SPOTLIGHT

“The Yellowhammer’s Nest” by John Clare

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, March 18, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

“The Yellowhammer’s Nest” by John Clare

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Smarty Pants Podcast

Why Has American Classical Music Ignored Its Black Past?

And the immigrant composer who predicted a different future

Black-and-white photo of composer William Levi Dawson
Article

New World Prophecy

Dvořák once predicted that American classical music would be rooted in the black vernacular. Why, then, has the field remained so white?

View from Rue Saint-Georges

Existential Split

On feeling the pull of home

Trees
Web Essays

It’s Not Easy Being Green

In an era of global warming, not all tree-related questions are equal.

Portrait of the Artist

Madeline A. Stratton

Without a Shadow of a Doubt

Read Me a Poem

“Any Case” by Wislawa Szymborska

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Asturias Days

The Bland Act

Smarty Pants Podcast

Fashion Kills

How our hunger for more clothes is killing the environment and exploiting workers

Iceland
Shelf Life

From the Office to Iceland

An Excerpt from Wild Horses of the Summer Sun

Smarty Pants Podcast

The Root Cause

Padraic X. Scanlan tells the real history of the Irish Potato Famine

Article

In the Mushroom

True foraging isn’t the domain of the weekend warrior; it’s serious, serious business

Asturias Days

Consolidated Ruin

Read Me a Poem

“After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Luis Alvaro Sahagún Nuño

Ancestral healing

Article

Asteroid Hunters

The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks

Book Reviews

Who Would I Be Off My Meds

Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering?

Asturias Days

Brown Wasps

Read Me a Poem

“Writing in the Dark” by Denise Levertov

Poems read aloud, beautifully

NEWSLETTER

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current issue

“In Tunisia, the stones once brutalized by the Romans are now being protected from the soil. Here in New Mexico, the ground has been encouraged to swallow up the remains. The stones of this American Carthage whisper almost nothing of its past, choked by rising earth.”—Charles G. Salas, “American Carthage”

Plus: Elizabeth Kadetsky brings new meaning to the phrase “tiger mom,” Jessie Wilde profiles the scientists keeping us safe from space rocks, and Teri Michele Youmans follows her father’s memory to Enewetak Atoll

“In Tunisia, the stones once brutalized by the Romans are now being protected from the soil. Here in New Mexico, the ground has been encouraged to swallow up the remains. The stones of this American Carthage whisper almost nothing of its past, choked by rising earth.”—Charles G. Salas, “American Carthage”

Plus: Elizabeth Kadetsky brings new meaning to the phrase “tiger mom,” Jessie Wilde profiles the scientists keeping us safe from space rocks, and Teri Michele Youmans follows her father’s memory to Enewetak Atoll

Book Reviews

Who Would I Be Off My Meds

Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering?

Cover Story

Tiger Mom

At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind

Article

American Carthage
loading

Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present

Article

Lessons From Harlem
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A white blues player’s streetside education

Commonplace Book

Spring 2025

Book Reviews

Who Would I Be Off My Meds

Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering?

Cover Story

Tiger Mom

At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind

Article

American Carthage
loading

Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present

Article

Lessons From Harlem
loading

A white blues player’s streetside education

Commonplace Book

Spring 2025