drugs

  • Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Jack Gantos

    Jack Gantos discusses the sense of “delusional invincibility” he had in 1970s New York that led him to prison—and then on to a career as an award-winning children’s book author.

  • Highway 18

    Highway 18

    It’s always the doe protecting a fawn in the woods that stomps a passerby to death.

  • He Doesn’t Wanna Be Here

    He Doesn’t Wanna Be Here

    It wasn’t until my mom came over after work and told me my brother had confessed to her that he’d been using heroin for two years and needed help that I knew I’d seen him with a needle in his…

  • Mac and Me

    Mac and Me

    The last time I’d been to my father’s grave was the previous winter, for the dedication ceremony for his headstone. The wind gusted, bone-cold, and I didn’t stay long. I wondered if Dad brokered a deal with God to make…

  • Make/Work Episode 22: Mick

    Make/Work Episode 22: Mick

    In episode 22 of The Rumpus’s Make/Work podcast, Scott Pinkmountain speaks with guitarist and songwriter Mick about his childhood abuse, drug use, and the crucial need for alternatives to Katy Perry.

  • Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    In “Hunting For The Little Prince,” Sigal Samuel invites us to tag along as she pursues the real-life inspiration for the blonde-haired protagonist of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous children’s book. No spoilers, but this particular missing person search ends happily.…

  • Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Antonia Crane, The Dirty Dozenth

    Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Antonia Crane, The Dirty Dozenth

    And this is precisely why I was so entirely blown away by Antonia Crane’s new memoir, Spent, which chronicles her dark and twisted path through the above horrors with remarkable elegance and restraint.

  • No One Hears the Wars in Your Head. Except You.

    I worked the same way with alcohol and drugs, and my whiskey elves, my beasts, never disappointed. I mean, they didn’t always write the prettiest prose — cocaine isn’t known to instill poetry — but they usually unearthed interesting images…

  • Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    We’ve had a busy couple weekends at the Rumpus lately, and we wanted to make sure nobody missed any of the spectacular essays and book reviews we’ve been posting. For example, this weekend we reviewed Bradley L. Garrett’s urban-exploration treatise Explore…

  • What to Read When There’s No More Breaking Bad

    With the series finale of Breaking Bad drawing ever closer, we’re looking for new ways to get our drug-story fix. That’s why we were as excited as Aaron Paul on The Price Is Right to see Lauren Eggert-Crowe’s “Breaking Bad (and Beyond) Reading List”…

  • The Big Idea: Carl Hart

    The Big Idea: Carl Hart

    Suzanne Koven talks to neuroscientist Carl Hart about his recent book, High Price, and how misinformation, emotionalism, and racism have played major roles in our country’s war—and our culture’s views—on drugs.

  • The Violence of Mexican Drug Cartels

    A bitterly violent war against Mexican Drug Cartels wages on across the U.S. border. Tens of thousands are being murdered, and over a million are being forced to flee their homes. U.S. laws and policy play a major role in the…