ISSUE #2

Theme: Place

COMES OUT JULY 2026

Second Thoughts Blog
What One Unmuted Call Said About Segregation in NYC
Politics
Nikole Rajgor
What One Unmuted Call Said About Segregation in NYC
Politics
Nikole Rajgor

One Black eighth grader was in the middle of pleading against her school's potential closure when Allyson Friedmans’ voice, unmuted on the call, boomed through. “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” said Friedman, an associate professor of biological sciences at CUNY Hunter College, where 11.5% of the undergraduate students are Black. “I mean, apparently Martin Luther King said it, like if you train a Black person well enough, they'll know to use the back, you don't have to tell them anymore."

Politics
Nikole Rajgor
Day 501: When I Realized I Was Both Tom and Summer
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
Day 501: When I Realized I Was Both Tom and Summer
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker

From time to time, someone decides to resurrect the same debate about 500 Days of Summer (2009): was Summer the villain, or was Tom simply delusional? The response to that question rarely changes. Summer is perceived as a cold, evasive witch who purposely misleads poor Tom, while Tom is defended as a romantic, perhaps naive, but well-intentioned good guy. The framing of that narrative is quite unsurprising, almost expected, because it provides the natural urge to assign fault cleanly; a way to make sense of a dramatic, romantic split by assigning one person the role of the wrongdoer and the other the role of the one wronged.

Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke

For many, myself included, the show feels like it saved our 2025. The show is first and foremost a romance, documenting the nearly ten-year love affair between pro hockey stars Shane Hollander and Illya Rozanov. The two main characters struggle to keep their attraction to each other a secret from the world and from each other. For hockey fans like myself, the commentary about the current state of the NHL is glaringly obvious: as of 2026, there has never been an openly queer NHL player, active or retired.

Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
Second Thoughts Blog
This Is Why You Can’t Decide 
Culture
Sadie Mayhew
This Is Why You Can’t Decide 
Culture
Sadie Mayhew

Real commitment used to lead to milestones. A marriage, a mortgage, a job, a new city. These were all declarations, not just one-off choices or premeditated decisions. Today, permanence feels less like security and more like risk: to our identity, our autonomy, our finances, even our sense of self—especially as a woman who has been told both to settle and to have it all.

Fair warning, this essay is not nostalgic for compulsory marriage or shrinking yourself to fit into someone else’s script.

Culture
Sadie Mayhew
J.D. Vance and the Façade of Masculinity in the Republican Party
Politics
Ken Damon
J.D. Vance and the Façade of Masculinity in the Republican Party
Politics
Ken Damon

The 2000s ushered in a progressive discussion on gender and sexual orientation and has since challenged social signifiers of what it means to be a man. It has thrown confusion into a vat of insecurity for those whose identity rests in material, surface level traits. In an effort to combat this, conservatives have reclaimed antique signifiers to masculinity; manliness has been pushed to the extreme. Any hint of emotionalism, the acceptance of women as equals, or physical weakness is considered a betrayal to the inherently ‘masculine.’

Politics
Ken Damon
How to Live A Fulfilling Life Under Tyranny
Culture
Eden I. Pela
How to Live A Fulfilling Life Under Tyranny
Culture
Eden I. Pela

Inside a community center at Allentown, Pennsylvania, the Working Families Party (WFP) organized a watch party for the Super Bowl half time show for groups of migrant families—only one of many around the country. The air was heavy with anxieties of a possible ICE raid as people huddled around one screen to watch a great American artist perform. This is not an excerpt from Orwell’s 1984, or a 21st century fiction retelling of World War II. This was two weeks ago in the U.S.

Culture
Eden I. Pela
Second Thoughts Blog
What One Unmuted Call Said About Segregation in NYC
Politics
Nikole Rajgor
What One Unmuted Call Said About Segregation in NYC
Politics
Nikole Rajgor

One Black eighth grader was in the middle of pleading against her school's potential closure when Allyson Friedmans’ voice, unmuted on the call, boomed through. “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” said Friedman, an associate professor of biological sciences at CUNY Hunter College, where 11.5% of the undergraduate students are Black. “I mean, apparently Martin Luther King said it, like if you train a Black person well enough, they'll know to use the back, you don't have to tell them anymore."

Politics
Nikole Rajgor
Day 501: When I Realized I Was Both Tom and Summer
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
Day 501: When I Realized I Was Both Tom and Summer
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker

From time to time, someone decides to resurrect the same debate about 500 Days of Summer (2009): was Summer the villain, or was Tom simply delusional? The response to that question rarely changes. Summer is perceived as a cold, evasive witch who purposely misleads poor Tom, while Tom is defended as a romantic, perhaps naive, but well-intentioned good guy. The framing of that narrative is quite unsurprising, almost expected, because it provides the natural urge to assign fault cleanly; a way to make sense of a dramatic, romantic split by assigning one person the role of the wrongdoer and the other the role of the one wronged.

Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
Heated Rivalry and the Heated Debate of Queerness
Entertainment
Sophia Guelke

For many, myself included, the show feels like it saved our 2025. The show is first and foremost a romance, documenting the nearly ten-year love affair between pro hockey stars Shane Hollander and Illya Rozanov. The two main characters struggle to keep their attraction to each other a secret from the world and from each other. For hockey fans like myself, the commentary about the current state of the NHL is glaringly obvious: as of 2026, there has never been an openly queer NHL player, active or retired.

Entertainment
Sophia Guelke
This Week's Weekly Verses
Dee Allen
Poetry
CALLING CARD
Dee Allen
Poetry

African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 10 books--Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and The Mansion--and 83 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.

Dee Allen
Poetry
Xia Zhang
Poetry
哀歌 (Elegy)
Xia Zhang
Poetry

Xia Zhang is a poet from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economic Management from Zhongnan University of Economics and a MBA from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Over the years, he has worked in telecommunications, the automotive industry, and held roles as varied as feng shui consultant, baker, cleaner, and security guard. Since 2021, he has been resting at home for health reasons. Zhang began writing poetry in 2008 and has composed over a thousand poems, some of which have appeared on the Chinese Poetry Network.

Xia Zhang
Poetry
Daniel Jacques
Fiction
Jobs & Junkies
Daniel Jacques
Fiction

Daniel Jacques is a writer from West Yorkshire in the UK. After dropping out of school at eighteen years old, he has had approximately twenty jobs, including factories, warehouses, chemical plants, landscaping, gardening, construction, and postal services.

Daniel Jacques
Fiction
This Week's Weekly Verses
Dee Allen
Poetry
CALLING CARD
Dee Allen
Poetry

African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 10 books--Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and The Mansion--and 83 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.

Dee Allen
Poetry
Xia Zhang
Poetry
哀歌 (Elegy)
Xia Zhang
Poetry

Xia Zhang is a poet from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economic Management from Zhongnan University of Economics and a MBA from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Over the years, he has worked in telecommunications, the automotive industry, and held roles as varied as feng shui consultant, baker, cleaner, and security guard. Since 2021, he has been resting at home for health reasons. Zhang began writing poetry in 2008 and has composed over a thousand poems, some of which have appeared on the Chinese Poetry Network.

Xia Zhang
Poetry
Daniel Jacques
Fiction
Jobs & Junkies
Daniel Jacques
Fiction

Daniel Jacques is a writer from West Yorkshire in the UK. After dropping out of school at eighteen years old, he has had approximately twenty jobs, including factories, warehouses, chemical plants, landscaping, gardening, construction, and postal services.

Daniel Jacques
Fiction
Comics
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)

Episode 22 (Finale) of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)

Episode 21 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)

Episode 20 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Second Thoughts Blog
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)
Comicorpse Book One Finale (Episode 22)

Episode 22 (Finale) of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 21)

Episode 21 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)
Comicorpse Book One (Episode 20)

Episode 20 of Book One — Romey Petite’s comic series, Comicorpse

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