Fandoms, Scandals, Social Media, and the Celebrity Slaughterhouse Early in the pandemic (as in the entirety of 2020) I thought I might be witnessing the imminent death of celebrity culture. I had read a great piece in POPSUGAR by Mekishana Pierre tracking its downfall. Mekishana astutely observed that while nobody wanted to hear from celebrities about unity or…

Amanda, Seven years ago you were lost. Recovering from a manic episode that left you unmoored, you wandered into a room where people were reading poetry. And remembered who you were, and could be again. Poetry was an anchor, holding you still enough to retrace the route. …

For over a year and a half, the separate worlds of our work, home, school, and social lives have folded in on each other. The ramifications of this have yet to be fully felt much less addressed. Shrinking social circles, delayed education, a lack of communal grieving, financial instability, and…

Everything is grey. The wildfires in Oregon and California have formed a fog of smoke that sits over a city resigned to its existence. It’s easy to be resigned to our failures. I sat on the beach with an old co-worker on Sunday. We got stoned and stared out at…

Recently it was announced that masks will be mandatory on Metro Vancouver’s public transit system. This is one policy, among a growing list since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, making masks compulsory in countries or metropolitan areas. Currently, masks are required on public transit throughout Colombia, Argentina, Germany, and…

I wake up. My eye is swollen shut and itchy. Walking to the health clinic masked faces judge me and when I do get there the doctor says he is, “very disappointed” with how irresponsible I’ve been. I have pink eye, which means I was around people and must have…

Hello. I’m sorry, are we boring you? Because we remember a lot of you were going to “storm area 51” not so long ago. But OK. Whatever. We get it. It’s the end of April and you’ve been stuck inside teaching your kids Algebra between Zoom meetings and your third…

(spoilers abound) That’s the thing. I don’t think I believe in deep down. I kind of think all you are is just the things that you do.-Diane Nguyen It was nice while it lasted. Bojack Horseman was three seasons in by the time I started watching. Suffering through a bout…

Around this time last year I wrote an article for Optimistic Learner called “Slight and Spite: Salving the Stings of Social Exchange”, because this lady loves alliteration as much as neuroendocrinology and game theory damnit. It was a practical piece, where I set spite up as the toxic cousin to…