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Hello Lunch Club!
For my American readers, I hope you had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. December is upon us; I am not sure where the year went.
Today’s selection of stories includes:
A kindergartner pleads with her teacher to become her mother, then vanishes into homeschooling where no mandated reporters can see the burns covering her body.
Ayahuasca drinkers in Peru battle invisible sorcerers while their paying guests pursue trauma healing, each inhabiting separate realities despite sharing the same brew.
John Tesh weathers decades of ridicule by simply refusing to accept shame as verdict.
And somewhere between academic dissection and genuine exchange, we've forgotten that conversation's fumbling imperfection might be the entire point.
Grab your lunch. Let's go.
The Cut: ‘That Baby Is Going to Die’
By Amelia Schonbek
Raylee Browning arrived at kindergarten asking her gym teacher to be her mommy, showed cigarette burns she wasn't allowed to discuss, and came to school covered in bruises before her family withdrew her into homeschooling—where she died two years later from sepsis, her body covered in burns and evidence of sexual abuse. Reporting from Schonbek exposes homeschooling as America's most effective child abuse cover: in 48 states, parents can pull children from school to homeschool them even during active CPS investigations, even with prior convictions for crimes against children. When West Virginia attempted passing "Raylee's Law" to close this loophole, the Home School Legal Defense Association mobilized hundreds of parents to flood the capitol, framing minimal safeguards as government tyranny.
Aeon: A wondrous brew
by Alex K Gearin
Alex Gearin, assistant professor of medical ethics and humanities at the University of Hong Kong in China, charts ayahuasca's transformation from Amazonian healing ritual to global commodity, revealing how the same psychoactive molecules generate radically different experiences across cultures. In Peru, Shipibo healers battle sorcerers and redirect spiritual attacks while wealthy tourists pursue inner trauma work, each group drinking identical brew yet inhabiting incompatible realities. The essay's power lies in exposing how Indigenous cosmologies—where illness moves between people and places—collide with Western therapeutic individualism that locates all pathology within the self. By the time Gearin reaches China, ayahuasca has become executive coaching: managers optimize workplace performance through visions of red lanterns releasing colleague resentments. What remains constant isn't the experience but wonder's capacity to reshape perception, whether banishing jealous rivals' curses or closing the gap between one's "Monk" and "Suit" selves.
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The New York Times: John Tesh Keeps Bouncing Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba Back
By Caryn Ganz
John Tesh embodies a peculiar American archetype: the relentlessly sincere striver who absorbs mockery as fuel. His résumé reads like cultural whiplash: Oprah's boyfriend, "Entertainment Tonight" host refusing to say "stud muffin," composer of the NBA's most parodied theme song, new-age keyboardist, cancer survivor with 18 months to live who's still here a decade later. This profile captures how Tesh carved success outside traditional industry gatekeeping by selling cassettes from his garage, bankrolling his own PBS concert with his wife's money, and building an empire of prayer courses and health-tip radio shows. What makes this compelling isn't the celebrity trivia but Tesh's imperviousness to embarrassment—a man who follows "Sax by the Fire" with "Sax on the Beach" and cheerfully discusses his butt injection after performing on national television.
The Dial: Why Are We So Afraid of Conversation?
By Lamorna Ash
Ash dissects the paradox of modern conversation: we yearn for connection while drowning in self-help books teaching us to perform it. Her sharp critique reveals how academic research and corporate training reduce genuine exchange to technique—"insincere questions" as strategy, rapport as algorithm. The essay shines when puncturing these pretensions with lived experience: speed-dating while paranoid about being studied, teenagers paralyzed by conflicts that rarely materialize. She argues our fumbling attempts to reach one another, however incomplete, matter more than mastering any conversational playbook.
That’s it for this today.
Really hope you enjoyed the selection of stories today. I am always interested in hearing from you. If you have thoughts on how I can make this email even better, do not hesitate to reach out.
Brett
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