Newsletter Items

From the July 12, 2023 issue of Further “Summer vacation” when you were a kid was music to your ears. “Summer vacation” as an adult can sound more like a cruel oxymoron — especially when weather and travel are unpredictable, your travel companions are demanding, and inflation makes even a staycation costly. Still, we’re in the …

From the July 5, 2023 issue of Further I am a robot. Step near me, and you won’t hear gears whirring, and my tumbledown face bears no resemblance to today’s beauty bots, but know me by my robot ways: Wake workdays at 5:45 am, summoned by the automatic coffee beans grinding Meditate for 20 minutes, …

From the June 28, 2023 issue of Further Do you ever feel empty, even though you’ve achieved success and have much to be grateful for? Have your well-ordered days been shaken by divorce, your kids leaving home, or other life quakes? If so, you’re likely stuck in what New York Times columnist and bestselling author …

From the June 21, 2023 issue of Further In Gretchen Rubin’s classic book, The Happiness Project, first published when my daughter was seven, she wrote a line that always got me: The days are long, but the years are short. Cut to today, when I’m headed to my daughter’s college graduation, and I realize those …

From the June 14, 2023 issue of Further Over the past few years, the world has become particularly cruel (and not to be kind) thanks to the global pandemic, societal turmoil, and political divisiveness, among other nastiness. It’s no coincidence, then, that popular TV shows like Ted Lasso suggest it’s time to bring human kindness …

From the June 7, 2023 issue of Further Recently I chatted with a friend who had coffee with his ex. A year earlier, she blindsided him when she broke off their long-term relationship. Today he says he’s found “closure.” As I listened, I realized it was a classic case of the lips saying one thing …

From the May 31, 2023 issue of Further Here’s a room-clearing statement: everyone is going to die. (Admittedly, it sounds better when Amy Poehler says it.) And when the inevitable happens, we’re seldom ready. Take my mother, who spent a lifetime accumulating things and refused to throw anything out. After she died, my dad and …

From the May 24, 2023 issue of Further Recently, we completed a backyard renovation, ditching a dying hedge and sad, brown lawn and replacing them with a patio surrounded by a luscious array of flowering shrubs, vines, and trees. It’s not only a peaceful mecca for me, but the birds are enthralled. Nesting house finches, …

From the May 17, 2023 issue of Further As someone who makes her living by writing, you might think I’m petrified that AI will decimate my career. Honestly, machines don’t scare me. It’s the foolish humans who are okay with completely abdicating their ability to think, communicate, and solve problems that I find alarming. Sure, …

From the May 10, 2023 issue of Further As a kid, you probably had a good idea of what you wanted to do when you grew up. Anything seemed possible: doctor, musician, veterinarian, firefighter, novelist, mermaid (my go-to). Unsurprisingly, research shows most of us don’t end up in our childhood dream jobs. Nearly 70% of …

From the May 3, 2023 issue of Further Forgiveness is a virtue that most of us suck at. In our age of outrage, grudge matches have become an art form. (Hi, Chris Rock!) Now there’s new research that shows forgiveness isn’t just a nice moral thing to do; it supports better mental health by reducing …

From the April 26, 2023 issue of Further It’s not like we don’t know we’re supposed to celebrate failure — in our age of relentless positivity and reality-blurring euphemisms, everything bad is good again. As George Carlin once said: People have been bullshitted by the system into believing that if you change the name of …