Anyway, we have ample research on how living under a state of sustained terror and stress causes life-long health problems as well as intergenerational epigenetic effects. This feels like it's making you sick because it actually is making you sick.
I spent a year talking to teens about why they were using role-playing chatbots, and something surprising happened: By the end of the year, the teens stopped using the chatbots.
Observer effect? Or that chatbots fall into patterns that eventually get boring? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/t...
To register for our free monthly Grief Catharsis Theater event this Sunday, March 29, from 1–4 PM in Los Angeles (downtown Culver City), please use the Eventbrite link below:
www.eventbrite.com/e/grief-cath...
Screenshot of text that reads "For now, though, the company is still constrained by the physical world, and by the fact that most people, apart from those currently in the metaverse, aren’t keen to spend hours and hours of their day “in the plastic.”"
In 2022, I did a story about life in "the metaverse," spending 24 hours as an avatar with no legs meeting the people using Facebook's VR-based social network, Horizon Worlds. www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/t...
Met interesting people who seemed enthused about it but this was my conclusion:
Katie on Katie.
@katierobertson.bsky.social profiles Wired editor, @katie-drummond.bsky.social, who has been making the tech optimists very mad lately.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/b...
Thomson Reuters is best known for its media outlet and legal research tools, but it is also a huge data broker that provides investigative tools to the government, including ICE. Its Minneapolis workers aren't happy about that:
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/t...
How the rich have gotten richer since the 2017 tax cuts, and how it's affecting everyone else. A case study in Wyoming: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...
People are revealing sensitive personal information to A.I. chatbots — including plans to commit violent acts. What should the companies do when it happens? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/t...
Took the FTC's remaining two commissioners a year to vote to finalize the agency's settlement with GM over the automaker's selling data about how and where people were driving their cars. www.ftc.gov/news-events/...
(I broke the news back in 2024 that GM was doing this.)
Make it viral.
Putting the brand on every possible thing
For some positive news: the effects of congestion pricing in New York City. It has significantly decreased how much time my own commute takes so I'm a big fan. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
(8/8)
This is the work I keep returning to:
making space for stories like this to be spoken, witnessed, and held.
In January, we resume Catharsis Theater in Los Angeles and beyond.
A space for anyone who has lost something.
You don’t have to grieve alone.
www.caligrief.com
caligrief.substack.com
(7/8)
People say you’re strong.
Which is deeply unhelpful.
Strength implies intention.
Most days you are simply upright.
Still noticing light on buildings.
Still here.
(6/8)
Grief turns out to be mostly administrative.
Passwords. Forms. Bins labeled “miscellaneous.”
At Trader Joe’s you stare too long at cereal.
Someone clears their throat.
You want to explain:
I’m not rude. I’m recently bereaved in several directions.
(5/8)
There was also the relationship you hesitate to count as a loss,
except you still reach for your phone when something almost funny happens.
You box up his books.
You forget to mail them.
This feels symbolic but probably isn’t.
(4/8)
Then the job disappears in a 6:12 a.m. email.
You read it while brushing your teeth, foam on your chin, nodding like someone explaining the weather.
“Just business,” people say.
That’s what bleeding tries to sound like.
(3/8)
You lost your mother first, though you hate the word first.
Hospitals smell like disinfectant and burnt coffee.
The hallway art is aggressively cheerful.
You feel oddly polite.
As if grief is a party you don’t want to disrupt.
(2/8)
You are thirty-seven, which sounds older when you say it out loud on the 10 freeway.
Los Angeles is good at making age feel both irrelevant and humiliating.
The sun keeps shining.
Which feels rude, frankly.
The Grief Wave 🌀
recently bereaved in several directions
(1/8)
As we move into year two of The Grief Wave, I keep returning to a line by Muriel Rukeyser:
“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
Grief rearranges the story before we’re ready.
"The advent of realistic videos has been a boon for disinformation, fraud and foreign influence operations"
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/b...
What is the positive use case for an easy-to-use fake video tool?
Allan Brooks, the corporate recruiter from Canada I wrote about in August who went into a 3-week-long delusional spiral with ChatGPT, sued OpenAI Thursday, alongside six other plaintiffs. They blame ChatGPT for their mental breakdowns and for four suicides. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/t...
(5/5)
When grief gets dark, what saves us isn’t strength—it’s company.
A voice that listens. A hand that stays.
A moment when someone says, “I see you,” and means it.
💛 Read the full editions of The Grief Wave:
👉 caligrief.substack.com
#GriefWave #HealingTogether #CommunityCare #GriefTherapy
(4/5)
You don’t have to face it alone.
Grief counseling is available throughout California and nationwide (virtually).
We meet you where you are—with empathy, safety, and real conversation.
🕊️ Consultations are always free.
Explore support → caligrief.com
(3/5)
At the California Grief Center, we help people move through what feels heaviest—
whether you’ve lost someone, lost your way, or simply long to feel alive again.
💬 Individual & group therapy
🎭 Catharsis Theater (psychodrama for healing)
🌊 Grief education & community workshops
👉 caligrief.com
(2/5)
🌿 From caregivers tending 104-year-old elders with devotion,
🕊️ to new research showing that family acceptance saves LGBTQ+ lives,
🎨 to rituals of clay, song, and story that help us face mortality—
Each reminds us: grief is not weakness. It’s love, persisting.
#HealingTogether
(1/5)
🕯️ When grief gets dark, companionship brings light.
This week’s Grief Wave explores what sustains us when loss feels endless — connection, courage, and care.
Read: The Grief Wave – When Grief Gets Dark
👉 caligrief.substack.com/p/the-grief-...
#Grief #Healing #Help #Bluesky #Love #Loss
(4/5)
At the California Grief Center, we help people move through what feels frozen — whether you’ve lost someone, lost your way, or carry unspoken sorrow.
💬 Therapy • 💞 Support Groups • 🎭 Catharsis Theater
Now seeing clients across California and nationwide (virtually).
www.caligrief.com
#Therapy
(3/5)
If you’re feeling stuck in your grief, take heart.
Stillness is not failure — it’s part of movement.
Grief asks for patience, honesty, and presence with what is.
Over time, connection brings clarity.
🌊 Read the issue: caligrief.substack.com
#MentalHealth #GriefAwareness #HealingJourney
(2/5)
From Japan’s first female prime minister breaking barriers 🇯🇵
to a Caribbean nation rebuilding after disaster 🌪️
this week’s stories show how resilience takes root — not in comfort, but in endurance.
📰 The Grief Wave – When Grief Gets Hard
#Resilience #GriefSupport #CommunityHealing