Latest Stories
Most recently published stories on Vocal.
I SAT ALONE ON THE HOLIDAY
written, created, edited by Vicki Lawana Trusselli & my little Sweetie Bird, punk rocker Even with all the horror in the world, Sweetie Bird has entered her full punk rock era, mohawk up, attitude sharp, tiny heart wide open.
By Vicki Lawana Trusselli about 13 hours ago in Poets
Crier
“Hear ye, hear ye…!” He really went all out this time. I mean, no one expected Albert to wear the full outfit that early into the celebrations. It was six in the morning, and he was right in the dead center of Antonville, right underneath the bunting and the flags, standing by the statue of the town founder (not important right now, but you know the place is called Antonville, so…), and he did not even have a microphone or bullhorn. But I heard him. He was right by my café and I had just gotten up to make the coffee for the day. Not that I did not expect to see him out there, but it was a real shock to hear it at first.
By Kendall Defoe about 13 hours ago in Fiction
Perfect Jasmine Rice Every Time
Rice is a master of transformation. One might speak of the golden crust of a well-baked loaf or the slow reduction of a sauce to its most concentrated essence, but few culinary feats rival the simple elegance of perfectly cooked jasmine rice.
By Angela Ashabout 13 hours ago in Feast
The Housing Market is on Fire... Literally. Rent Comes with Free Marshmallows Now.
Welcome, You Brave Homeless Souls Congratulations, reader. If you’re viewing this newsletter, it means you can still afford Wi-Fi… Cherish that… Because according to Zillow, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is now an arm and a leg, one functioning kidney, a vial of dragon’s blood, and three Funko Pops from 2018.
By The Pompous Postabout 13 hours ago in Humor
Smart Home
THE SURVEILLANCE YOU INVITED INTO YOUR BEDROOM 🎤 The average American home now contains approximately twenty-two connected devices including smart speakers, smart televisions, smart thermostats, smart doorbells, smart refrigerators, robot vacuums, and dozens of other internet-connected products that collectively monitor, record, and transmit data about virtually every aspect of your daily life including your conversations, your movements within your home, your viewing habits, your sleeping patterns, your eating habits, your comings and goings, the identities of your visitors, the content of your private discussions, and the intimate moments that you assume are occurring in the privacy of your own home but that are actually occurring in the presence of microphones and cameras and sensors that are continuously collecting data and transmitting it to corporations whose data practices you agreed to when you clicked accept on a terms of service agreement that was deliberately designed to be too long and too complex for any normal human to actually read 🔊📡
By The Curious Writerabout 13 hours ago in Longevity
American Parents
The Gentle Parenting Trap That's Creating Anxious Helpless Adults THE GENERATION THAT CAN'T COPE 🤦 American parents of the current generation have more information about child development, more awareness of psychological wellbeing, and more resources for parenting education than any previous generation in history, and they are producing the most anxious, most depressed, most fragile, and most functionally impaired generation of young adults ever documented, with rates of anxiety disorders among eighteen to twenty-five year olds increasing by approximately sixty percent over the past decade, depression rates doubling, and measures of resilience, independence, and distress tolerance declining to levels that have alarmed developmental psychologists, university administrators, employers, and anyone who works with young adults and who has observed the progressive deterioration of their capacity to navigate the normal challenges of adult life without parental intervention or institutional accommodation 📊😢
By The Curious Writerabout 13 hours ago in Psyche
American Loneliness
THE COUNTRY THAT FORGOT HOW TO CONNECT 📱 America is experiencing a loneliness crisis so severe that in 2023 Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared it a public health epidemic comparable in health impact to smoking fifteen cigarettes daily, and the statistics behind this declaration paint a picture of a nation that has achieved unprecedented technological connectivity while simultaneously producing unprecedented levels of social disconnection: approximately one in two Americans reports experiencing measurable loneliness, the average American has fewer close friends than at any point since tracking began with the number declining from an average of three close friends in 1990 to an average of two in 2021 and with a significant percentage reporting zero close friends, time spent in person with friends has decreased by approximately twenty-four hours per month compared to two decades ago, membership in community organizations including churches, civic groups, and social clubs has declined by approximately twenty-five percent, and young adults aged eighteen to twenty-five report the highest loneliness levels of any demographic despite being the most digitally connected generation in history 📊😢
By The Curious Writerabout 13 hours ago in Psyche
The Ozempic Generation
THE DRUG THAT CHANGED AMERICA'S BODY 💉 Semaglutide sold under brand names including Ozempic and Wegovy has become the most culturally significant pharmaceutical product since Viagra, transforming not just individual bodies but the entire American conversation about weight, willpower, body image, and the medicalization of conditions that were previously considered personal responsibility, and the drug which was originally developed for type 2 diabetes management but which produces dramatic weight loss of fifteen to twenty percent of body weight on average has generated a cultural phenomenon where celebrities, influencers, and ordinary Americans are losing weight at rates that diet and exercise alone have never reliably produced, and the resulting transformation of American bodies and American attitudes toward weight management raises profound questions about what it means to solve a health problem through medication, whether the solution creates new problems, and who benefits and who is harmed by a pharmaceutical revolution that is reshaping American culture as dramatically as any social movement 📱🇺🇸
By The Curious Writerabout 13 hours ago in Longevity
This Question Really Hurts
I was not going to write about this because it is one of those subjects I find too painful to talk about. However, I've decided to take the courage to talk about it, because I feel my feelings on the topic need to be expressed.
By Carol Ann Townendabout 13 hours ago in Humans
