When did Elinor Carucci enter my apartment and take photos of my life? This was exactly how I felt looking at her new book, Midlife, a gorgeous documentary account of domesticity, 20 years in. Eran and I (2013). Photo: Published by The Monacelli Press and courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery … [Read More...]
One Night at Mount Sinai
Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen? Sometime after 2 a.m. on January 12, … [Read More...]
Dressing for a Wound: How my body and I reconciled after a mastectomy.
How do you dress for your mastectomy? The surgery itself is easy, actually. During the cutting, you’re wearing nothing at all, unconscious and strapped to a table in … [Read More...]
Recent Articles and Columns
A Joyful Testament to Middle Age
When did Elinor Carucci enter my apartment and take photos of my life? This was exactly how I felt looking at her new book, Midlife, a gorgeous documentary account of domesticity, 20 years in. Eran and I (2013). Photo: Published by The Monacelli Press and … [Read More...]
In 2029, AI Will Make Prejudice Much Worse
If you’re female, the machines may not recognize you as human. They may not see you if you’re trans or a person of color, nor, possibly, if you have poor dental hygiene or carry a cane or are diminutive in stature or extraordinarily tall. The machines … [Read More...]
One Night at Mount Sinai
Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen? Sometime after 2 a.m. on January 12, 2016, Aja Newman roused herself from her hospital gurney and made her way down the long hallway to the … [Read More...]
Dressing for a Wound: How my body and I reconciled after a mastectomy.
How do you dress for your mastectomy? The surgery itself is easy, actually. During the cutting, you’re wearing nothing at all, unconscious and strapped to a table in a martyr’s pose, arms out in a T, while an OR crew that looks like the cast of a reality show … [Read More...]
Men Know It’s Better to Carry Nothing
Several weeks ago I saw a young woman on the subway accidentally dump a full cup of iced coffee into the seat next to her. A large puddle rippled in the molded plastic divot, threatening to overflow at any moment. Panicked and helpless, the embarrassed woman gazed … [Read More...]
How a Predator Operated in Plain Sight
In 1972 or 1973, I went to the circus with my friend and afterward her father picked us up. We were 9 or 10 years old, and while we had been enjoying the circus, her father and his new girlfriend had gone to see the porno Deep Throat, which at the time was a groovy … [Read More...]
Measles for the One Percent
Vaccines, Waldorf schools, and the problem with liberal Luddites On an unseasonably chilly morning in May, three dozen or so plaintiff-parents, most of them from the Green Meadow Waldorf School, showed up at the Rockland County Courthouse, looking, in their draped … [Read More...]
68 Minutes With David Brooks The conservative columnist takes a look inside his soul. But what does he see?
It was 2013,and David Brooks was in the wilderness. Not the literal desert or jungle or anything like that, but the emotional wilderness of an accomplished man who, in midlife, has discovered a deep emptiness at his core. His marriage of 27 years was falling apart. … [Read More...]
The Wife Who Wonders How the Empty Nest Will Remake Her Marriage
Even before she was born, our daughter was our priority. My husband and I married late in our lives, propelled toward each other largely by a mutual urge to procreate, and we saw in the other the qualities necessary for raising a child: stamina, humor, … [Read More...]
Women Battling Their Hormones Are Demanding to Be Heard
The first reaction I received was from a friend. We are not intimate — I did not know that she has struggled with major depression all her life — but her text was emphatic. It was just before Christmas, and she had written to say that she had immediately forwarded … [Read More...]