This essay is written by MAYDAY magazine’s Critic in Residence My best friend Hannah and I spent one of the nights of our recent girls’ trip to Stockholm listening to the If Books Could Kill podcast episode about Olivia Nuzzi’s 2025 memoir American Canto, in which podcast hosts Michael Hobbs and Peter Shamshiri lament that Nuzzi does not reveal […]
Featured Culture
Innocence Myths
Unpacking Owen Myers’ Sexist ‘Mother Mary’ Review in The Guardian
by Clement Obropta
Few big movies this year have been as thought-provoking, haunting, and emotional for me as Mother Mary, a psychological drama and ghost story written and directed by the acclaimed David Lowery. In the film, Anne Hathaway plays a traumatized pop star, Mother Mary, who shows up on the doorstep of her old collaborator, costume designer […]
Modern Sexism
by Nicola Brayan
The defeat of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election was disheartening for many reasons, one of which being the gendered elephant in the room—for the second time in 10 years, the chance of a female president was crushed at the last second. While Harris did not foreground her gender in her campaign, many commentators […]
I Switched to a Flip Phone for a Month—and Didn’t Hate It
by Palak Godara
Before you continue reading this essay, try something mildly inconvenient: if you’re reading this on your phone, switch to your laptop. There’s a decent chance you won’t. You’ll probably glance at the length of this piece, instinctively return to Instagram, and continue watching someone reorganize their fridge in under thirty seconds while a sped-up voice […]
Christian Nationalism and the Dubious Possibility of Change
by McKenzie Watson-Fore
This essay is written by MAYDAY magazine’s Critic in Residence For the previous three pieces in this critical residency, I’ve focused on evangelicalism, the intersections of Christian and mainstream literature, and the collision of pop culture and evangelical subculture. For my fourth piece, I want to turn the lens toward an expression of evangelicalism more […]
MAYDAY Staff Survey: The Best Reads of 2025
by MAYDAY Staff
2025 was another fantastic year for literature, and the team at MAYDAY enjoyed classics and new publications alike. Every year, we survey the team to see what their favorite books of the year, whether they’re new releases or just new to them. And this year, we had the privilege of welcoming in new team members. […]
Please Don’t Make Fun of God
by McKenzie Watson-Fore
This essay is written by MAYDAY magazine’s Critic in Residence This past summer, my partner Michael and I attended the wedding of two of our friends. One of them grew up in a Y2K prepper cult in Eastern Oregon. Her now-wife is a Dutch gynecologist. The four of us will often laugh about the mirrored […]
There Is No Male Body Positivity Movement. It’s Time We Start One.
by Justin Kolber
This essay continues the theme of Men’s Mental Health Month, whose important message should be recognized all year rather than just in November. Eating disorders are a “silent scream.” According to Monte Nido, a specialized treatment center for eating disorders, “Millions of people are hiding an eating disorder every day.” Specifically, 29 million Americans today […]
Dark Humor in a Time of Genocide
by Rebecca Ruth Gould
Imagine living in a world in which a phone call from a stranger may announce the bombing of your home, the destruction of your neighborhood, and the deaths of your loved ones. Imagine making a living from this destruction, by weaving shrouds for the bodies of those whom the bombs flying overhead will soon kill. […]
The Ghastly Ghost Writer
by Jadi Campbell
“I read de Montherlant and Joyce and Lawrence and sillier people like Miller and Mailer and Roth and Philip Wylie. I read the Bible and Greek myths and didn’t question why all later redactions relegated Gaea-Tellus and Lilith to a footnote and made Saturn the creator of the world.” Author Marilyn French wrote this passage […]
