Reflecting on a tumultuous summer, Sarah Smarsh leans into the gifts that abound amid tragedy and loss, with hope for our unity and our resilience.
Author
Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh was a columnist for On Being in 2016. She is a journalist who has covered socioeconomic class, politics and public policy for The New York Times, The Guardian, and many other publications. Her 2018 book Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is a frequent media commentator and a former Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She lives in Kansas. Read more about her work at sarahsmarsh.com.
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The challenges we fret over as adults are often simple in the eyes of our children. Sarah Smarsh offers an antidote to the vitriol of our politics — through viral videos that illustrate the wisdom of children.
It is a privilege to feel that this is a time of unusual turmoil. Sarah Smarsh points at our responsibility in this revelatory moment: not just to look at the injustice we live amidst, but to act on what we see.
In the age of “hashtag activism,” standing in place together remains a powerful symbol of collective strength. Sarah Smarsh reflects on the gravity of steadfast presence in bringing about change.
In an information-saturated world, it's the power of poetry and art that helps us transcend a steady stream of depressing news reports and partisan diatribes and process just how badly we’re hurting as a country.
When we over do the things we love, sometimes the solution isn't to do less or more but to do it differently. Sarah Smarsh reflects on treasuring the method of running over the measurement of it — and learning to scramble and splash with intention.
In baseball as in life, skirmishes are healthier when they're not prolonged. Looking to the animal kingdom for wisdom, Sarah Smarsh reflects on the danger of rumination without release and the healing power of bodies in motion.
The desire to write and to read isn't always handed down, but a single encounter may be all it takes to propel one forward. Sarah Smarsh on meeting Anne Rice with her mother in a Kansas bookstore.
What might you store in a vault meant to preserve your most cherished things for generations to come? Sarah Smarsh shines a light on the stewards preserving earth's biodiversity from a mountainous vault in Norway.
In a hyper-connected world, writer Sarah Smarsh says we lose sight of the power in physical spaces crafted for ritual and coming together.
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