#392: We Are What We Read

A message of gratitude, an invitation, plus great articles on reading

Dear Loyal Readers,

This week we reached 1,000 subscribers. Thank you for supporting me, this newsletter, and our reading community. You may be like Ben, who subscribed long ago. Or you may be like Tim, who subscribed this week. Or you may be somewhere in between. No matter how long you’ve been here, I’m grateful. Thank you for trusting me to send you articles every Thursday on race, education, and culture.

Almost eight years ago, I launched this newsletter with a bold belief that I still hold today: If we read more of the best stuff, and if we connect with people about what we’re reading, then we might gain the knowledge and empathy to make ourselves a better world.

Some may say this was (and is) a naïve belief. Some may go further, calling it absurd. If you have ever felt this way, you’re not alone. I’ve felt this way, too.

After all, it seems like lately, no matter which way I turn, I’m hearing grim news: that nobody reads anymore, that our children don’t know how to read, that we’re growing more lonely and isolated, and there’s little we can do to turn things around.

But we can do things. And we are doing things. We’re building a kind, thoughtful reading community. Together we’re reading, annotating, and discussing the highest quality articles from a variety of publications. People from across the country who otherwise do not know each other are coming together to have moving conversations about the critical issues of our time. It’s happening, thanks to all of you.

✏️ Could we (re)introduce ourselves? I’d like that. Who are you and why do you read? What have you gotten out of The Highlighter Article Club (or what do you hope to get out of it)?

Leave a comment

Emily Bazelon

This Month at Article Club

This month, I warmly invite you to read, annotate, and discuss “Why Is Affirmative Action in Peril?” as part of Article Club. Written by Emily Bazelon and published in The New York Times Magazine, the piece explores why the Supreme Court will most likely strike down affirmative action next month. Instead of focusing on the current cases before the Court, however, Ms. Bazelon instead explains the history of affirmative action and analyzes the legal precedent set in Regents v. Bakke, the 1978 decision that banned racial quotas but stated that colleges may use race as a factor in admissions to advance the goal of diversity. Nearly 50 years later, Ms. Bazelon writes, today’s much more conservative court may find that affirmative action’s diversity rationale may be similar to abortion’s privacy rationale — way too flimsy to survive.

Are you interested? If so, sign up for our discussion on Sunday, May 21, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community. Feel free to hit reply and ask me all your questions.

Sign up for the discussion

Judy, who belongs to loyal readers Christsna and Joel, likes sitting in the sun, snuggling, and running with her buddy Johnny Cash. Want your pet to appear in The Highlighter? hltr.co/pets

This Week’s Articles

This week’s articles center on the theme of reading — the role of reading in our lives, why it’s important, how we’re shaped by reading, and whether we’re teaching our young people how to read wrong. Here they are, hope you enjoy them.

A Pilgrimage for Book People • by Charlie Becker • Castles in the Sky • 20 min
Charlie Becker grew up in Houston with a dad who was a book person. What this meant was that every summer, his dad would load the kids in the van and drive 18 miles to Chicago in order to participate in the annual Brandeis Book Sale. This article is not only a poignant and nostalgic memoir of Mr. Becker’s childhood. It’s also a love letter to reading and an ode to the power of books.

What separates book people from others is that they regard a book as more than the sum of its parts. Once the words are down and the book is printed, something special happens, and the book ascends to a new dimension of meaning. It would be a mistake to think of book people simply as enthusiasts, the way you would other collectors or hobbyists. Particularly with the type of book person who showed up to Brandeis, there are better words to describe them: acolytes, adherents, devotees, fanatics.

You Are What You Read • by Maryanne Wolf • Tufts Magazine • 15 min
Reading is an amazing, fantastical thing, Prof. Wolf writes in this outstanding essay. Not only does reading let us “leave our own consciousness,” it also allows us to “try on, identify with, and even enter for a brief time the wholly different perspective of someone else.” But how does this all happen? Remember, humans were never meant to read. Reading isn’t an innate human skill, like speaking. You gotta give credit to our brains for their plastic ability to build neural networks, Prof. Wolf argues, as she takes us through the science of it all.

Words on the Brain • by Bartholomew Pawlik • Lateral • 20 min
Read nonfiction if you want to learn about the world and build knowledge of systems so that you can act to change them. But if you want to grow your empathy, this article explains, novels are the way to go. Fiction helps us construct a “theory of mind,” or the ability to understand others and infer their beliefs and desires. Cognitive pyschologist Keith Oatley says that reading fiction is like using a flight simulator for life. We can try on new situations, take on perspectives, and rehearse different approaches without also suffering the potentially negative consequences of the real world.

Teaching the Biliterate Brain • by Holly Korbey • MIT Tech Review • 15 min
Step inside an English classroom today and more likely than not you’ll observe students staring at a Chromebook screen rather burying their noses in books. This trend, which accelerated during the pandemic, has not abated. Journalist Holly Korbey investigates research demonstrating that reading on screens leads to worse comprehension than reading in print. But instead of telling teachers to shun computers altogether, she takes a measured approach, relying on nuanced suggestions by cognitive scientists (like Prof. Wolf).

Thank you for reading this week’s issue.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share The Highlighter Article Club

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Jenn (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#391: It’s almost May! This month, let’s read and discuss “Why Is Affirmative Action In Peril?”

#391: It’s almost May! This month, let’s read and discuss “Why Is Affirmative Action In Peril?”

Happy Thursday and happy almost-May, loyal readers. I’m very happy to announce that this upcoming month, we’ll be reading and discussing “Why Is Affirmative Action In Peril?” by Emily Bazelon.

You may know that the Supreme Court will be ruling on two affirmative action cases in June. It’s a big deal, given the current composition of the Court. Unless one of the conservative justices changes their mind, affirmative action might be dead.

I deeply appreciated Ms. Bazelon’s article because she offers context for the upcoming decisions. Instead of discussing the current cases in detail, Ms. Bazelon explains the history of affirmative action and tells the story of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the 1978 landmark decision that still serves as legal precedent.

Today’s issue is a three-parter. You get:

• an introduction to this month’s article

• a podcast episode with me and fellow Article Clubber Melinda, where we share why we liked the article so much

• an invitation to join this month’s discussion on May 21

Before that, though — a little bit about the author: Ms. Bazelon is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and is the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. She is also the author of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the current-interest category, and of the national best-seller Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. She is a co-host of Slate’s Political Gabfest, a weekly podcast. Ms. Bazelon has generously agreed to record a podcast interview.

I hope you’ll read the article and join our discussion on Sunday, May 21, at 2 pm PT. You can find out more information about the article and discussion below.

Why Is Affirmative Action In Peril?

The Supreme Court most likely will strike down affirmative action in June. This article explains why. According to journalist and law lecturer Emily Bazelon, it all comes down to understanding Regents v. Bakke, the 1978 decision that banned racial quotas but preserved affirmative action. In order to lure enough justices, lawyer Archibald Cox devised a strategy that centered the benefits of diversity, rather than the responsibility of reparations, as the reason affirmative action should continue. In other words: Let’s forget that the 14th Amendment’s purpose was to give equal rights to Black Americans. In the short term, the tactic worked. The Court sided with Mr. Cox 5-4, and affirmative action has endured despite many challenges, including in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Fisher v. Texas (2016). But now with a much more conservative court, Ms. Bazelon suggests that affirmative action’s “diversity” rationale may be similar to abortion’s “privacy” rationale — way too flimsy to survive. (35 min)

Read the article

This month, I warmly invite you to read, annotate, and discuss “Why Is Affirmative Action in Peril?” as part of Article Club.

If you’re interested, this how things will go:

• This week, we’ll read the article

• Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group

• The following week, we’ll hear from Ms. Bazelon in a podcast interview

• On Sunday, May 21, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom.

Sign up for the discussion

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community. Feel free to reach out with all of your questions.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 6 new subscribers – including Montessa, Eric, Cory, Lisa, and Josette — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Fern! Fred! Faith!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Kathy, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Xavier (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share The Highlighter Article Club

☕️ Buy me a coffee. If subscriptions (or commitments in general) stress you out, you can share your gratitude by making a one-time donation. Coffee helps me find the best articles and supports my overall reading stamina.

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On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#390: We’re No Good Alone

3 excellent articles on the detriments of isolation and the benefits of community

We have a neighbor who likes to ring our doorbell from time to time. She wants to say hi, chat a bit, maybe hang out. My introverted self urges me to pretend I’m not home. But my sense of obligation gets me to the door — and more often that not, I appreciate our neighbor’s invitation to connect.

The other day at work, I asked my younger colleagues about this phenomenon. First they looked at me funny. Then they said two things:

• Really, this happens? I thought it happened only on old TV shows.

• No way would I want this to happen.

We’ve all read about the trends: We’re spending more time alone. We’re lost in our phones. We have fewer friends now. As we get older, we grow lonelier.

Today’s issue challenges us to shun what feels natural (i.e., seeking solitude, putting ourselves first, maintaining boundaries, practicing self care) and to find ways to participate in community. The lead article, “No Good Alone,” sets the stage, offering a thoughtful perspective as to why “isolation is easy” and “living is hard.” Then come two outstanding pieces — the first about a mother who loves her gay son, the second about a self-identified redneck who runs a mutual aid auto shop — who buck the trend, choosing to do the right thing over the easy thing.

Hope you enjoy. If an article moved you, please leave a comment.

Leave a comment

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: This month we’re discussing “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. It’s about a young woman who works at a nursing home. We may love our grandparents, Ms. Bubert writes, but we as a society certainly do not love our old people. I invite you to join our conversation on Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Bubert will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ No Good Alone

You don’t owe anyone anything. Focus on yourself. Protect your peace. Set up a boundary. We’re hearing these messages everywhere — on our social media, from our friends and colleagues, and from our therapists. In this thoughtful essay, Rayne Fisher-Quann reflects on her own experience, acknowledging that she, too, ghosts friends and otherwise isolates herself. But she understands that this behavior is counterproductive. She writes:

The social standard this culture offers is one of controlled, placated solitude. Its narrative often insists that you’re surrounded by toxic people who are trying to hurt you, and the only way to ever become the person you’re meant to be is to cut them all off, retreat into a high-gloss cocoon of talk therapy and Notion templates, and emerge a non-emotive butterfly who will surely attract the relationships you’ve always deserved — relationships with other “healed” people, who don’t hurt you or depend on you or force you to feel difficult, taxing emotions.

Ms. Fisher-Quann is especially critical of therapy — not because she doesn’t believe in its benefits, but rather because of people’s tendency to consider therapy “as a kind of resume-builder for the self,” or a necessary requirement for personal wellness, and certainly as a prerequisite for dating and friendship. Sure, we don’t want to burden our friends with the emotional labor of our problems, she writes, but life is complex. We can either avoid life’s messiness all alone, or we can get out there and engage with actual real (flawed) people. She writes, “To grow beside a friend or lover, knowing that you will poke and prod at each other as you take shape but unafraid of the resulting scar tissue — this is the good stuff.”

➡️ Read the article | Internet Princess | 13 minutes

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2️⃣ One Mother’s Love For Her Son

When her son came out to her in 1968, Jeanne Manford had never known anyone who was gay. At the time, same-sex attraction was a mental illness. Forty-nine states criminalized homosexuality. There were no openly gay politicians, actors, athletes, or musicians. Parents typically disowned their gay children or pretended their queerness didn’t exist. But not for a moment did Ms. Manford think anything was wrong with her son. Instead, she loved him and fought for him — at the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, and when he was arrested at a gay-rights rally, and when he found out he was HIV positive. Along the way, Ms. Manford also wanted other parents to accept their queer children, and so she founded PFLAG, now in its 50th year.

There was an undercurrent to this article that I appreciated. Here was a woman whose political power as a parent resulted from loving her son. She didn’t yell at school board meetings, hoping to ban other children’s books or censor other teacher’s lessons. She didn’t care what other parents thought of her. “She wouldn’t put up with this nonsense,” President Obama said. Simple as that.

➡️ Read the article | The New Yorker | 24 minutes

+ Another reason to read this article is that Kathryn Schulz wrote it. She’s the author of “When Things Go Missing,” one of my all-time favorites, plus “The Really Big One,” which won the Pulitzer Prize. Ms. Schulz generously participated in Article Club last year. Here’s her interview.

3️⃣ The Communist Auto Repair Shop In Alabama

Zac Henson lives in Alabama, wears a trucker hat, plays the banjo, and sports a long Rasputin beard. But even though he says he’s a redneck, he’s not your stereotypical Trump-loving type. Instead he got his Ph.D. in sociology at UC Berkeley and has spent his life developing cooperative businesses, community farming projects, and community land trusts in Birmingham and Montgomery. His latest project is the Automotive Free Clinic, a mutual aid auto repair shop — where the technicians read Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and you pay what you can.

“We’re living communism,” Mr. Henson says, emphasizing that he’s doing what he can to support his community, especially given that cars are essential in Alabama — and that the state (by design) has virtually no public transportation. “They gave us the bus seat,” one woman said, referring to the boycott long ago, “but they took the damn bus.” Mr. Henson sees his contribution as continuing the legacy of populism and communism in the South. In the year it’s been open, the AFC has fixed more than 100 cars. And though money doesn’t matter, they’re running a profit.

➡️ Read the article | Lux | 14 minutes

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 3 new subscribers – Shannon, Tracy, and Jesse — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Eric! Erica! Erika!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Janice, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Wes and Wyatt (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes.

Spend less time scrolling through your phone. Let me find the best articles for you to read.

📬 Urge your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share The Highlighter Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

An interview with Article Clubber Melinda on “The Sunset,” this month’s selection

Coming to you on a Monday morning with a bonus episode and encouraging you to join this month’s discussion on April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT

Dear Loyal Readers,

I’m coming to you on a Monday with a bonus episode of the podcast. This is because many of you said “we want more!” after listening to a conversation I had with fellow Article Clubber Melinda last month.

So I asked Melinda, “Want to do it again?” And she generously said yes! ⭐️

Melinda’s an activist, lawyer, and cat mom living in Washington, D.C. A lover of many genres, from memoir to fantasy novels, she’s normally reading several things at once and hunting for her next read at her favorite local bookstore, Solid State Books.

This time, we’re talking about this month’s selection, “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. It’s a personal essay about Ms. Bubert’s time working in a nursing home when she was a college student. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend that you do.

Here are some topics we talked about:

• how Melinda experienced her first AC discussion last month

• how impressed we were with Ms. Bubert’s writing and structure

• what we got out of the essay and what we most valued

• what questions we want to ask Ms. Bubert at our discussion (she’s joining us!)

Hope you appreciate this conversation with me and Melinda. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Also, last thing: There’s still room if you want to join our discussion of “The Sunset” on April 30. We’re meeting up 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT via Zoom. All you need to do is sign up below, and once you do, I’ll send you more details. Have a great week, and see you this Thursday for Issue #390 of The Highlighter Article Club.

Join the discussion on April 30

#389: An interview with Lisa Bubert, author of “The Sunset"

There’s still time to join our discussion on Sunday, April 30

Dear Loyal Readers,

I’m happy you’re here. This month at Article Club, we’ve been focusing on “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. If you haven’t read the article yet, I highly encourage you to do so. In the essay, Ms. Bubert discusses her experience working in a nursing home when she was a college student. It’s poignant and outstanding.

Also: I hope you’ll join us to discuss the article on Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT on Zoom. There’s still time to sign up. Article Clubbers are kind and thoughtful and welcoming. Our conversations are always in small, intimate, facilitated groups. Plus there’s a bonus: Ms. Bubert will be joining us!

Sign up for the discussion!

I’m excited to share that I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Bubert a couple days ago about her brilliant essay. We talked about a number of topics, including:

• how we love our grandparents in our society but not our elderly

• how we don’t care about the people who care for the elderly (i.e., Black women)

• how death is the most vulnerable act

• how “there is no act of love greater than to sit with someone as they face their deepest moment of vulnerability”

• how the elderly deserve our dignity, and how “dignity requires witness”

I hope you take a listen and share your thoughts in the comments.

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening to the interview. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 8 new subscribers – including Pamela, Jessica, John, Abbie, Madison, Bianca, and Albert – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Dave! Danny! Derek!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Nancy, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Venus and Yolanda (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes.

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#388: American Name

Great articles on names, Black enrollment, and poverty in America

Happy April, loyal readers. Today I have a shorter-than-usual issue for you, on account of sun, sand, and Spring Break in México. Despite my ability to rest in advanced ways, I nonetheless carved out time to read my usual 100-or-so articles in order to find a few outstanding ones to share with you. And I hope you appreciate them. First up is this week’s lead article, “What Counts As An ‘American Name’ In A Changing Nation,” a collection of six mini-profiles that explore how our names affect our stake in the American Dream. If that doesn’t interest you, scroll down past the pet photo, where you’ll find two more great pieces — the first explaining why Black parents are fleeing urban public school districts, and the second explaining why our rich country has long tolerated a high percentage of poor people.

I hope you find at least one article valuable and thought-provoking. If you do, I’d love to hear from you. All you need to do is hit reply or click here.

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: This month we’re discussing “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. It’s about a young woman who works at a nursing home. We may love our grandparents, Ms. Bubert writes, but we as a society certainly do not love our old people. I invite you to join our conversation on Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Bubert will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ American Name

After Asian Americans suffered an increase in hate-inspired violence in 2021, Marian Chia-Ming Liu wrote about her decision to reclaim her Chinese name. Thousands of readers resonated with her story and shared their own experiences of how their names affected their sense of Americanness. A few felt relieved their families had chosen “less foreign” names so they didn’t have to face ignorant and hateful questions like, “Where are you really from?” and “Can I call you something else?” But the majority — like Ekaterina, Ahmed, AikWah, Jaime, Ayako, and Thenedra, featured in this piece — embraced their names “loud and proud” in order to expand what counts as an American name. As Jaime says, “My name should not be what is most convenient for you.” Teachers: You may want to consider using this text next August as you get to know your students at the beginning of the school year.

➡️ Read the article • Washington Post • 12 min

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2️⃣ Losing Black Students

Black students are leaving San Francisco. They’re leaving Oakland, too. And Los Angeles, and Chicago, and many other urban districts across the country. The common explanation for the exodus blames the pandemic in the short term and rising housing prices and lowering birth rates in the long term. But what if the real reason is that the schools aren’t very good? That’s the conclusion of this well-written article, which focuses on why Boston schools have lost 15,000 Black students (nearly half) over the past 20 years. Parents are fed up with the district’s lottery system, high turnover, and slow pace of school improvement. For Black families who have lived in Boston for generations, the trauma of busing remains. “We’re leaving because we’re tired,” said LaTasha Sarpy, who chose to send her kids to charter schools. “My mom was fighting this fight 35 years ago, trying to find the best schools. At some point, enough is enough.”

➡️ Read the article • Boston Globe • 15 min

3️⃣ Why Poverty Persists In America

Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve heard of Matthew Desmond before. He’s the sociologist who wrote the “Capitalism” chapter in The 1619 Project and the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Evicted. Now he’s studying why the United States has essentially the same poverty rate now as it did 50 years ago (12.6 percent then, 10.5 percent now). The reason is not a neoliberal decline in government spending. (It’s more than doubled.) Rather, Prof. Desmond argues, the primary reason is exploitation. In housing, labor, and banking, rich people exploit poor people because they can, under the laws we’ve passed and the systems we’ve built.

For the past half-century, we’ve approached the poverty question by pointing to poor people themselves — posing questions about their work ethic, say, or their welfare benefits — when we should have been focusing on the fire. The question that should serve as a looping incantation, the one we should ask every time we drive past a tent encampment, those tarped American slums smelling of asphalt and bodies, or every time we see someone asleep on the bus, slumped over in work clothes, is simply: Who benefits? Not: Why don’t you find a better job? Or: Why don’t you move? Or: Why don’t you stop taking out payday loans? But: Who is feeding off this?

➡️ Read the article • New York Times • 24 minutes

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 6 new subscribers – including Joy and Gilbert — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Carol! Charles! Chris!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Reggie, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Tyler and Toni (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

Article Club is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share The Highlighter Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#387: It’s almost April! This month, let’s read and discuss “The Sunset.”

Join us on Sunday, April 30 to discuss Lisa Bubert’s outstanding essay

Happy Thursday and happy almost-April, loyal readers. Today’s my last day at work before my school heads off for Spring Break. I’ll be escaping the Bay Area’s latest atmospheric river ☔️ and relaxing somewhere warm. ☀️ My hope is that you, too, find some time this weekend to rest and read.

I’m very happy to announce that this upcoming month, we’ll be reading and discussing “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. This poignant, well-written essay explores Ms. Bubert’s experience working at a nursing home when she was a college student. If you have or have had a relative living in a nursing home, you’ll relate and connect to this outstanding piece. All of the emotions are there. Most of all, I appreciated Ms. Bubert’s attention to humor and honesty. I hope you’ll read it.

A little bit about the author: Ms. Bubert grew up in Texas and lives in Nashville. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Longreads, Texas Monthly, The Rumpus, and Washington Square Review. Her story, “The Coma,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Ms. Bubert has generously agreed both to record a podcast interview and to join us at our discussion on Sunday, April 30, at 2 pm PT. Hope you’ll consider being there, too. You can find out more information about the article and discussion below.

The Sunset

Young people are scared of old people, which is to say all people are scared of old people, which is to say all people are scared of death.

Because we’re scared of death, our society doesn’t care about old people, unless they’re our grandparents. So when Lisa Bubert chooses to work as an aide in a Texas nursing home as a 19-year-old college student, making $7.25 an hour, her friends are confused. Even before COVID, the annual turnover rate was 60 percent – not surprising, given the understaffing and underfunding. Despite the horrendous working conditions, Ms. Bubert finds purpose and meaning in her work. It helps to think of her Granny K when connecting with residents who feel isolated and lonely. She recognizes that death is a vulnerable act: “There is no act of love greater than to sit with someone as they face their deepest moment of vulnerability.” (13 min)

Read the article

This month, I warmly invite you to read, annotate, and discuss “The Sunset” as part of Article Club.

If you’re interested, this how things will go:

• This week, we’ll read the article

• Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group

• The following week, we’ll hear from Ms. Bubert in a podcast interview

• On Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom. Ms. Bubert plans to join us! ⭐️

Sign up for the discussion

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community. Feel free to reach out with all of your questions.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter Article Club. Hope you liked it. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback. I’d love to hear from you.

To our 17 new subscribers – including Laura, Barbara, Joe, Anna, Ashok, Ray, Peter, Jace, Samikrith, and Bret – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Bert! Betty! Brisa!), you’re pretty great, too. VIPs Sage and Shawnim, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow.

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

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❤️ Become a paid subscriber for $3 a month, like Sharon and Shreya (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes, including exclusive audio letters from me to you.

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#386: The Male Gospel

Excellent articles on extreme masculinity, the fake six-pack, and body dysmorphia

There’s a group of seven boys at my school who love to congregate in the bathroom. They don’t use the bathroom in a traditional sense. In other words, they’re not relieving themselves, or washing their faces, or looking at themselves in the mirror. Instead, they’re going in there to hoot and holler. They joke and snicker. They push each other around. They run into the urinals and bounce off the walls.

My colleagues and I wonder why they love the bathroom so much and what exactly is going on in there. I have a theory: It’s their safe space. They’re exploring their masculinity. They’ve got their little Fight Club. In their own way, they’re becoming men.

I haven’t asked the boys if they know about Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer banned from social media and currently detained in Romania for rape and human trafficking. But after reading this week’s fascinating lead article, “Tate-Pilled,” which uncovers Mr. Tate’s widespread popularity among straight cis boys, I wouldn’t be surprised if our students are striving to attain his definition of manhood: smoking cigars, driving Lamborghinis, getting jacked, and belittling women.

Although it’s not my general tendency to feature articles about gross men, this one I recommend for its exploration of toxic masculinity and its development among teenage boys. If you’re an educator or a parent, it’s very much worth your time.

If blatant misogyny isn’t your cup of tea, scroll on down to the pet photo and two well-written pieces about body image, plastic surgery, and body dysmorphia. The first one is about abdominal etching, and the second one is about battling the bathroom mirror. Please enjoy!

1️⃣ The Male Gospel, According To Andrew Tate

No matter which way I turn, I’m bombarded lately with the same message: The boys are not all right. They’re dropping out of school, using drugs, getting arrested. They’re not seeing a future that includes them. They feel stuck. For many teenage boys, the way out is to follow the gospel of Andrew Tate, who blew up huge on TikTok last year before being banned and getting arrested.

Mr. Tate evangelizes that modern society has emasculated men, stripping them of their natural urge to dominate. Centering the voices of girls and queer kids in schools has isolated boys, dissuading them from speaking about their authentic views on dating, sex, and relationships with girls. The answer, Mr. Tate argues, is to hop off that path and instead get strong, get rich, and “become a G.”

Of course I find Mr. Tate abhorrent, but this well-written article by Lisa Miller got me thinking about all the boys out there who our schools don’t serve. If college isn’t speaking to them, and if they’re not great at sports, or haven’t identified a passion, and they’re lost, who are they going to listen to?

➡️ Read the article | The Intelligencer | 24 minutes | Article with highlights

I still think Nelson should have won the Westminster Dog Show back in 2013. Want your pet to appear in The Highlighter? hltr.co/pets

2️⃣ The Fake Six-Pack

One thing I learned from the lead article is that if you’re serious about becoming a real man, the first step is to get yoked. In addition to massive biceps and powerful pecs, you absolutely need six-pack abs. This means either (a) living in the gym and not eating food, or (b) getting abdominal etching surgery. “That’s what high school boys want,” one plastic surgeon in California said. “That’s what college guys want. That’s what people of all ages want.” The procedure, which costs between $5,000 and $30,000, takes several hours, results in severe pain for more than a week (“it’s like getting punched in your stomach 100 times”), and is irreversible (fat cells don’t come back). Despite the drawbacks, more and more men are flocking to get their abs etched while it’s still (mostly) a secret. After all, the real value comes when women think you’ve achieved your body through hard work and discipline.

➡️ Read the article | GQ | 12 minutes | Article with highlights

3️⃣ On Reflection And Body Dysmorphia

We assume that we know our own bodies. We describe them as temples, cages, a wonderland, the sum of our choices. The body is embedded within our language. Knowing something like the back of your hand means that you know it well. But what happens when you can’t access that information? How do you navigate a world that not only expects you to know what you look like, but to also keep changing parts of yourself to fit a socially manufactured mould?

In this thoughtful personal essay, Angelina Mazza discusses her experience with body dysmorphic disorder, the struggle she faces looking at her body in the mirror, and her decision to have a breast reduction. Ms. Mazza writes, “I tell myself not to expect the surgery to ‘fix’ me or somehow align what I see in the mirror with what really exists. I know better than to hope. Still, some secret part of me wants to believe I am the exception.”

➡️ Read the article | Maisonneuve | 14 minutes

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 5 new subscribers – including Jessica, Paola, and Mark — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Antonio! Anthony! Andy!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Elisabeth, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Nancy and Nick (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

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On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#385: “Thin Is Power”

Plus: Article Clubber Melinda shares her thoughts on “HUMAN_FALLBACK”

I went on my first diet when I was 12 after a friend told me I was too chubby to attract the girls at our middle school. (Likely there were other things going on.) Somehow I got my hands on a series of cassette tapes that offered a comprehensive course on the neuropsychology of weight control. It wasn’t a diet; it was a “life program.” Always the meticulous learner, I listened from beginning to end. In addition to the affirming subliminal messages, the course urged calorie restriction and willpower. Starve yourself for long enough, it suggested, and you’ll lose weight. (I didn’t.)

If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter for a while, you know that I’m fascinated by articles about weight loss, body positivity, and fat shaming. For example, here’s a collection of articles I compiled a few years ago. This week’s lead article explores the rise of Ozempic and how the drug is reminding us of the inevitable — that in our society, no matter what we say, it’s better to be thin.

If the topic of anti-fatness doesn’t interest you, scroll on down for two other great pieces. The first recounts the Red Cross and the U.S. military’s racist blood donation policy during World War II. The second is a joyful, thoughtful interview with loyal reader Melinda about her thoughts on “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” this month’s deep dive. (Yes, you should absolutely listen.) Please enjoy!

1️⃣ Life After Food?

We love wellness and body positivity — as long as we’re thin. That’s at the core of this outstanding article about Ozempic, the diabetes drug that fancy people in New York and Los Angeles (and everyone at the Oscars) are taking as an appetite suppressant to get drastically thin. Author Matthew Schneier does a great job peeling back the layers of anti-fatness in our society. He writes:

The whole shaky edifice of wellness rested on the rickety foundations of body acceptance: Everyone was beautiful; it was the standards, not the bodies themselves, that were wrong. Which is true, of course — it just turned out we only sublimated the standards, hid them behind vagaries of looking good, feeling good, and being so much more buoyant without dairy, or gluten, or whatever. How quickly we’ve abandoned our contortions and commitments to acceptance as soon as a silver bullet comes around.

➡️ Read the article (19 min) (if you hit a paywall)

2️⃣ The Red Cross And Jim Crow

More than 1 million African American men and women fought for the United States in World War II. But the American Red Cross did not accept blood from Black donors. In this informative, clearly-written piece, Melba Newsome explains how the U.S. military assumed white soldiers would feel uncomfortable receiving Black blood. Not the case, according to the evidence, but no matter. What also didn’t matter: that Dr. Charles Drew developed the first large-scale blood banks that saved thousands of British soldiers during the war. Protest ensued. After a year of public pressure, the Red Cross in 1942 announced a compromise: It would take Black donors’ blood, but process it separately. Nearly 80 years later, in 2021, the Red Cross apologized, calling the policy a “regrettable decision” that accommodated “cultural norms of the time.” No wonder Black people now account for less than 3 percent of blood donors.

➡️ Read the article (11 min)

3️⃣ Article Clubber Melinda shares her brilliant thoughts on “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston

My favorite part of putting this newsletter together is meeting and getting to know kind, thoughtful people who love to read and discuss the best nonfiction articles on race, education, and culture. Over and over again, I’m floored by how quickly and deeply we all connect.

That was the case again this week, when I asked new Article Clubber Melinda to share her thoughts on this month’s selection, “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston. (If you haven’t read it yet, you should! It’s about artificial intelligence, capitalism, and the stripping away of humanity.)

Melinda is an activist, lawyer, and cat mom living in Washington, D.C. A lover of many genres, from memoir to fantasy novels, she’s normally reading several things at once and hunting for her next read at her favorite local bookstore, Solid State Books.

And also important: She’s got great thoughts on this month’s article! Within 30 seconds of opening the Zoom and saying hi, it was like we were already friends. I encourage you to listen in on our conversation. Here are some topics we talked about:

• how Melinda found The Highlighter Article Club (thank you, Ann Friedman!) and what she likes about it so far

• how “HUMAN_FALLBACK” isn’t your typical article on artificial intelligence

• how the article made us feel extremely uneasy about the future of humanity

• what questions we want to ask author Laura Preston when we meet up

Isn’t Melinda great? I’d love it if you could leave her a comment to welcome her to our Article Club reading community. What did Melinda share that you connected with?

Leave a comment

Also, there’s still time to join our conversation on Sunday, March 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Preston will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Join the discussion!

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 3 new subscribers – including Deborah and Giffe — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Zaretta! Ziba! Zachary!), you’re pretty great. VIP Melinda, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Monica and Marna (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#384: Our Whispering Wombs

Excellent articles on Black women, affirmative action, substance abuse, and kids

Happy Thursday, Loyal Readers. Today’s issue is classic Highlighter: four outstanding articles on race, education, and culture — from a variety of publications. If you’re new here (22 of you this week!), welcome. I hope you find the articles valuable and our reading community kind and thoughtful. Please feel free to reach out!

Today’s lead article, “Our Whispering Wombs,” is so good, I’m fairly certain you’ll see it again in December when I announce the best pieces of the year. Part family history, part ode to Black women, part history of gynecology, and part resistance to racism, Elsa Julien Lora’s essay is beautifully written. You won’t regret reading it.

If you have more time, the other three articles are excellent as well. They explore affirmative action; the meaning of the 14th Amendment; the pain a father feels knowing his daughter suffers from substance abuse, the comfort a dog brings; and the awful effects of COVID on our kids. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: This month we’re discussing “HUMAN_FALLBACK,” by Laura Preston. It’s about artificial intelligence, capitalism, and the stripping away of humanity. I invite you to join our conversation on Sunday, March 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Preston will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

Sign up for the discussion

1️⃣ Our Whispering Wombs: A Black Family History

Elsa Julien Lora grew up in a home with loving images of her foremothers adorning the walls. There were photographs of her mother and grandmother, daguerreotypes of her great-, great-great-, and great-great-great grandmother. I just want you to know that you can always talk to me, they told her.

This essay traces generations of women in Ms. Lora’s family, beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother Sarah, whose uterus “held the future of the slave economy, and also of our family.” She died at age 35 after raising 10 children. About her great-great-great grandmother Cordelia, Ms. Lora writes, “I don’t know anything about her birth other than that it deepened her father’s pockets.”

Ms. Lora discusses not only her foremothers’ resistance to slavery but also how they navigated the rise of gynecology as a profession. Ms. Lora suspects several women in her family lived with uterine fibroids at a time when doctors practiced on enslaved women without anesthesia. She writes:

The gynecological profession and the institution of slavery had a symbiotic relationship. On the one hand, gynecology was only able to advance as a field as quickly as it did because practitioners were able to experiment on enslaved women’s bodies. On the other, the slave economy depended on enslaved people’s productive labor, which was only made possible by enslaved women’s reproductive labor. Slaveholders relied on the insights and services of gynecologists to keep enslaved women healthy during childbearing years. In the words of historian Jennifer Morgan, “Black women’s bodies are inseparable from the landscape of colonial slavery.”

Ms. Lora tracks the disrespect and dismissal of Black women’s bodies over generations, exploring at length her mother’s experience with fibroids. Doctors often believe Black women don’t feel pain. Doctors often recommend hysterectomies when myomectomies are appropriate. “At your age, what do you need your uterus for, anyway?” they ask. Ms. Lora’s mother resists, getting the operation she desires — the successful removal of 117 fibroids.

Shortly after her 24th birthday, Ms. Lora wakes up with a fullness in her belly. Despite her family history, a nurse suspects it’s a kidney issue. It’s not. “I called my mom as soon as the results came in,” she writes. “ ‘I have fibroids.’ Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes. ‘Well of course you do.’ ” (26 minutes)

➡️ Read the article

Zuzu, who belongs to VIP Monica, (1) is very cold, (2) is not a cat. Want your pet to appear here? It’s easy! hltr.co/pets

2️⃣ Why Is Affirmative Action In Peril?

The Supreme Court most likely will strike down affirmative action next June. This article explains why. According to journalist and law lecturer Emily Bazelon, it all comes down to understanding Regents v. Bakke, the 1978 decision that banned racial quotas but preserved affirmative action. In order to lure enough justices, lawyer Archibald Cox devised a strategy that centered the benefits of diversity, rather than the responsibility of reparations, as the reason affirmative action should continue. In other words: Let’s forget that the 14th Amendment’s purpose was to give equal rights to Black Americans. In the short term, the tactic worked. The Court sided with Mr. Cox 5-4, and affirmative action has endured despite many challenges, including in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Fisher v. Texas (2016). But now with a much more conservative court, Ms. Bazelon suggests that affirmative action’s “diversity” rationale may be similar to abortion’s “privacy” rationale — way too flimsy to survive. (35 min)

➡️ Read the article

3️⃣ Running With Hank

This piece by Caleb Daniloff is beautifully written, and I urge you to read it — even if you’re not a parent, runner, or pet owner. Content note: substance abuse.

I had taken to writing my daughter’s obituary, revising it week after week. It usually cropped up during a run, as if the movement jarred the sentences loose from the dark place where I hid my fears. But then I’d get stuck. All these sepia-toned memories were of her as a child. I struggled to conjure anything meaningful from the previous 10 years. Where was that impish blond-haired girl who loved to draw and silly-dance to TV theme songs, who didn’t care what people thought?

That kid had been replaced by someone I no longer recognized—a stranger with vacant eyes and sores hidden beneath thick makeup, thin as a coatrack. Addicted to heroin and fentanyl. At 25.

The only thing of Shea’s that I could reach out and touch was her 3-year-old dog, Hank, a 30-pound mutt who was now living with us. I started running with him at the nearby Middlesex Fells Reservation a few times a week after a particularly low point in Shea’s journey. (14 min)

➡️ Read the article

4️⃣ The Other Long Covid

It’s been three years since schools closed due to COVID-19. We are still coming to terms with the pandemic’s drastic and long-lasting effects. This informative Vox explainer both confirms what we already know and offers a clear-headed assessment of the generational trauma that our young people have suffered. The data is stark: For example, 1 million students dropped out or disappeared from school. More than 200,000 children lost a caregiver. Fewer high school graduates will go to college. Mental health is at a crisis. While I’ve read statistics like these in various articles over the years, having them all in one place hit me differently. Also I appreciated author Bryan Walsh’s treatment of “learning loss.” He writes, “Students didn’t suddenly lose what they had already achieved before the pandemic. Rather, they lost the opportunity and the time to build on what they knew.” Even though I’ve mostly stayed away from highlighting COVID-related articles in this newsletter, I found this one succinct and illuminating. (17 min)

➡️ Read the article

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 22 new subscribers – including Daron, Lee, Carol, David, Viola, Ruben, Ronny, Elena, Bob, Isa, Arora, Sharon, Suhith, and Kate — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Yara! Yvette! Yuri!), you’re pretty great. Loyal reader Katie, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Melinda and Pearl (thank you!). You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of The Highlighter Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. (More hoodies?)

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? Share with them today’s issue and urge them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you very much for spreading the word.

Share

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!