The Atlantic re-upped this story today, so I’m sharing it too. One thing I’d say: I wish I’d suggested “Don’t Feel Bad If You Have Insomnia” as the headline. That’s really what it’s about. Draining away the stigma — both of the condition and how we solve it. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

24 years today.

McWhorter ATE this column. One per week, please (begs the befuddled Gen X parent of a Zoomer). www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/o...

Friends! On Sept 18, I’ll be speaking with Dr. Arthur Caplan about grief and the challenges of accessing end-of-life care at the 3rd Annual Faith Sommerfield Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Completed Life Initiative. Free and open to the public! #endoflifecare www.eventbrite.com/e/third-annu...

Drove back from Montreal a couple hours ago and the new tariff rules are so confusing I had no idea whether I was supposed to declare the vintage Nirvana T-shirt I bought for $24 or not

Enjoying the deadpan register of Trump coverage these days.

If you’re an admirer of beautiful obituaries (I am—there’s nothing like a well-lived life told well), you must read this remembrance by @seremony.bsky.social of her mother, Sam. I teared up raised a glass today; so should you. And the sausages line is hilarious. open.substack.com/pub/sarahmur...

This beer is Vermont in a can.

Delighted to report it’s also delish.

To whom do I direct my sternly-worded note about Wordle today

Loved both the questions @nowhari.bsky.social asked me last night on Amanpour & Co. and how much *time* he gave me to explain the basic point of my most recent Atlantic piece: You shouldn’t feel bad—or shame—about being an insomniac. www.youtube.com/watch?v=542f...

One of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done. Different questions too.

Best moment was when two callers phoned in back-to-back and openly talked about needing meds for sleep (one took an edible in the middle of the night when he woke up.) People talk openly about antidepressants, but not this. www.wnyc.org/story/has-in...

Stunning piece by @charlesmcnulty.bsky.social www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

I spoke to Terry Gross today about this story. Listen here: www.npr.org/2025/07/07/n...

Our sleep nightmare via the inimitable @jennifersenior.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

The tips one commonly reads to get better sleep—eight hours a night, avoiding naps, cool rooms—are abundant. They’re also as insipid as they sound, @jennifersenior.bsky.social writes. From The Atlantic’s August issue, what Americans get so wrong about sleep:

Great piece by @jennifersenior.bsky.social on shared nemesis of countless millions of Americans: losing sleep over not being able to sleep. (Me on this topic fallows.substack.com/p/the-night-... ) Goes into more angles than the (many) other pieces I've read. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

A feature I wrote for my fellow insomniacs, one that (I hope) is neither reproachful nor plump with myths and misunderstandings: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

A word about my latest feature for The Atlantic: Though it’s about sleep, I am hoping it’s not a *typical* story about sleep. I despise most stories about sleep. Why? Glad you asked... 1/7

ICYMI: Terrific piece by @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social about the gulf between public opinion re Trump policies (negative) & prominent Repubs, elected and otherwise (mute, inert). The implication is also their cowardice—they won't speak up, though they have cover. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-public...

Honestly I’m kind of liking Trump’s parade

Good odds it will rain on his parade.

I’m usually lousy at political predictions but this one from six months ago was a gimme.

Greek restaurants in Brooklyn seriously know how to do gay pride.

Tea towel spotted by a friend in the Castro

Loretta Swit, damn. And this, from her obit, regarding her role on M*A*S*H…! “It was the greatest time in my career,” Ms. Swit told the The Guardian in 2001. Her ambition throughout the series was to be “the best damned nurse in Korea, and that motivated everything I did, even when it came to sex.”

Just made an appt with a hyper-specialized doc whose next availability is … March 26, 2029. The receptionist said it was necessary to make one so that I was eligible for cancellations Then he asked if I wanted 9.30 or 2 pm I was like, Surprise me. But now I’m realizing I have therapy at 9.30

The GOP now seems to be made up of people who’d have survived the Milgram experiment without much stress. I can’t get over their ability to justify ever-more-horrifying shocks Trump is giving to human beings, the system—and they’re coming up with more ever-more-horrifying versions of their own.

Amazing. Not sure my aunt could have handled this sort of program, even if she’d been properly cared for. (Wrote about her two years ago: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...) But to think we’ve gone from warehousing the disabled to this…! I could cry. www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/20...

@susandominus.bsky.social's “The Family Dynamic” published two days ago, so I’m re-upping this post, because again, I’ll die on this hill: The book is an original, *foundational* work of social science. Six literary case studies in the tradition of Oliver Sacks. Made of insight and gorgeous writing.

A+ piece. “Unlike other traits that attract discrimination and bigotry, like race or sex, a disabled status is something any of us could acquire at any time. Luck is the only thing that keeps you ‘temporarily non-disabled,’ as some activists joke.” I know something about the caprice of this luck.

In any other time, an Onion headline in which Area Guy accidentally becomes president. Now in the NYT.

Not mentioned in this story, but I still find it wild that cicadas emerge in prime-number cycles (17, in this case) in order to confound their predators. Evolution is amazing. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Truly can’t enough of these sightings

My friend Sarah Murray started a Substack that's such a refreshing departure from today's bedlam. Beautifully observed moments, serendipities, observations about art, the things that bind us. Most recent: sarahmurraywriter.substack.com/p/truthtelle... sarahmurraywriter.substack.com/p/lost-and-f...

I wrote about Hitler dreams...and what happens when authoritarianism enters your subconscious.

Now imagining Hegseth's Signal messages to his wife. "Okay, I'll pick up some cilantro before coming home. Can't wait for next Houthi bombardment with F/A-18 Hornets at zero dark thirty," etc

So the administration now seems to be at the all-six-wheels-are-coming-off-the-bus stage

There are too many things wrong with this to name

Hard to imagine a better podcast guest than @anneapplebaum.bsky.social right now. Something about the combination of spontaneous eloquence, a keen intellect, and a knowledge base as wide as the Urals. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Here is an interesting adjective quirk that you probably aren’t even aware you are doing. In English, adjectives seem to follow a specific order: opinion - size - age - shape - color - origin - material - purpose - noun

A heartfelt plug for Susan Dominus’ “The Family Dynamic”, and for an I’ll-die-on-this-hill reason: It’s going to be a touchstone of family psychology—and exemplar of literary nonfiction—for years to come. Intimate, wise, nuanced. Just stunning. susandominus-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2rtMt8rMKj53...

Bernie and AOC are on the very long list of liberal politicians who are mad as hell, but on the very short list of those who aren’t going to take it anymore: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Great job everyone

Can't decide if I'm unique or a freak for taking writing breaks NOT when I'm stuck, but when I've actually done a few paragraphs I like and seem to have accumulated a head of steam. I do it every. Single. Time.

Just watched Trump. He's still whinging about Biden, even as he’s gutting the civil service & stripping research funding & abandoning Ukraine & enriching the world’s richest man & turning all of our allies against us & CRATERING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY WITH TARIFFS ON COUNTRIES AS SMALL AS MADAGASCAR.

Guessing Trump will minimize the crowd size, a first

There really ought to be a Pulitzer for protest signs.