Finding meaning in a world of likes is hard. This is the place to go deep with dispatches from the trenches of punk, psychedelics, and more.

I’ve always been drawn to stories of outsiders, to people who decided for one reason or another not to just go with the flow. I don’t believe we’re drawn to these edges—to what I call “the fringe”—by accident. I find meaning and patterns here—and I think you do, too.

Twice a month I share a post, most often on one of these three topics:

  • Punk: It’s been 30 years since I left Washington, D.C., but the punk scene I was part of still guides me. Begin with Lefty, the unlikely story of a young woman who couldn’t accept herself, and who deflected her shame in the darkest of ways.

  • Ancestral Transmissions: What wounds are we handed at birth? Start with The Lone Wolves: A Crisis of Manhood at the Oregon Coast, a meditation on the children of a culture that devalues emotional connection. You might also enjoy Dawn: Gaza, Jewishness, and the Price of Unmet Grief, which explores current events through an intergenerational lens.

  • Psychedelics: Too few writers give psychedelics the serious treatment they deserve, so I’ve taken it upon myself to try. Start with The Night MDMA Saved My Life, an excerpt from my book Death Trip.

Do I have to pay?

Nope. I don’t paywall my content, preferring to invite everyone to enjoy what I share here. But I absolutely invite you to become a paid subscriber, which means you’ll:

  • Support independent publishing

  • Help me deliver high-quality nonfiction on a regular basis

  • Earn my heartfelt and sincere gratitude

Get your copy of "Death Trip"

About me

I grew up in Washington, D.C. in the ‘70s and ‘80s, where I played in too many punk bands to name. I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider; maybe that’s why I’m drawn to stories about “weird” subcultures and experiences. My writing appears in The Guardian, DoubleBlind, Narratively and many other publications.

Sometimes, we find meaning in strange places. Subscribe and explore the edges with me.

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Writing on punk, psychedelics, and the search for what it was all about; words in The Guardian, Narratively, and elsewhere. Onetime collaborator with Corin Tucker, Modest Mouse, and 1,000,000 bands you never heard of. Barely Jewish, occasionally funny.

People

Raised by Holocaust survivors, saved by psychedelics. Words in The Guardian, Narratively, DoubleBlind and more.