Illustration by Abayomi Louard-Moore The Work of Life by Angel Hogan At dinner recently, a friend opened her fortune cookie to find the following Muhammad Ali quote: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” We sat silent, considering. How has service impacted our lives? During my childhood, my
More
Illustration by Jameela Wahlgren Something About Mary by Nancy Barton When my husband, Bill, and I first met Mary and her partner, Tom, they had already started Greensgrow Farms in Kensington, and we had recently bought a building a few blocks away to move our brewery operations. I don’t recall if she came to us
MoreIllustration by Anne Lambelet Sharing Our Table by Brian Ricci I’m fascinated by flavor. I was raised in a small town in the New Jersey suburbs, and at a young age I could walk by myself to school or meet my friends in the town village to trade baseball cards and trap crayfish in the
MoreIllustration by Laura Weiszer Web of Life essay by Jane Dugdale Two years ago, my congregation, Central Baptist Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania, decided to focus on climate change as a moral and spiritual issue through its Ecology Mission Group. I had been a member of this activist congregation for decades, but my spiritual journey from
MoreIllustration by Donte Neal History Lessons essay by Donte Neal I never saw myself in the history of the United States of America during my K–12 education. It made me feel invisible. We had Black History Month, but the learning points were either solicitously innocuous, patronizing or about slavery. The Pledge of Allegiance got harder
MoreIllustration by Anne Lambelet Soul Farming by Charis Lindrooth When Don arrived to work with us at Red Earth Farm, I was skeptical. Now bear in mind, we employ an eclectic mix of people, but Don won the prize for the cleanest-shaved and neatest dressed. His spotless button-up was tucked into crisp khakis. His boots
MorePeople Like Me by Miyah Davis If I hadn’t walked onto a tennis court five years ago when I was 10 years old, Lord only knows what I’d be doing. Who knows who I would be. I am 15 now. I have a lot of childhood friends who are doing great—and I have a lot
MoreClimate Change, Inc. by Heather Shayne Blakeslee Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe (R), one of America’s most influential climate science deniers, famously threw a snowball on the floor of the Senate this past February, his way of calling for calm amid what he calls climate change “hysteria.” It was a publicity stunt that is, unfortunately, emblematic
MorePopulist Mechanics by Heather Shayne Blakeslee Followers of advances in artificial intelligence are waiting for a tipping point they call the “Singularity.” It’s the moment in time when the computers and machines that we’ve designed are smart enough to design better versions of themselves, an event that would trigger a cascade of exponential improvement—as well
MoreIllustration by Julia Tran The Road Ahead by Noelle Billbrough A door slams shut, a guard calls count, and that’s when it hits me. This is my reality now: an 8×12 jail cell. All control over my life is gone, and all I can do is think about my regrets. I’d spent more time running
More