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In the first TED talk ever to go viral, Harvard-trained neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor details the workings of her mind during a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996. What she describes is inexplicable: When her left hemisphere, which governs that sense of us being separate and self-contained, begins to shut…

I was working as a copywriter at a wig catalog when I got the opportunity I’d always wanted: To work as an editor at a women’s magazine. I took the job—along with a $15,000 pay cut. I needed a side hustle. So while attending a jewelry party at a friend’s home, I watched the saleswoman…

There’s one big plus to cooking, aside from having something to eat. And it’s that when you do, your house smells like food. Sauteed onions. Roasted sprouts. Seared pork. A pot of jasmine rice. A slow cooker teeming with chili, the steam slipping out like a secret. An entire tray of bacon, hoisted out of…

When I was 23, I was hired for my first office job as an executive assistant at a management consulting firm in Cambridge, MA. I served as admin support for three brilliant management minds, one of whom used to work in the military and helped invent email. I only half understood what they did, or…

I put off reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit for a long time. I saw it come across the transom when I was an editor, and thought, there’s a brilliant, successful artist, and I’m sure we have nothing in common, and I’m sure she has lots of advice for things I won’t do. I’m sure…

As the first-born of three daughters, I was a self-disciplined kid. Well behaved. Type A. All A’s. I did my homework. I nailed, absolutely nailed, every spelling test, plus the bonus words. And I was sure I’d never, ever be smart enough. In the third grade, I missed a few days of school, and when…

I live in a small studio in Manhattan. That means I have a small refrigerator. And an even smaller freezer. It’s the size of two shoeboxes. Enough for three bottles (gin, vodka, tequila) to lie horizontally, wedged next to a bag of frozen veggies, and some mummified food I don’t remember buying. My freezer is…