A Grandparent’s Walk Through Love, Loss, and a Lifetime of History

I asked my readers what should happen to the people who spent the last decade defending Trump. Their answers were more complicated than I expected.

The Young Republicans Have Some Very Old Ideas

In which I reveal a secret I’ve kept from you, then lose my patience with two Young Republicans.

DEI DIDN'T DIE For a moment, it looked like DEI had been marched into the woods and shot. Not so fast. Costco kept its programs. Apple and Disney kept doing the work. Wells Fargo expanded its neuro...

➕ADD ANOTHER ONE TO THE LIST, FOLKS Trump’s war now carries a UN finding that U.S. forces committed war crimes, including a recklessly executed strike that killed 157 people, 123 of them children, as...

Hegseth’s Pentagon is deliberately obscuring the true toll of Trump’s Iran war: officials tell The Washington Post that at least four American military deaths are missing from the public tally, after ...

Eight Books on the Burden of Noticing Other Lives

The Young Republicans Have Some Very Old Ideas

Six books about running away from the world and finding yourself waiting there

The left doesn’t need a personal connection to care. But sometimes personal connection makes the stakes impossible to ignore.

Six novels about marriage, intimacy, dependence, and the boundaries of the self

Hundreds of readers told me what it's like to love, live with, lose, and sometimes change someone who fell into MAGA. Together, they reveal what actually changes a Trump supporter's mind.

✉️ 🦠 AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. ANTHONY FAUCI FROM COVID-19 Dear Dr. Fauci, I watched the Senate hearing. After explaining that your attorneys believed the proceedings were designed less to discover f...

Should Democrats Be Reformed, Used, or Abandoned?

Six books on love, memory, death, and the moments we cannot fully explain

A monthly roundup of the books, films, music, fixations, and intellectual rabbit holes currently occupying my mind—for paid subscribers to The Stranger's Library.

The System Is Working Perfectly. That's Why They Want to End It.

5 novels that forever changed the way I experience the world

Part 1: Why I Went, or Can the American Left Hold Together?

I Went Looking for the Latino Vote. I Found Latino Voters.

A Literary Journey into Intoxication, Altered Consciousness, and Addiction

There were trad wives, Christian patriots, margaritas, and one shape-shifting congresswoman.

An Open Letter to Donald Trump From the Algae in Your Reflecting Pool Dear Mr. President, I wanted to take a moment to thank you personally. Most algae spend their lives in obscurity, quietly coati...

Poolside cocktails, ballroom speeches, and an unexpected glimpse into the hearts and minds of Orange County Republicans.

What I learned after spending an afternoon with the people I'd spent two years avoiding.

Five novels narrated by animals that reveal surprising truths about humans

How the Log Cabin Republicans went from reforming the Republican Party to rationalizing it

🏳️‍⚧️ 🐭 🙄 OF MICE AND MORONS House Republicans, led by Mike Johnson, unveiled their latest midterm message this week: "trans-ing the mice"—a phrase derived from their inability, or unwillingness, to...

☑️ 25 THINGS I DID THIS WEEK Supplied military aid and weapons used in the war in Gaza, helping turn tax dollars into bombs, rubble, and civilian casualties. Maintained a military budget so va...

Inside an Evangelical Christian Nationalist Men's Group

Inside an Evangelical Christian Nationalist Men's Group

5 Books About the Emotional Inheritance Parents Pass Down to Their Children

A Sunday Morning Inside America’s Christian Nationalist Movement

6 books on the impossible task of understanding your own life

ALWAYS MONEY TO KILL THEIR CHILDREN. NEVER ENOUGH TO PROTECT OURS. Donald Trump actually said this out loud. “The United States can’t take care of day care,” he declared. “We’re fighting wars. We ...

🗯️ I didn’t expect these conversations to go the way they did. The full piece is below. ↓ https://patricemersault.substack.com/p/part-2-a-funny-thing-happened-over?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post-expande...

Between the coffee refills and the check, the contradictions got harder to ignore.