“The English Mail-Coach” is one of the great meditations on mortality, on the speed with which life runs through our fingers, on how easily existence in all its radiance can be snuffed out. The

When will we finally listen to a song for what it is, rather than for what it should have been? The post Salsa For Salsa’s Sake appeared first on Public Books.

As the entire country was plunged into a digital blackout, the only light remaining in my room was the cold, clinical glow of my disconnected laptop. There, in that forced isolation, I sat

“I wanted to propose grief as perhaps the most appropriate response we can have to what is happening to the natural world—the disappearance of coral reefs in the Andaman Sea and bird habitats

“I come to the understanding I know nothing, and then I completely throw myself into the research.” The post Extreme Circumstances, Extreme Reactions: Aaron Gwyn and Sean McCann appeared first on Public Books.

Utilitarian public baths and pools once filled the world’s cities, but now new expensive spas are taking their place. Has even bathing become a luxury? The post The Once and Future Bathhouse appeared first

“We tend to see El Paso as this very narrow space that divides Mexico and the United States, but it's this much richer region where ideas and goods and people are constantly flowing

"A political philosophy of the prison with no necessary relationship to the realities of the prison is a luxury we can ill afford." The post There Are More Prisons in Heaven & Earth… appeared