Navigating the Hypersensitive Seas
Richard Dawkins and Scott Barry Kaufman are both seeing what our editor in chief is seeing: a shift in culture that it’s up to us to resist.
Richard Dawkins and Scott Barry Kaufman are both seeing what our editor in chief is seeing: a shift in culture that it’s up to us to resist.
As we work to take this magazine and community to the next level, our strategist Alexis Obernauer wanted to reflect on where this project came from. So she sat down to chat with founder and editor in chief Jessie Mannisto. Here’s the result!
Fantasy novelist Karen Nilsen reflects on how good parenting—and the emotional honesty of stories like Hans Christian Andersen’s—shielded her from her grandmother’s pathological narcissism.
But are children today getting the same preparation? Or are our mermaids too watered down?
More and more of us are thinking of trying self-employment. Freelancer Morgan Grace Milburn debunks the simplistic narratives about this path to help you figure out if you really should make the leap.
Why is Thoreau’s “little world” the image of restorative solitude, and Van Gogh’s “blazing hearth” that of genius misunderstood? In diving into these two men’s stories, David Wakeham demonstrates the pressing need for mentorship and community in those with great potential—and the consequences if this is nowhere to be found.
What drives us to create? Reflecting on her carefree creative expression as a child, struggles with self-consciousness, and industry pressures, Laura Stavinoha confronts the role her desire for validation had on her music and comes to understand why, ultimately, she creates.
Sherlock Holmes is known for his remarkable mind. But as Boris Glebov sees it, one of Holmes’ most powerful mind tricks is accessible to anyone—and can be especially helpful to creative writers.
Creativity has always had a solitary component, but the pandemic drove home to author Jessie Mannisto how much creation is fueled by human connection.
Max Massa was desperate for a way to put overexcitable mind to use for the world—or, failing that, merely to connect with other people who cared ideas. Could he rely on his imagination to make the product of his intellect more meaningful to others?