Essays

How Does a Therapist Stay Neutral?

Counseling Couples or Families Is About Empathy, Not Objectivity

Can we, and should we, ever really be neutral? In a new series, Zócalo explores the idea of neutrality—in politics, sports, gender, journalism, international law, and more. In this essay, therapist Craig Libman explains how he helps families figure out a way forward when there are no good options.

“He just doesn’t listen to me!” “She never understands what I’m going through!”

There I sat, their psychotherapist, sandwiched between this couple who had been married at least 50 years. The husband, a Vietnam veteran with metastatic …

by Craig Libman |

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Who Is the Real Monster in Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley’s Novel and Its Many Adaptations Challenge Us to Explore Bias and Belonging

by Daniel A. Olivas |

In 2022, I found myself reaching back to my childhood’s favorite monster for literary inspiration.

That year’s midterm elections had brought with them another round of angry MAGA candidates promoting the …

A Yearbook to Remember

We Can’t Hold Time in Our Hands, But We’ll Always Have Signed Messages, Funny Photos, and “Most Likely to …”

by Milissa Joi |

I lost my first year of high school to Zoom in 2020. Not just my first day, or first week, but the entire first year. This jarring start to a …

How Two Chicana Nerds Wrote Their Way Back to Oxnard

Michele Serros and I Did Everything We Could to Escape Our SoCal Hometown—Only to Find It Lived Within Us

by Cristina Herrera |

Growing up as a Chicana nerd, I never thought I’d write a book about myself, much less about Oxnard, where I grew up. This humble city on the Southern California …

How I Learned to Blowdry My Hair at 40

And Other Lessons from Growing Out My Locks in Middle Age

by Nick Fuller Googins |

In March 2020, I stopped cutting my hair. Like many, I wasn’t about to risk a COVID infection for a trip to Floyd’s barbershop. Unlike many, however, I have yet …

Are Venture Capitalists Silicon Valley’s Biggest Villains?

They Get Lauded for Funding Innovation—But What They Really Fund Is Exponential Growth That Lines Their Own Pockets

by Benjamin Shestakofsky |

This essay was published alongside the Zócalo and CalMatters public program, “What Makes a Great California Idea?” Click here to watch the full conversation.

Will …


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