The Zaleski Minute

Last time I wrote you all, I told you about my recent diagnosis with myotonic dystrophy, a form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.

I also mentioned I’d probably try to do something different with this newsletter. That…has not happened.

All I have, for now, are the words that I trade for money. And so:

• Outside (May 2023): Last year I went to Washington state to hunt for long-lost heirloom apples with fruit detective Dave Benscoter. There are apples more than 100 years old that we haven’t tasted for decades — but they’re still growing on trees in the wild, and are re-discovered by the likes of Benscoter and other self-styled sleuths of forgotten fruit.

• The New York Times (July 2023): This summer, a freelancer colleague of mine, Eleanor Cummins, and I wrote the cover feature of the Sunday op-ed section. We focused on America’s growing loneliness epidemic, and what recent advances in neuroscience say about our ability to treat loneliness like a medical condition.

• Popular Science (October 2023): Meet Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company. With funding from Paris Hilton, the Hemsworth brothers, Peter Thiel, and even the venture arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, this Texas-based company plans to resurrect the wooly mammoth, the Australian thyalcine, and the dodo bird. Cue the clip of Dr. Ian Malcolm from “Jurassic Park” wondering whether this is all such a good idea.