The pandemic will end. Ed Yong, savior of cogent COVID explanations, lays out the path to normalcy, and considers what our new normal will look like. (link)

“Customers affect a demeanor of antagonistic helplessness.” PHEW this whole article about what it’s like to work retail at a time when everyone is being The Worst is very good, but this one line just about did me in. (link)

Here is why every woman in all of TV has the exact same hair. (link)

“You know how little girls dream of their weddings? I dreamt of houses.” Sandra Cisneros on finding a room of her own. (link)

Nylah Burton interviews Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman on the dystopian world of their new workplace novel, The Very Nice Box. (link)

Lesley Anne Warren remembers Clue. (link)

On the people and companies that are trying to make travel less racist. (link)

“Who is to blame in this transaction: the lone shopper who purchased hundreds of dollars worth of clothes, or the billion-dollar retailer?” How Gen Z shops. (link)

Music critic Craig Jenkins sees no end in sight for homophobia in hip-hop. (link)

The central theme of Howl’s Moving Castle is unappreciated labor. Also it slaps. (link)

Midnight’s Borders, by Suchitra Vijayan, has been one of my favorite nonfiction books of the year. Here’s its author getting interviewed over at The Rumpus. (link)

“Does Lenù like Lila?” On the friendship plot and how it could be better. (link)

“Here is what it is: no force on earth will keep a writer’s preoccupations out of their fiction. You are not necessarily looking for them, but you find them every time.” A new Patricia Lockwood review is always cause for rejoicing. (link)

Why the devil do grocery stores still have an ethnic food aisle? (link)

“You can make a lot of money in diversity being abstract.” WHEW. On the DEI industry. (link)

This weekend, I am planning to do many, many tasks! If that doesn’t work out, I will at least spend time with my nephew, who is one of my favorite people on earth. I have two puzzles for him to play with and a new copy of Chutes and Ladders and a bed that goes up and down and a typewriter. All the ingredients for a fun time!

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Barry Jenkins worked hard to avoid sensationalizing and exploiting Black trauma in his adaptation of The Underground Railroad, but the material was difficult nonetheless. A therapist was on set at all times to protect and help the cast and crew. (link)

Always read an Alex Brown review! They’re at Tor this week reviewing Barry Jenkins’s new TV adaptation of The Underground Railroad, which handles Black trauma with care and thoughtfulness. (link)

And (last The Underground Railroad thing!) Angelica Jade Bastién reviewed the show with her customary eloquence. (link)

I was completely unaware of the slander websites economy, but the New York Times did a deep dive to find out who runs these sites, and who runs the sites you can pay to clean up your online presence. (link)

“Ideas don’t disappear when they’re banned.” Carmen Maria Machado responds to attempts to ban students from reading her book In the Dream House. (link)

“A woman once stopped my mother in a supermarket and told her that she had abilities to speak to the dead. “It’s a power I can develop if I want to,” my mother bragged. But she didn’t want to.” On Korean history, trauma, and ghosts. (link)

Access to affirming, culturally competent mental health care is a community and social justice issue. (link)

David Treuer makes the (excellent) case for giving national parks back to Native nations. (link)

Without any of us noticing, online shopping has undergone a sea change. We are buffeted by the uncaring waves of social media marketing. (link)

How Netflix frames the stories of people like Joe Exotic and Colton Underwood, at the expense of the people they’ve harmed. (link)

Interracial relationships have begun to appear far more frequently in movies, TV, and commercials. But do these depictions grapple with the realities of interracial dating? (link)

“Just write the parts that are exciting to you, and figure out later how you’re going to connect it.” Brit Bennett on discovering joy in her writing. (link)

What does a guilty pleasure mean? (link)

A deep dive into how Martin Bashir used dishonest tactics to get That Interview. (link)

The authors of two new books I’m very excited for discuss their inspirations: Dawnie Walton on The Final Revival of Opal and Nev (link) and Zakiya Dalila Harris on The Other Black Girl (link).

Here’s a question for the group, before we go: If you could talk to ghosts, would you?

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