The Best of The Walrus
10+ most popular The Walrus articles, as voted by our community.
We've moved the conversation on Twitter to @thewalrus
New this Week
These are fresh off the press.
The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket
I don’t want to be told what’s going to happen and I definitely don’t want to be told what the book is “about”
The Walrus on Cyberpunk
Why William Gibson Is a Literary Genius
Forty years after his breakout story, “Johnny Mnemonic,” the father of cyberpunk remains one of the best writers around
«They teach you that in school. What they don’t tell you is that it’s impossible to move, to live, to operate at any level without leaving traces, bits, seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information. Fragments that can be retrieved, amplified»
The Walrus on Decluttering
More Is More: The End of Minimalism
Marie Kondo's decluttering dominance is over. Make way for maximalism, where the more stuff, the merrier
The Walrus on Food
Much Ado about Hummus: The Fight for Bragging Rights over a Middle Eastern Dip
From beet to butterscotch, how far can hummus travel from its origins and still be hummus?
In Defence of Garlic in a Jar: How Food Snobs Almost Ruined My Love of Cooking
Celebrity chefs, food writers, and home cooks have sneered at pre-cut produce. They’re dismissing those of us with disabilities
The Walrus on Nature
Revenge of the Earthworms
A gardener’s best friend? Think again. How invasive earthworms are wreaking havoc on our ecosystems
How to Make Peace with Canada Geese
We’ve been at war with the angry birds for centuries. Are they an invasive species, or are we?
The Walrus on Poetry
The Walrus on Running
The World’s Oldest Ultramarathon Runner Is Racing against Death
Dag Aabye is eighty-one, lives in an old school bus on a mountain, and is pushing his body to its absolute limits
The Walrus on Society
Who Gets to Be Mentally Ill?
Today, people talk about seeing a therapist like they’re going to the dentist. But our compassion around mental health still excludes the people who need it most
«In mental health discourse, there is a strong underlying message that mental health is one’s own responsibility (self-care, expensive therapy, psychiatric intervention, and so on) and that mental unwellness—including mental illness—is something to be overcome, followed by a return to productivity within a capitalist world.»
Why Don’t Millennials Have Hobbies?
I sought the help of an algorithm to figure out how to spend my free time. It made me question my generation’s relationship with leisure
Popular
These are some all-time favorites with Refind users.
How Do You Make the Perfect Toy?
Fads come and go, but how to create a toy that stands the test of time is the billion-dollar question
Twilight of the Libraries: What Gets Lost When Books Go Off-Site and Online
Libraries can't escape the push for digitization, but we still need actual books on shelves
Robots Are Writing Poetry, and Many People Can’t Tell the Difference
Machines are putting out astonishingly human-like writing. What does that mean for the future of art?
When Big Tobacco Was Forced to Pay
The cigarette industry had its Erin Brockovich moment in the nineties. How has it managed to survive?
Confessions of a Bitcoin Widow: How a Dream Life Turned into a Nightmare
My husband started a cryptocurrency empire that made us rich. When he died, I learned it was just a facade
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