Oh hello!

Fire Island dock

Hi! It’s been a minute!


I found out in early December that my role as editor-in-chief of SELF was being eliminated. I stayed on to help with the transition (Allure’s EIC is now running both brands, overseeing a much smaller SELF team) and wrapped things up last week, and now I’m here!


A lot has happened in the past two-and-a-half-years, but also, not that much has changed. The biggest thing is that a few months after I started at SELF, in August 2022, I got mononucleosis and it just…never really went away. (I literally am still testing positive for an active Epstein-Barr infection.) Eventually, I was diagnosed with ME/CFS, which, for me, manifests as extreme fatigue, poor sleep quality, an elevated heart rate (especially when standing), brain fog, and body aches. I’m also immunocompromised now, so I remain COVID-conscious (though that’s not the only reason).

On a much happier note, Kiyana and I got engaged in August, which is exciting, and we left Brooklyn last year and officially put down roots in Manhattan with our dog Valentina.

Black and white photobooth engagement photo

I don’t know what my next career move will be, but until I figure it out, I’m looking forward to resting, getting back into creative hobbies, and doing more blogging.


More to come! šŸ‘‹šŸ½

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Just Good Shit: 05.22.22

Top down photo of a bouquet of flowers and two polaroid pictures: Rachel Miller sitting on a rooftop at a table, and a bunch of pink and peach balloons

Hello! The big news this week is that I have a new job: I’m starting as Editor-in-Chief of SELF tomorrow! I’m so, so excited for this new chapter in my life, and I had the loveliest weekend celebrating with friends.


Here’s what else I was up to…

Reading

Living With The Far-Right Insurgency In Idaho, HuffPost.
This was a tough read, but I really think it’s worth your time.

The Long Game of White-Power Activists Isn’t Just About Violence, NYT. (gift link)

The Promising Treatment for Long COVID We’re Not Even Trying, The Atlantic.

The COVID Testing Company That Missed 96% of Cases, ProPublica.

A Birder Is Back in the Public Eye, Now on His Own Terms, NYT. (gift link)

The Unlikely Ascent of New York’s Compost Champion, NYT. (gift link)

Let Me Save You Some Time: A Field Guide To Avoiding Transition By Family Committee, The Chatner.

Watching & listening to

I loved Heartstopper on Netflix! The new season of Drag Race: All Stars is amazing. This song is so good. And I saw two beautiful double-crested cormorants diving for fish in Central Park on Tuesday.

Have a good one! ✨

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Just Good Shit: 05.15.22

non-alcoholic rosemary paloma while dining al fresco

Hello! Here’s what I’ve got for you this week…

Reading

The Sinister Connection Between Abortion Rights, White Supremacy, and Covid, Jezebel.
Really worth a read, especially given the reports out of Buffalo.

A Grandmother Needed Paperwork For A Glucose Monitor. The NYPD Broke Her Arm., Hellgate.

The Woman Who Killed Roe, The Cut.

The Horrifying Implications of Alito’s Most Alarming Footnote, Slate.

3 Test Cases Progressives Should Bring in a Post-ā€œRoeā€ World, The Nation.

Indignity Vol. 2, No. 38: Fury road., Indignity.

Watching

10 Things I Hate About You (it had been literal decades), Crush on Hulu, and Senior Year on Netflix, which was so much funnier and weirder than I expected!

Have a good one! 🌿

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Just Good Shit: 05.08.22

It’s been a tough week for bodily autonomy. On top of Monday’s horrible Roe news, gender-affirming healthcare for minors is a felony in Alabama as of today. It’s hard not to feel abject dread and deep despair right now, but I’m trying to focus on pulling on my little threads, and I hope you’re doing the same.

Here’s what I have for you tonight…

My shit

And there’s a new episode of the podcast out!

Reading

Alito’s Plan to Repeal the 20th Century, The Atlantic.

The Limits of Privilege, The Cut.
ā€œAs we teeter on the threshold of the post-Roe world, it’s worth considering that the message that privileged women will be just fine is inaccurate and that its repetition, while well meaning, is counterproductive to the task of readying an unprepared public for massive and terrifying shifts on the horizon. It’s worth pointing out that it is simply not true that the reproductive options of white, middle-class, and even wealthy people are going to remain the same. Because while circumstances will certainly be graver and more perilous for the already vulnerable, the reality is that everything is about to change, for everyone, in one way or another, and to muffle that alarm is an error, factually, practically, and politically.ā€

God Damn America, Discourse Blog.
ā€œHere is a brief and incomplete list of the people and institutions that can go fuck themselves this morning.ā€

Democratic Leaders Are Getting the Abortion Story Wrong — Again, The Cut.

A Q&A With Jessica Cisneros, the Pro-Choice Democrat Pelosi Isn’t Supporting, VICE.

The Wackadoodle Wave, The Atlantic.
This is a bad hed, but I think this article does a good job of explaining why, in a practical and logistical sense, increasingly extreme people are taking over the GOP.

Indignity Vol. 2, No. 37: Rights are for everyone., Indignity.

The Institutionalist's Dilemma, Alex Pareene.

ā€œThe legitimacy crisis is that our institutions are illegitimate. For my entire adult life, beginning with Bush v. Gore, our governing institutions have been avowedly antidemocratic and the left-of-center party has had no answer for that plain fact; no strategy, no plan, except to beg the electorate to give them governing majorities, which they then fail to use to reform the antidemocratic governing institutions.ā€

If Roe v. Wade falls, are LGBTQ rights next?, Vox.

Meet Abortion Bans’ New Best Friend—Your Phone, Mother Jones.

The Holocaust Started With My Great-Uncle’s Murder, The Atlantic.

I Saw a Cool Truck Today, Alex Pareene.
Great blog about safety, public policy, and semis.

She Invented Adulting. Her Life Fell Apart. She Wants You to Know That’s Okay., Vanity Fair.

Jane Fonda, Then and Now, Glamour.

ā€œI made this so you can turn your anger into action. We all can do something, here's how.ā€ —Alison Turkos

Take care. šŸ’›

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Reading list: Why safe abortion access matters

I compiled this list a few years ago on Twitter, but I wanted to make it available here too.

If there are people in your life who don't understand the urgency or importance of abortion (or you yourself don't), here are some of the most compelling, moving, and informative things I've read on the topic of abortion over the years:

Stop It With The Fucking Coat Hangers, Andrea Grimes.

The Betrayal of Roe, The Cut.

Volunteering At An Abortion Clinic Made Me Lose Patience With The Abortion Debate, BuzzFeed.

The Abortion That Let Me Be a Mother, BuzzFeed News.

What Having An Abortion In 1959 Was Like, BuzzFeed News.

Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks, Jezebel.

Interview with Dr., The Hairpin.

The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker, GQ.

This Is How Judges Humiliate Pregnant Teens Who Want Abortions, Mother Jones.

How Abortion Law in New York Will Change, and How It Won’t, The New Yorker.

Stop Telling People in Red States to Move When They're Faced With Devastating Bans, Jezebel.

And the six-part Ordeal of the Bitter Waters, which is a firsthand account of how a religious woman went from anti-choice to pro-choice — in part via a close read of biblical texts.

If you or someone you know needs abortion pills, Plan C has up-to-date information to help you access them in the U.S. online.

Finally, if you’re able, please consider donating to or volunteering with a state-level abortion org; The Cut and Defector have round-ups of organizations that could use your support. šŸ¤

Just Good Shit: 05.01.22

two baby ducklings on pond with mother duck in background

Hello and happy May! Here’s what I was up to this week…

Reading

School Boards Are No Match for America’s Political Dysfunction, The Atlantic.
I…did not expect this story to center on my hometown/the district my mom teaches in!!!

A Cage by Another Name, Failed Architecture.

How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable, NYT. (gift link)

You know it’s bad when NYT is flat-out calling someone racist. Also, here's a gift link for Part 2.

This Startup Wants to Get in Your Ears and Watch Your Brain, Wired.

How conspiracy theories went mainstream, Vox.

Turns Out You Could Have a TV Show That Doesn’t Tear Fat People Down, Discourse Blog.

Reconsidering the Spice Girls: How Manufactured Girl Power Became Real, NYT. (gift link)


Have a good one! 🐄

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Just Good Shit: 04.24.22

Good evening, friends! Here’s what I’ve got for you this week…

Writing

And a new episode of the podcast is out!

Reading

We Could Be in the Middle of a Major Covid Spike and Not Even Know It, The New Republic.

Singal and the Noise, Protean.
ā€œLove is perhaps more of an action than a feeling. That belief of mine is informed by my experiences as a person with multiple marginalizations, as well as my personal ethics. Hate works the same way. There are a lot of bigots who think that if their mistreatment is unemotional, based on ā€˜facts,’ then it’s not bigoted, and so work very hard at convincing themselves and others they have no feelings about the objects of their hate.ā€

When Doctors Cite 'Regret' to Deny Care, Who Is Really Protected?, Wired.

Stop calling them ā€œaccidentsā€, Vox.

Google’s AI-Powered ā€œInclusive Warningsā€ Feature Is Very Broken, VICE.

Netflix’s Bad Habits Have Caught Up With It, Vulture.

Other recs

We watched all of Severance this week and I fully loved it! But this felt made for me; I love sci-fi + grief/sadness + memory stuff + winter. We also watched a few episodes of Our National Parks (the Obama doc on Netflix) and I found it more moving than I would have expected (and that’s coming from someone who watches a lot of nature docs). There’s just something about seeing baby animals take their first steps or first flight that is genuinely awe-inspiring.

On a different note, I have NYT Cooking’s oven-roasted chicken shawarma in the oven right now and I’m really excited; the prep was ridiculously easy, and I think it’s going to be really good.

Have a great week! 🌱

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Just Good Shit: 04.17.22

'Nocs walk 02

Our neighborhood ā€˜nocs walks are continuing apace! Here are some of the birds we’ve spotted in the past month…

Male mallard duck standing on rocks on bank of East River

Male mallard

Male mallard duck standing on rocks on bank of East River

Male mallard

Female mallard duck standing on rocks on bank of East River

Female mallard

Small flock of brants on the East River

Brants

Starling sitting on a wire fence

Starling

Male house sparrow sitting on temporary wire fence

House sparrow

White-throated sparrow on the ground

White-throated sparrow

White-throated sparrow standing on tree root on the ground

White-throated sparrow

Camera/lens: Nikon D3000 + Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED lens

Nocs: Pentax UP 10x21 pink binoculars (hers) and Carson VP series full sized or compact waterproof high definition binoculars (mine)

Location: WNYC Transmitter Park 🐤

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Just Good Shit: 04.03.22

Image: Kiyana Salkeld / Just Good Shit

Hi! Here’s what I was up to this week…

Writing

I spent a lot of time working on this one and am really happy it’s finally out in the world!

Reading

We Have The Right To Not Be Annoyed, Ijeoma Oluo: Behind the Book.

Indignity Vol. 2, No. 26: All Fools' Day, Indignity.
ā€œThe joke is on everyone, all the time, and there's no way to get out from under it.ā€ (Related.)

How an Ivy League School Turned Against a Student, The New Yorker.
This is just…appalling.

ā€˜I’m the Operator’: The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy, Wired.

The Cruel Theater of Encampment Sweeps, Curbed.

Did Sweden beat the pandemic by refusing to lock down? No, its record is disastrous, LA Times.

LGBTQ Students Are Being Terrorized. Florida’s 'Don’t Say Gay' Law Will Make It Worse., HuffPost.

The Biggest Lie About Florida’s ā€œDon’t Say Gayā€ Bill Erases One Crucial Word, Slate.

The FDA made mail-order abortion pills legal. Access is still a nightmare., Vox.

The QAnon Style of Politics Is Taking Over America, TNR.

My Friend Goo, The Paris Review.
ā€œSomething in my voice must have calmed him because instead of marching over looking for a fight, he’d come waddling out, softly honking and purring—because he would purr at you, you see, if he liked you, and Goo came to like me.ā€

BuzzFeed Doesn’t Deserve Its Newsroom, The Nation.

How Two Best Friends Beat Amazon, NYT. (gift link)
Finally, some good news.

Listening to

Disorientation on audiobook. The Great Mattress Conspiracy: Why Are There So Many Mattress Firm Stores? and the new season of Fiasco.

Have a good one! ✨

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