Nothing Survives Without Food
Evolution doesn’t care if you’re happy.
Genes want survival: sex and cake.
Nothing survives without food,
said the Buddha. You are hungry
for the story you already believe.
You’ve already waited for God,
in his Judge Judy robe,
to tell everyone you were right.
And maybe you were right. But
you already know how that thought goes,
how it ends. That story
doesn’t care about your pain.
Stay with her.
Your pain, I mean.
Your pain is in pain. She is anthropomorphizing
herself. She has nothing to eat but story,
and nowhere to rest.
Stay in the room. Offer her the couch
for as long as she needs. You are learning how to listen
to her terrible wailing, how to hear wailing,
though she will want to make it because.
How to hold her.
How to listen without telling her
her story,
how to bring her tea, and how
to starve her.
Be part of 160 years of confronting power
Every day, The Nation exposes the administration’s unchecked and reckless abuses of power through clear-eyed, uncompromising independent journalism—the kind of journalism that holds the powerful to account and helps build alternatives to the world we live in now.
We have just the right people to confront this moment. Speaking on Democracy Now!, Nation DC Bureau chief Chris Lehmann translated the complex terms of the budget bill into the plain truth, describing it as “the single largest upward redistribution of wealth effectuated by any piece of legislation in our history.” In the pages of the June print issue and on The Nation Podcast, Jacob Silverman dove deep into how crypto has captured American campaign finance, revealing that it was the top donor in the 2024 elections as an industry and won nearly every race it supported.
This is all in addition to The Nation’s exceptional coverage of matters of war and peace, the courts, reproductive justice, climate, immigration, healthcare, and much more.
Our 160-year history of sounding the alarm on presidential overreach and the persecution of dissent has prepared us for this moment. 2025 marks a new chapter in this history, and we need you to be part of it.
We’re aiming to raise $20,000 during our June Fundraising Campaign to fund our change-making reporting and analysis. Stand for bold, independent journalism and donate to support The Nation today.
Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Publisher, The Nation
