A Tale of Two Cities — The horror stories filtered in slowly. Cars lost to the ocean, broken into, stolen, and burned to a crisp. The stories variated, but the message was consistent: Watch your back in Broome. Backpacker Heaven When winter rolls around and it gets too cold down south, a great migration occurs. Due to its…

OK, (Mostly) Definitive — Since his death, Mac Miller’s music has exploded in popularity. His first posthumous album, Circles, is one of his most commercially successful. For many people, it was their first experience listening to Mac’s music. Lots of critics also discovered Mac Miller late, attracted by his notable death or late-career evolution…

Limitations, Suffering, and Death — Surfing is the best feeling in the world. It’s like having 1000 orgasms, simultaneously. I swear this is not hyperbole. Try it. Anyone whose spent a relatively significant amount of time surfing immediately understands what I mean. …

It was weird — On Monday morning in Australia, we woke up to a mandatory mask mandate from the Queensland state government. A year of unmasked bliss, suddenly interrupted. Just when we’d forgotten about Covid, it returned. What began as a single case in Brisbane was followed by a steady trickle of additional cases…

Don’t Be Sad it’s Over, Be Happy that it Happened — It’s been more than a year and a half now, since I last inhaled a puff from the Juul. Sometimes I see it in my dreams. I reach out to take a hit, but then it slips away into oblivion. The things I would do to feel that sleek, cold…

How Religion Should Adapt to Modernity — It never ceases to amaze me how few of my gentile friends are even aware of the existence of Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday. One possible explanation for this absence of awareness is that Yom Kippur doesn’t aggressively shove gift-wrapped, mostly empty consumerism down everyone’s throat regardless of…

The Power of the Path Less Traveled — What did you learn in university? You learned how to memorize, regurgitate, and forget information all within the span of 24 hours. You learned how to feign interest in complete strangers for several minutes, strictly for the purpose of future personal gain. You learned how to fit into the box…

Being American is a Blessing, Not a Curse — It’s natural to feel shame and self-loathing for being American. It’s a feeling most liberal Americans have grown accustomed to. I don’t blame you for feeling this way. But here’s the thing. People like Americans and they like America. This may seem hard to believe. For a while, I struggled…