Yesterday, I published this article about how Singles’ Day is coming to America. On November 11, billions will be spent on Singles’ Day — the world’s largest shopping event, dwarfing Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. What began as a playful celebration of singledom among Chinese undergraduates has been transformed by Alibaba into
This post was originally published at The Conversation. On Nov. 11 each year, a curious holiday takes over China. What began among Nanjing University students in the 1990s as a tongue-in-cheek counter to Valentine’s Day has exploded into the world’s largest shopping event: Singles’ Day. The date, 11/11, was chosen
An Open Letter to My (Tenured) Colleagues: What Will You Do With Your Freedom? Dear Colleagues, I’ve been invited to serve as a panelist at the Association for Consumer Research’s Mid-Career Workshop—a gathering to help newly tenured scholars figure out “now what?” I’ve been asking the same question myself. Tenured.
Back in Condesa (rematch) Same city. Same hotel. Same room. Last time, I cracked. Mushrooms. Mirror. Malice. Screaming, swinging at myself. You coward. I won, but didn’t feel it. Braced for war at 4:07 am, searching for threats that weren’t there. You should be sleeping like a motherfucking tiger— full
Retreat (fighting fragility) Muay Thai. Kickboxing. Jujitsu. All new. My partner is a hammer, I am the nail. Heat is a teacher. I—the melting pupil. Breath screaming, shirt soaked to skin. Who says yes to this? Then, I move him. Takedown. A violent reversal. A hard bed never so soft.
The Double Act (jab / cross) skip the fancy shit. one-two. clean. tight. true. in the ring— not to fight but to vanish. hit the bag? no. hit the planner, the pleaser, the worrier masquerading as warrior. one-two the desire: feet that whisper. jab, a matchstrike. hips that coil. cross,
Man, Becoming (Warsaw at 55) Before. I lit a candle. The flame didn’t speak. It witnessed. Tears came—not as weakness, but as breath I’d held for far too long. A quiet celebration. Now. Unbuckled past. I travel light— gloves, pens, a few good books, and a hunger for change. Not
The Purge (from a fevered prophet) It began with a virus. The voice cracked— then the illusions. Illness wasn’t a curse. It was interruption. A reset. Goals, amputated. Then the spores. A mirror. Staring into my site like it might confess. Saw my soul pop-up. Selling myself— my gift— cheaply.
What does a man become when divorced from possessions? As Peter McGraw prepares to leave Denver for Bogotá, I discover that getting rid of
Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building
