on the life of Princess Diana, measured in extraction, exhalations, carbon, and atoms.

Writers! The incomparable @jessicajlee.bsky.social and Lauren Camp are hosting two separate workshops beginning this October, and we’re accepting your applications until Sept 15. We can’t wait to read them. Learn more and apply here: orionmagazine.org/events-works...

"It’s not just suburbs and the exurbs beyond them that require car travel, but many American cities – even in their downtown cores – have no form of public transportation. . ." @joannapocock.bsky.social @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/grey...

"Life in America without a car prevents you from fully taking part in education, work and leisure. It is not just a physical barrier, but a temporal one" orionmagazine.org/article/grey... via @orionmagazine.bsky.social

My @orionmagazine.bsky.social workshop on environmental book proposals is currently open for applications! If you'd like to write your book proposal with a like-minded group of writers while gaining some industry insights, do take a look. orionmagazine.org/event-worksh...

When did the Anthropocene begin? Rivka Galchen says it was when we could finally recognize ourselves in our own reflections. But have mirrors taught us anything?

Shameless plug for our amazing EIC! Listen into @literaryhub.bsky.social ’s Awakeners podcast with Lena Crown and hear our own Tajja Isen chat with Nicole Chung about their colleagues-to-friends story and much more. @whichistosay.bsky.social @tajjaisen.bsky.social @nicolechung.bsky.social

This weekend is your LAST WEEKEND to subscribe and receive our Summer issue, The Future Is Fungi! This issue is packed with words from the best writers in the game and printed on beautiful, 100% recycled paper. Join our community of caring for the planet here 🍄 orionmagazine.org/product/subs...

Maris Kreizman’s latest collection, ‘I Want to Burn This Place Down,’ arrives at a time when our disillusionment with institutional crises and failures has reached new, painful heights, writes @tajjaisen.bsky.social. Here, to break up your feed, a chat about critique, action, and hope.