Is Frivolity Always Frivolous?
After the most gruesome, tough assignments...I went shopping.
Jeannette Cooperman
A member of the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame, Jeannette Cooperman was the staff writer at St. Louis Magazine for twelve years. Her work was cited as Notable in Best American Essays 2021 and Best American Essays 2023; she received the Writer of the Year award at the 2019 City & Regional Magazine Awards; and she was named to the 2017 FOLIO: 100 list of “the best and brightest” in the magazine industry nationwide. Cooperman spent a decade doing investigative reporting for Riverfront Times, where her work was recognized by the National Education Writers Association, the National Mental Health Association, the National Black Journalists Association, the National Gay and Lesbian Journalism Association, and the Society of Environmental Journalists. She holds degrees in philosophy and communication and a Ph.D. in American studies, and she has written eight books—seven nonfiction, biography or cultural history, and a murder mystery. She and her husband, a historian, live with Willie, a goofy but sweet standard poodle, in a century-old farmhouse in Waterloo, Illinois.
By Jeannette Cooperman
Need a Little Sprezzatura….
What passes for nonchalance is often cruelty, perpetrated by the few who can still afford—and wield enough power—to live easily themselves. But sprezzatura! There is a grace to it, and a calm confidence.
How Women, Men, and Barack Obama See Colors
Artist Spencer Finch tiled the colors of Barack Obama’s life. Women will see them better than most men can.
Why Force a Hug?
We need to stop forcing touch—without stopping to touch each other.
Maybe Consciousness Is Not That Hard
Remember Abraham Maslow’s pyramid, a hierarchy of human needs that put the basics of survival at the wide bottom, then slanted up to intellectual creativity and spirituality? We wanted to locate consciousness up there at the peak. Antonio Damasio finds it at the foundation.
Is Charm Offensive?
Is charm a form of social glue or sociopathy?
The Simple Change Tech Bros Refuse to Make
For humans, “I” is a letter of relationship, dignity, and responsibility. Why hand it over to inanimate language models?
Artificial Intimacy
“He trusts a bot with no experience of emotions because it doesn’t care,” she notes. “It’s a redefinition of truth, in which it can only come from a lack of human experience."
James Merrill: The Poetics of Place
A lesser poet would never have won a National Book Award with poetry that claimed to be a transcription from the spirit world.
Even Our Corn Is Sweating
I had never even heard of corn sweat. But God do I feel it.
Why We Need the Loch Ness Monster
“It turns out that the one who destroys—at least in this case—doesn’t believe in anything but himself."
Sensory Gratification Is Free (and Freeing)
Ian Bogost reminds us that we are not yet disembodied—and can fight the trend.