Today's dispatch is coming to you from my hometown in Iowa, where I'm visiting some loved ones. I’m no prodigal daughter; I’m quite happy with my life on the coast. But now that I’ve been away for longer than I lived here, a shift is happening. I am finally removed enough to consider the Midwest interesting. 

Ask someone with mere flyover knowledge, and they'll tell you that this region is a vast flatness. This is somewhat true, but a notable exception is a strange pocket of steep hills and craggy bluffs that spans parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa. This curvaceous zone with prairie on all sides is known to geologists as the Driftless. Somehow, when the great glaciers slid through the Midwest and scraped every surface detail away to other regions, the Driftless was spared. A topographical island.

I learned that I grew up in this geological anomaly in June—yes, this June, at the tender age of 39—when a friend sent me a TikTok explaining it. Did they teach me this fascinating fact in Earth science class, and I somehow blotted it out in my rush to get to the coast? I don't think so. I would have remembered the Driftless, because the name is so poetic. And because I already had an intuitive understanding of its boundaries. For years, when my flyover friends asked where I was from, I offered the caveat that my northeast Iowa hometown is more like Wisconsin or Minnesota than it is like Nebraska or Kansas. I was describing the Driftless without knowing it.

How strange and also comforting, then, to learn that this zone has a name and a specific geology. That the cultural boundaries I drew in my descriptions actually aligned with science, owing more to ancient glacial movements than to borders drawn by European colonizers. I thought of Jenny Odell's writing on the power of embracing bioregionalism, which is not only about the watersheds and rocks and plants of a given area, but "has a cultural element as well, since it asks us to identify as citizens of the bioregion as much as (if not more than) the state." 

So, on this visit, I am attuned to the Driftless. I am remembering, in great detail, the bald eagle I saw snacking on some roadkill. I am pressing the accelerator on steep rolling country roads so I can feel my stomach drop. (Yes, thanks for asking, I did get a speeding ticket.) And I'm eating Happy Joe's taco pizza. This is a food not found in nature and, at the same time, a prime example of bioregionalism. It's either unknown or unpalatable to anyone from outside the area, but my taste buds developed in tandem with this treat. And now, when I return, I relish it.

How threats and disinformation spread across the country in the wake of the Capitol siege. How vehicles became weapons of choice against protestors. Gun laws are still failing domestic violence victims. What the courtroom conversations in Kenosha, Charlottesville, and Georgia reveal about the inadequacies of the justice system when it comes to dealing with racism. You could say the same for school boards. The friendship app being ruined by MLMs. A newsletter alternative to dating apps. The pleasures of off-peak dining. "Yes, build the windowless, bathroomless dorm in my backyard." The unofficial rules of social media. How Twitter removes the trust between writer and reader. "My mother and I never named our body parts below the neck and above the thighs." A painful read about evangelical corporal punishment of children. How the EPA allows polluters to turn certain neighborhoods into "sacrifice zones" with toxic air. The migrant workers who follow climate disasters. The last of the Marsh Arabs. What economics experts failed to account for when they studied the surge of Chinese manufacturing. What happened when an Instagram account called Yo Te Creo started naming alleged abusers in Puerto Rico. The world’s most innovative drug lord. How tech billionaires misunderstand science fiction. Is finance just another meme? Could Zillow buy the neighborhood? How a lawn sign inspired by mom décor became a liberal mantra. A loose theory about "stomp clap hey" music of the early aughts and urban gentrification. The case for scribbling in the margins. How Covid changed our dreams.

With my apologies to coconut milk—how could I forget you when I make so many delicious soups with you?? And with a side-eye to CNN for their milk inflation segment this week.
 

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A great Kitchen Sisters episode on pioneering architect Julia Morgan. A playlist of works by Jeanne Demessieux, a virtuosic composer and organist born 100 years ago. And I can't wait to see Keyboard Fantasies, a documentary about the "time-travelling, transgender musical genius" Beverly Glenn-Copeland.

Can you hear this gif? (via Laura Olin.)

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