Spring 2023

Table of Contents

Endings

From the Editors

Embracing the Inevitable End

The goal of this issue isn’t to send our dear readers into a tailspin. Instead, we’re taking a hopeful approach to our “Endings” issue. 

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A Black woman, with dreadlocks and wearing a pink mask, hugs another Black person at the funeral for Conrad Coleman Jr., on July 3, 2022 in New Rochelle, New York.

The Imposition of Black Grief

Prolonged grief is normal—and even necessary.
Nneka M. Okona

Could We End Wealth?

Billionaires are just one symptom of our upside-down economic system.
Chris Winters

New State of the Game

When it comes to sports, going for gold should be genderless.
Frankie de la Cretaz

Terra Affirma: When a Whale Falls

How do you measure a life?
Sarah Gilman
A colorful illustration depicts three Black adults of various gender presentations, each with their eyes closed, smiling, and all wrapping their arms around a Black child, who is also smiling.

What Monogamy Misses

Expanding our kinship networks can enrich our lives.
Jenn M. Jackson
The Sleeping Bear Dunes overlooking Lake Michigan take their name from the Anishinaabe people native to this dramatically glaciated landscape.

Ending National Parks

Returning national parks to tribal sovereignty could help remedy what is often called America’s “best idea.”
Amanda Gokee

Solutions We Love

Explore Section
An illustration shows two hands holding a variety of wild mushroom types, including morels, chanterelles, oysters, and boletes.
Indigenous Foodways

Fruits of Decay

There is a whole world of gorgeous foraged fungi varieties beyond what’s common in U.S. grocery stores.
Valerie Segrest
An illustrated representation of "a new set of core values" to create how an infrastructure of care appears as a circle with concentric rings: the outer circle is community health, the next inside circle is interpersonal health, followed by individual health. Illustration by Joe Magee for YES! Media.

The Care(ful) Work of Abolishing Prisons

How to kick our national addiction to prisons.
Amanda Alexander & Deanna Van Buren
An illustration shows a pair of human hands cradling the earth, with clouds and raindrops in the background.
People We Love

Visions Beyond an Apocalypse

Science fiction writers explore better climate endings.
Jonita Davis

Culture Shift

Explore Section
An illustration by Fran Murphy depicts a small child being led by the hand away from one adult and with another. In the background is an airplane, a crescent moon, tree branches, and a sign in Korean.

Where’s the Humanity in Intercountry Adoption?

An adult adoptee shines a light on the system of international adoption.
Alexis Freeman
A collage of archival photos that depict Black people in nature and society throughout the early 1900s.

Black History, Unearthed

”A Darker Wilderness“ explores the relationship of Black folks to nature and to the state.
Erin Sharkey

Inspiration: Haruki Murakami

“What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn’t.”
Dania Wright

Reckoning With Tradition

Can we create new traditions that honor where we've been and help lead us where we need to go?
Christine Hanna