Reasonable Doubt
Reclusive writer Whitley Strieber reflects on his career — and ‘the visitors’ that interrupted it
Whitley Strieber was supposed to be the next Stephen King, a pop-horror writer whose golden pen produced books begging for big-screen adaptations. His first novel, the 1978 werewolf-realism procedural Wolfen, was turned into a movie by the filmmaker behind Woodstock. In 1983, his sex-vampire thriller The Hunger was adapted into…
2019 may finally be the year for ‘The Search Engine That Doesn’t Track You’
In late November, hotel conglomerate Marriott International disclosed that the personal information of some 500 million customers — including home addresses, phone numbers, and credit card numbers — had been exposed as part of a data breach affecting its Starwood Hotels and Resorts network. One day earlier, the venerable breakfast…
“[At work] I very quickly found myself surprised by how frequently and nonchalantly I was sexually harassed… by men who could’ve been my dad or my grandfather.”
Long Valley, New Jersey
Medium: Is there one particular political issue that you’re especially passionate about?
Olivia Ferrucci: I’m the most frustrated by and the most passionate about gun control. As a high school student in America, I’m constantly in an environment where I’m statistically prone to experience gun violence. And there isn’t much being done on the legislative side to change…
“I want to be optimistic… about being able to reverse all the damage that’s been done over the past few years. It just can get very hopeless sometimes.”
Polk County, NC
Medium: Is there one political issue that you’re passionate about?
Ailey Morlino: I would say my top issue would be the environment, because it’s very pressing, and if we don’t focus on that, then what’s the point of focusing on anything else?
Are there any politicians who you feel are really passionate about the environment and are keeping it from going to heck?
Definitely, Elizabeth Warren is an eco-warrior. I love everything she says about what we can…
“I feel like a lot of times when people mourn, they’re not really missing the person as much as what the person gave to them.”
Los Angeles, California
Medium: Is there one political issue that you’re especially passionate about?
Jonathan Lovett: I could name 50, but I if I had to choose one, I would say climate change, because it affects the entire world and the entire planet. …
“The society we live in today relies too much on hashtags to do the job for us.”
Oakland, California
Medium: What issue will you vote on this fall?
Somiah Nettles: Americans forget too easily. The society we live in today relies too much on hashtags to do the job for us. A young black man gets killed, becomes a hashtag, and gets talked about for two weeks, then basically gets forgotten about. We’re too worried about…
“If I have something set, I want to go for it. I’m going to tackle it one step after another. And I am a hard worker.”
Greenville, TN
Medium: You’re an intern with a sustainable farming group called Rural Resources. What’s that about?
Cheyenne Floyd: I’ve been with them since I was in eighth grade. I’ve learned how to deal with animals and how to take care of them, and how to grow different things in a garden that I never knew could go into a garden. …
“I think adults think that we’re brain-dead, technology-addicted kids.”
Berkeley, California
Medium: Have you lived in the Bay Area all your life?
Simone Ewell-Szabo: My dad’s been in the Bay all my life. My parents broke up when I was little, and my mom used to live up in Grenville and in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but now they’re both in the Bay Area.
It’s definitely a bubble, but it’s…
“I’ve noticed many adults shaking their heads at our need to ‘complicate’ our own identities… [but] I believe we’ve just found words to articulate identities that have always existed.”
Paris, France
Medium: Is there one particular political issue that you’re passionate about?
Sofia Sears: Democracy is not a spectator sport, but much of the current Republican Party’s agenda seems intended to exclude the majority from playing. Accessibility to voting is perhaps the most essential bedrock of a functioning democracy — like President Obama said in his farewell address, we must…
“We’re angry, we’re passionate, and as we grow into adults in the midst of this raging political climate, we have voices unlike any others.”
New York, New York
Medium: Is there one particular political issue that’s most important to you?
Zayira Ray: Gun control. With every mass shooting and with every lost life, I’m increasingly numb to the atrocities of gun violence in America. That in itself—the near normalization of mass shootings—is terrifying. To think our government unapologetically turns a blind eye to the loss of…
