Independent, Reader-Supported Publishing
  • Sign OutMy Account
  • Sign In

  • Current Issue
    June 2026June 2026
    Standards of Care
    The Sun InterviewBy Naomi PittsStandards of CareRolonda Donelson on Bias and Anti-Science Attitudes in Medicine

    The reason Black women were used to develop the field of gynecology was because they were no more than property. They weren’t seen as people; they were just seen as things. The controlling of Black women’s bodies started with chattel slavery, but it continues today.

    Milk
    Readers WriteBy Our ReadersMilk

    Pumped for an infant, spilled at the dinner table, used as a tear gas antidote

    In This Issue
  • Archives
    • Featured Selections
    • Shop Print Issues
    • Browse by year
    • Browse topics
    • Browse Sections
    May 2026
    May 2026
    April 2026
    April 2026
    March 2026
    March 2026
    February 2026
    February 2026
    January 2026
    January 2026
    December 2025
    December 2025
    Browse 50 years of Archives
    • News and Notes
      • About The Sun
      • Newsletter Sign-Up
      • Announcements
      • Featured Selections
      • Calls for Submissions
      • Profiles
      • Our History
      • Events
    • Submit
      • Letter to the Editor
      • Readers Write
      • Essays, Fiction & Poetry
      • Photography
    • Donate
      • Donate Now
    • Shop
      • Subscribe
      • Give a Gift Subscription
      • Back Issues
      • Books
      • Merch
        • T-Shirts
        • Tote Bag
        • Mug
  • Search
  • RenewSubscribe
    Personal. Political.
    Provocative. Ad-free.

    Subscribe and Save up to 45%

    Renew your subscription

    GIVE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION

    SUBSCRIBE

    GIVE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION

Independent, Reader-
Supported Publishing
Subscribe and Save up to 45%
Renew your subscriptionSUBSCRIBE

GIVE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION

    • My Account
    • Sign Out
    • Sign In
  • Cart
  • Current issue
  • archivesarrow
    • Featured Selections
    • Shop Print Issues
    • Browse by year
    • Browse topics
    • Browse Sections
    • News and Notes
      • About The Sun
      • Newsletter Sign-Up
      • Announcements
      • Featured Selections
      • Calls for Submissions
      • Profiles
      • Our History
      • Events
    • Submit
      • Letter to the Editor
      • Readers Write
      • Essays, Fiction & Poetry
      • Photography
    • Donate
      • Donate Now
    • Shop
      • Subscribe
      • Give a Gift Subscription
      • Back Issues
      • Books
      • Merch
        • T-Shirts
        • Tote Bag
        • Mug

February 1980

issue 52 cover
Departments

Editor’s Note

Why Are We Still Around?

Readers Write

Sickness

A pituitary tumor, a shot of thorazine, the flu

ByOur Readers
Sy Safransky's Notebook

February 1980

Russia invades Afghanistan, and the United States, playing the outraged suitor, wags its hips at China. The problem of relationship is global and personal. What are the boundaries? Who do we kiss and who do we kill?

BySy Safransky
Quotations

Sunbeams

One must have apocalypse in one eye and the millennium in the other, and as you look out through that double vision, the third eye develops and sees the resolution of tragedy and conflict and the rest of it.

William Irwin Thompson

February 1980

issue 52 cover
The Sun Interview

An Interview With Stewart Walker

In massage each of the levels has to be respected. The tension seems to work in layers. It takes a certain amount of time to work through those different layers. It’s rude, in a way, to go barging into the deepest levels, unless there is relaxation and trust.

BySy Safransky
Essays, Memoirs & True Stories

Good Medicine

An Unorthodox Prescription For Health

I can tell you everything you need to know about nutrition in one sentence. “Good nutrition consists of eating a wide variety of chemically unaltered foods.” That throws out 90% of what you’ll find in the grocery store.

ByDr. C. Norman Shealy
Essays, Memoirs & True Stories

Laughing At Ourselves

There’s something about a “New Age Cultural Event” that asks you to put your brain on hold, a flavor of contrived holiness and assumed agreement that makes you twitch all over.

ByPeny Prestini
Fiction

True Stories

As soon as we were seated at the Su-En, the couple left for the restroom. While they were away, an Oriental woman walked in, sitting next to me. Yoko Ono! Seconds later, in came John Lennon!

ByNyle Frank
Fiction

Finding Balladeer Ed

(A Childish Tale)

After long days and nights, after asking and following the advice of many strangers, our hero of medieval aspect and suitcase indestructible beheld from a hill his journey’s end, the village of Balladeer Ed.

ByDavid C. Childers
Poetry

[You are growing]

ByLouise Harris
Poetry

Selected Poems

ByRoger Sauls
Poetry

Punctuation

ByChris Bursk

Recent Issues

May 2026
May 2026In this issue
May 2026
April 2026
April 2026In this issue
April 2026
March 2026
March 2026In this issue
March 2026
February 2026
February 2026In this issue
February 2026
January 2026
January 2026In this issue
January 2026
December 2025
December 2025In this issue
December 2025
Browse 50 Years Of Archives

Humanity, delivered monthly.

In each issue of The Sun you’ll find some of the most radically intimate and socially conscious writing being published today. In an age of media conglomerates, we’re something of an oddity: an ad-free, independent, reader-supported magazine.

    • About The Sun
    • Contact Us
    • Staff
    • FAQ
  • facebookLike us
  • InstagramTake a look
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use

Copyright © 1974–2026 The Sun. All rights reserved.