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How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
When I was in sixth grade, ten years old, my family moved briefly to Chico, California. My father, then an electrical engineer, had gotten a job there after being laid off from his firm near… Read more
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Hope is the heartwood
Some years ago when I still lived I upstate New York, I began working at a sawmill. I had two very small children at the time, and had never intended nor desired to be a… Read more
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Oligarchy: the power of wealth
“Oligarchy is based on the notion that those who are unequal in one respect are in all respects unequal; being unequal, that is, in property, they suppose themselves to be unequal absolutely.” –Aristotle, Politics, 350 BCE… Read more
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Repair: of rivers and relationships
To new subscribers—welcome to On the Commons! To those of you who’ve been around a while, welcome back! I recently wrote an essay for Psyche/Aeon’s “one thing that changed me” series that’s probably the most personal thing… Read more
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Art harder
My mother sent me a birthday card years ago that I have put above my desk everywhere I’ve lived since. On the front is a reproduction of a painting by Deborah DeWit Marchant, dated 1994:… Read more
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Border control
If you’re new here, welcome to On the Commons! Here, we explore questions as varied as: Why are three little-known 15th-century papal bulls still being weaponized against Indigenous sovereignty today? How is the right to forage for food related… Read more
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Wealth knows best
If you’re new here, welcome to On the Commons! Here, we explore questions as varied as: Why are three little-known 15th-century papal bulls still being weaponized against Indigenous sovereignty today? How is the right to forage for food related… Read more
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There were wolves in the woods – and we both belonged
Welcome (or welcome back!) to On the Commons. Here, we explore questions as varied (but related) as: Why are 3 little-known 15th-century papal bulls still being weaponized against Indigenous sovereignty today? How is the right to forage for food related… Read more
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History is won by those who live it
Over half a lifetime ago, I was walking with some friends along the harbor road of Ephesus, once an embattled, storied, and thriving city of Ionia (and then Greece and then Rome and various lesser-known… Read more
Welcome to On the Commons!
This is a mirror of the newsletter I write on Substack, On the Commons. Same writing, different platform!
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Antonia Malchik 