You Can Have My Walkman, Just Don’t Take My Mix Tape by Kera Bolinik

I appreciate the broad accessibility of music today, including the ready ability to put together boundless playlists filled with favorite music. I also remain intensely nostalgic for the era when it took a lot more work to assemble precisely curated music experiences. Writing for The New York Times, Kera Bolinik does an exceptional job capturing the allure of the era of mix tapes. The only thing missing from her piece is a deep reflection on the experience of scrutinizing the amount of tape left on a cassette’s take up reel to determine if there’s room to add that perfect side ending song. The above image is by photographer Jim Golden.

Gloria Steinem Helped Transform the World for Everyone by Rebecca Solnit

When I was growing up, Gloria Steinem was feminism. I can think of few other instances where a single person became so clearly the embodiment of such a broad social movement. Steinem didn’t really cultivate this cult of personality, except maybe to the degree that doing so helped advance the cause. Writing for her own platform, Meditations in an Emergency, Rebecca Solnit recounts and assesses Steinem’s towering place in the culture. Solnit is especially strong in detailing just how much changed for women throughout the course of Steinem’s time as a shrewd, inspiring advocate.

Child Actors Bear the Same Scars by Alison Pill

Moved to write by the recent death of Hayden Panettiere, actress Alison Pill opens up about the troubling after-effects of time spent as a child actor. Like Panettiere, Pill started working regularly on film and TV sets when she was very young, only twelve years old. In this article, published by The New York Times, Pill considers whether such environments are healthy for children under any circumstances.