listen | The Walrus

Illustration of a cluster of crumpled newspapers, out of which protrudes a person's arm and two legs. The background is blue and yellow checkers.

Memoir / September/October 2020

How Algorithms Are Changing What We Read Online

September 8, 2020September 15, 2020 - by Russell Smith

The AI of the internet determines what’s relevant. One day, it decided my work wasn’t

Illustration of an internet forum open on a computer desktop. Part of the forum is pulled down in the style of a window blind. Behind it is a red room filled with silhouettes of men talking to one another.

September/October 2020 / Technology

The Making of an Incel

September 2, 2020September 2, 2020 - by Katherine Laidlaw

How misogyny in online forums turns into real-life violence

Illustration of a Black woman with an afro and her eyes closed and her hands held palms-up around her face. In the background are hands passing money toward her.

September/October 2020 / Society

Black Communities Have Known about Mutual Aid All Along

September 1, 2020September 15, 2020 - by Vicky Mochama

In the pandemic, “caremongering” has become a new term for an old—and joyous—practice

Illustration of a person sitting at a table, turning his head to watch a woman in the kitchen.

First Person / September/October 2020

My Other Mother

August 20, 2020August 26, 2020 - by William Pang

My nanny helped raise me. Now it’s time for me to get to know her children

Illustration of a prison building, with several women on the roof walking into a light. In the prison windows, behind bars, a couple of people remain.

Justice / September/October 2020

Did Prisons Ever Work?

August 18, 2020August 19, 2020 - by Lauren McKeon

A growing movement believes it’s time to stop putting women in jail

Beadwork of concentric rings of the solar system, with the sun in the center and planets surrounding it.

In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration

Teaching Indigenous Star Stories

August 10, 2020September 15, 2020 - by Kelly Boutsalis

Educators like Wilfred Buck know that astronomy did not, in fact, start with Aristotle and end with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Illustration of a couple sitting at a restaurant table in front of a blue sky–printed curtain. The curtain is slightly pulled back as a waiter emerges; behind it is the inner workings of a restaurant kitchen.

Business / September/October 2020

Is Dining Out Dead?

July 23, 2020August 21, 2020 - by Corey Mintz

Some experts predict that 60 percent of restaurants won’t survive the lockdown. Here’s what chefs, owners, and their employees are doing to stay alive

A close-up photo of a tick perched on a large green leaf

Science / September/October 2020

Invasion of the Ticks

July 21, 2020September 9, 2020 - by Stephanie Nolen

Inside the quest to track one of humanity’s tiniest deadly predators

Illustration of white and blue light trails, in the vague shape of a person, against a black background.

Fiction / July/August 2020

The Ones We Carry With Us

July 20, 2020July 23, 2020 - by Sara O'Leary

Here’s the thing I now know about dying. It looks like almost anything else

Illustration of a hand, palm-up, with bright lines drawn across it in light.

Fiction / July/August 2020

Lottery Poetry

July 9, 2020July 10, 2020 - by Kevin Chong

No business felt more ridiculous, in those spring days of the pandemic, than fortune-telling did