Consumerism https://www.thesunmagazine.org/rss en-us Milk Pumped for an infant, spilled at the dinner table, used as a tear gas antidote

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28993 Sun, 31 May 2026 11:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/606-milk 606-30-wild-preview.jpg 606 - Wild - Milk A Thousand Words elligur@gmail.com A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28965 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/605-a-thousand-words 605-23-gurfinkel-preview.jpg 605 - Gurfinkel - A Thousand Words Persons of Interest The idea that a certain kind of people are worthy of credit is entirely a social construct based around an idealized vision of society. Those same people who got credit also got all the other benefits of living in postwar America.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28934 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:45 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-persons-of-interest 603-4-galinsky-preview.jpg 603 - Galinsky - Owen Eating Free leathtonino@gmail.com Perhaps this isn’t the case at all Embassy Suites, but in Flagstaff, Arizona, between 5 and 7 pm, the hotel provides unlimited snacks and beer, gratis. I’ll repeat that: unlimited. Granted, I never imbibed more than three Michelobs and a cubic yard of Chex mix, but still. The possibility of unlimited is delectable.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28940 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-eating-free 603-20-hart-preview.jpg 603 - Hart - Tonino Sunbeams

Slight was the thing I bought, / Small was the debt I thought, / Poor was the loan at best— / God! but the interest!

Paul Laurence Dunbar, “The Debt”

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28931 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/603-sunbeams 603-49-weis-preview.jpg 603 - Weis - Sunbeams Crop to Cup Many of the coffee-producing countries still operate as if they are under the rule of a colonizer. You’ve got this country that was ruled from the outside as a production mechanism for the good of other countries, right? And once they gain their freedom, things aren’t going to immediately start working out well, because now they’ve got to develop their own political systems.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28892 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:32:45 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-crop-to-cup 601-4-skadson-preview.jpg 601 - Skadson - Cohen Love in All Directions Sometimes you had to conjure your own joy. Scratch that. Most of the time you had to conjure your own joy. So you had better suck it up and start chopping onions.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28902 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-love-in-all-directions 601-44-fields-preview.jpg 601 - Fields - Mandelbaum Sunbeams

I went out to the kitchen to make coffee—yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. The lifeblood of tired men.

Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28901 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-sunbeams 601-49-povenz-preview.jpg 601 - Povenz - Sunbeams The Body Eats I want to keep eating. I want life. More life. I want to turn from the simple facts of my existence to consider bigger mysteries, to fret about what might be, to remember what is no more. I want to imagine something other than this food in front of me, already a commodity on some assembly line, moving away from me.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28897 Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/601-the-body-eats 601-20-easley-preview.jpg 601 - Easley - Safransky Glass Overfull leathtonino@gmail.com There has been a boom, and soon there will be a bust, in global human population. And no advanced civilization will be able to reemerge because we will have used everything up. There will be no oil and gas and other supplies of that nature to maintain any civilization that might emerge from the ashes of this one.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28877 Sun, 30 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/600-glass-overfull 600-4-stern-preview.jpg 600-Stern-Tonino Humomism In my writing class last Thursday, Cara said it’s a shame that the word humane has human in it, as if only humans had compassion. Then Beth said it’s a problem that human has the word man in it. So we were trying to find another word. Dan suggested “humom.” Because, at our best, we are all like mothers. So maybe that can be the name of our movement: humomism.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28738 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/592-humomism 592-24-redder-preview.jpg 592-Redder-Sparrow The Work We Do ebrina@uno.edu I can’t believe it took me so long to hold myself accountable for how much my life actually costs. Forty-two feels incredibly, abnormally late to realize that, yes, time is money. And, conversely, money is time—time that someone, somewhere worked.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28642 Sat, 30 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/588-the-work-we-do 588-26-dantas-preview.jpg 588 - Dantas - Brina Bone Frag petercstenson@yahoo.com There are countless theories about the origins of the pebble storms. The one that makes the most sense to me is something about melting ice caps and ocean acidification and dying coral reefs.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28583 Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/586-bone-frag 586-38-hebb-preview.jpg 586 - Hebb - Stenson The Salmonella Special In twelve months I hadn’t set foot in a supermarket, hadn’t compared the prices of two brands of bread, hadn’t stood in a checkout line to buy anything, not even a pack of Tic Tacs. Everything I ate had been thrown away. Everything I ate, I’d found first.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25818 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25818-the-salmonella-special Forecasting adryansky@comcast.net November steals light. Its groaning, / overstuffed table force-feeding / December’s mandatory twinkle. Sticky / sugar & shine. A buffer for the hangover / January brings, when we huddle & low, hay damp / in our shuttered mangers, pockets emptied / of savings & saviors

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28178 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:10:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28178-forecasting The American Dream An Indian immigrant, an oil-company man, a bicycle-riding nomad

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25479 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25479-the-american-dream Sunbeams

The practices we now call conservation are, to a large extent, local alleviations of biotic pain. They are necessary, but they must not be confused with cures. The art of land doctoring is being practiced with vigor, but the science of land health is yet to be born.

Aldo Leopold

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27540 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27540-sunbeams Don’t Panic dgmlewis@gmail.com I’m not talking about burning the system down. . . . I simply think that the things we can do to respond to climate change will also make the world a better place for most people.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25416 Wed, 31 May 2023 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25416-don-t-panic A Thousand Words A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21516 Thu, 30 Jun 2022 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21516-a-thousand-words Become A Friend Of <em>The Sun</em> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26045 Tue, 31 May 2022 04:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26045-become-a-friend-of-em-the-sun-em A Guide To Home Acceptance “Home improvement” always entails physically fixing up one’s house. But what about the emotional work of homeownership? One way to improve your home is through gratitude and acceptance. Does everything constantly need to be “fixed”?

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22170 Sat, 30 Apr 2022 04:15:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22170-a-guide-to-home-acceptance December 2020 Featuring John Elder, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Craig Childs, and more.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/23156 Sat, 07 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/23156-december-2020 The Mall Conspicuous consumption, retail therapy, a botched makeover

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27285 Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27285-the-mall May 2019 Featuring Poe Ballantine, Pramila Jayapal, Paul Hawken, and more.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24866 Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24866-may-2019 Sunbeams

The real question is: How sturdy and solid is the floor our civilization stands on? How many lives with no prospects, shattered and senseless, can it bear the weight of before it cracks?

Christa Wolf, City of Angels: Or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25947 Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/25947-sunbeams March 2019 Featuring Luis Rodríguez, Malidoma Somé, Julia Butterfly Hill, and more.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27842 Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27842-march-2019 Sunbeams

Natural law is the highest law, and it would be folly to figure that you can outwit natural law.

Winona LaDuke

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22513 Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/22513-sunbeams February 2019 Featuring Danusha Veronica Goska, Kathleen Dean Moore, Van Jones, and more.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24363 Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/24363-february-2019 Sunbeams

One of the first things we must get rid of is the idea that democracy is tantamount to capitalism.

Eleanor Roosevelt

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27624 Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/27624-sunbeams Unfair Advantage To think of Amazon as a retailer is to miss the true nature of this company. Amazon wants to control the underlying infrastructure of commerce.

]]> http://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26480 Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/26480-unfair-advantage