When I’m feeling patronized, which happens a fair amount in a few subject areas, I sit in silence. It’s clear the down-talker is not looking for my contribution on the subject, and if I did pipe up with my perspective, some part of me would know I was trying to impress. My pride can’t take […]

There is a much-fêted relationship between a writer and his editor. Less often is it mentioned that a writer often keeps up a second backchannel with folks from the business side of a publication, dealing with invoices and working out logistics. With smaller pubs you may actually be talking to the publisher, as is the […]

If you asked me in the abstract, and I wasn’t thinking about it too hard, I might tell you that most people are a bit stupid. A bit provincial, a bit ignorant, a bit wrapped up in consumer culture. I might think, if not say, that your average Joe is a bit of a philistine, […]

I have somehow become involved in wholesale Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) procurement. That is not my job, and I know nothing about it, but the old rules no longer apply in this sudden new world. All it takes now, apparently, is to know some people with particular connections in China and all of a sudden […]

Please welcome Jane C. Hu, a talented journalist whose voicy, insightful writing you may already know from her work in Slate’s Future Tense. Or maybe you have taken her science writing class at the University of Washington. If not, I dare you to read her cover story in the February issue of High Country News […]