…with a side of Virginia Woolf’s elated infatuation. “Tell me nothing of rest,” the young Beethoven bellowed when he began losing his hearing, resolving to “take fate by the throat” despite his disability. A century later, another trailblazing composer of uncommon artistic ability took her own fate by the throat as she faced the same […]
For most of modern history, it was the same routine. Whenever we needed a new lipstick for a big event or a more hydrating moisturizer in preparation for winter, a visit to our favorite store was in order—be it the finest beauty counters at Saks Fifth Avenue, the nearest Sephora, or the local CVS. With […]
Chances are while you’ve been stuck at home this winter (and last fall, and last summer, and last spring), you’ve done a bit of a reorganizing at home. (Or at least, you’ve thought about it.) Home organization guru Marie Kondo is launching a new collection of storage products with The Container Store based on Kondo’s […]
This is an installment of Startup Year One, a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation. Striving both to promote sustainability but also a more honest and open conversation around menstrual care, Nixit is a one-size-fits-all menstrual disc […]
Voluptuaries of geometry and color, elaborate living urns, lavish lampshades for the place of some sea god, miniature Hindu temples, gorgeous drag queens of the deep, otherworldly amphoras from the bottom of this spectacular world. A century-old annual report by one of the greatest public-good institutions our civilization has produced — New York’s Cooper Union, […]
“Half our standards come from our first masters, and the other half from our first loves.” In the 1850s, Emily Dickinson’s passionate first love shaped her uncommon body of work for a lifetime to come, shaped the spare and searing poems that would go on animating lives for generations to come. In the 1950s, Rai […]
A subtle celebration of the terrifying tenderness that makes life barely survivable but also makes it worth living. “To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control,” philosopher Martha Nussbaum observed in contemplating how to live with our […]
“Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them… Love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up… Love your heart. For this is the prize.” Thinking lately about what it means to have the right heart, which intimates the question of what it means to […]
This is an installment of Startup Year One, a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation. Grocery shopping changed radically, and possibly forever, in 2020. While consumers still headed to line up at their local markets nationwide, many […]
A love story, a time story, an invitation not to mistake difference for defect and to welcome, across the accordion scales of time and space, diversity as nature’s wellspring of resilience and beauty. Great children’s books move young hearts, yes, but they also move the great common heart that beats in the chest of humanity […]