By U.S. State
By Country
Why We Lose It When “Mr. Brightside” Plays
by Brad Zwiers | May 27, 2019 | Placeless
Coming out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine.
Take Me To Church
by Nick Meekhof | May 26, 2019 | Grand Rapids, Tennessee
By the time Church came out with his second album, I was already calling him my favorite artist.
Behold, I am an American
by Katie Van Zanen | May 25, 2019 | Canada
Perhaps it was outside of Ottawa, where yet another AirBNB featured a drip coffee maker but no filters or beans.
l’Optimisme
by Leigh Peterson | May 24, 2019 | Grand Rapids
I like to imagine that even people who did not know me at my graduation looked at me and thought I was exceptional.
What Two Hippos Taught Me about Love and Friendship
by Julia LaPlaca | May 23, 2019 | Placeless
Loving another person is simultaneously the simplest and the most complicated thing that we do.
Game of Thrones Season Eight: the Worst, the Best, the Memes
by Sadie Burgher | May 22, 2019 | Placeless
If you need me, I’ll be listening to the Game of Thrones soundtrack on repeat for the next few months.
Exposure: Experiments in a Confessional Instagram
by Emily Joy Stroble | May 21, 2019 | Grand Rapids
Confession dwells. It sets up camp in the desert of failure and resigns itself to wandering forty minutes or forty years.
The Traveler’s Lexicon
by Gabe Gunnink | May 20, 2019 | Placeless
Let me be clear: you do not have to do anything.
In a Land Far Away
by Mary Margaret Healy | May 19, 2019 | Chicago, Pennsylvania, Texas
So consider this a love letter from your faraway child.
Beelzepup: One Year Later
by Ben DeVries | May 18, 2019 | Indiana
So here I now find myself, a year later, not with a record of instances—some long calendar of thresholds met and surpassed by Jes and me and Toph—but with the accretion of slow change.
Things I Think About a Lot Even Though They’re Not Important
by Tony Ditta | May 17, 2019 | Placeless
There’s a brand of bathroom scales called “Thinner.” This is a bad name for a bathroom scale.
Rediscovering Paul
by Will Montei | May 14, 2019 | Placeless
Paul’s vision of goodness is, shockingly, based on subjective morality, another thing I have been told is unbiblical.
The Unlikely Sports Fan
by Olivia Harre | May 13, 2019 | Missouri
As the game went into double-overtime (that’s a thing?), I was stress-eating a Pop-Tart when I finally realized I was being ridiculous.
Gourmet Makes
by Abby Zwart | May 12, 2019 | Placeless
Claire makes Lucky Charms and it turns out cereal is extremely hard to make at home, which is maybe why General Mills can charge us $4 for a twelve-ounce box of air and sugar.
Growing Up On Weird Movies
by Matt Cambridge | May 11, 2019 | Placeless
Ask my parents about this show and to this day they’ll say, “That show could have been on prime time!”
The Margins
by Jenna Griffin | May 10, 2019 | Romania
What does it mean though for a place to be ugly?
A Grief Other Than My Own
by Gwyneth Findlay | May 9, 2019 | Placeless
We cannot forget Rachel Held Evans, woman of valor, revolutionizer of faith, wife and mother, friend and mentor, writer and speaker and world-changer.
Twittering Better and Bettering Twitter
by Josh Parks | May 8, 2019 | Placeless
I was further convinced of the potential goodness of Twitter on Sunday, when my Twitter feed was filled to the brim with two conversations.
Tuesday Night in Omiš
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | May 7, 2019 | Placeless
We venture downtown eventually
to eat hake caught fresh that afternoon
and a pastry the waiter recommends.
Trip Report: Wedgemont Lake
by Josh deLacy | May 6, 2019 | Canada
Our ultimate goal, Wedge Mountain, has an elevation of 9,488 feet and is the high point of Garibaldi Provincial Park.
A Girls’ Trip is Not a Luxury
by Comfort Sampong | May 4, 2019 | Placeless
I gain a quiet confidence because I know our advances and our pains belong to each other.
Pain
by Ansley Kelly | May 3, 2019 | Placeless
My earliest intelligible communication was holding my stomach and saying “ow.”
Jeopardy, Alone, Unreal
by Cotter Koopman | May 2, 2019 | Placeless
The camera hides nerves, and each friendly contestant really knows their podium space is fought for and fleeting.
If Talk Is Cheap, Are Opinions Mostly Worthless?
by Katerina Parsons | May 1, 2019 | Placeless
How many “insightful” comments about politics or social issues have I made that are really just regurgitations of something I forgot I read somewhere else?
At the Theater
by Bethany Cooper | Apr 30, 2019 | Placeless
I imagine becoming part of the story the
excitement and the honor is
overwhelming it fills me to the brim
Discerning Eurovision: The Fascinating Story Behind the World’s Campiest Contest (and Why You Should Be Watching)
by Helen Groothuis | Apr 29, 2019 | Placeless
Today, the contest is known widely for its glorious campiness.
Fear the Deer
by Matt Coldagelli | Apr 28, 2019 | Wisconsin
But for me—a Wisconsin sports fan all too familiar with gut-wrenching disappointment—it’s difficult to fully lean into the excitement without the nagging feeling that heartbreak is on the horizon.
Enough of This
by Brad Zwiers | Apr 27, 2019 | Placeless
Racist behavior has ramped up around the continent in the form of chants, banana skins thrown on the pitch, and racist banners.
What’s Coming
by Katie Van Zanen | Apr 25, 2019 | Ann Arbor
Why would I give up my dog?
Cultiver Son Jardin
by Leigh Peterson | Apr 24, 2019 | Grand Rapids
A little over a week ago I stood in the yard, watching while Taylor planted arugula in the beds. I was not in a good mood.
