Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Why American “quad god” Ilia Malinin skates like no one else

Editor’s note, February 9, 1:20 pm: This piece on Ilia Malinin was published before the 2026 Winter Olympics began. At the figure skating team event over the weekend — a competition that featured men’s, women’s, pairs, and ice dancing — Malinin came in second in the short program and helped the US team take gold […]

How to train yourself to enjoy winter

Across much of the United States, it’s downright dreary outside. It’s cold, the snow has gone from beautiful and pristine to dirty and crusted over, and the motivation to get outside is low. A 2024 poll from the American Psychiatric Association found that nearly half of Americans say their mood takes a dip in the […]

Just how healthy is Donald Trump, really?

President Donald Trump has been on the world stage for more than a decade now, during which he has given his fair share of rambling speeches — although he claims it’s a “brilliant” way of speaking. But is the rambling getting worse? Since Trump returned to office a year ago, the internet has gone back […]

You want a baby. Is it ethical to choose surrogacy?

Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a unique framework for thinking through your moral dilemmas. It’s based on value pluralism — the idea that each of us has multiple values that are equally valid but that often conflict with each other. To submit a question, fill out this anonymous form. Here’s this week’s question from a […]

The fiction at the heart of America’s political divide

America’s most impassioned Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much. Ask the inhabitants of Bluesky and Truth Social whether a fetus is a person, or undocumented immigrants are a scourge, or trans women are women, or climate change is a crisis, or Covid vaccines are toxic, or taxes are too high, or welfare spending is […]