satire
Relationship satire can be cathartic; when love hurts too much, just laugh.
Doors and Windows
The system of doors and windows are, when you think about it – and I have, far too much – among the most fundamentally irritating features of modern domestic architecture. They exist in a state of perpetual contradiction, embodying the human condition's most tiresome paradoxes with a smug, architectural permanence that no amount of remodelling or smart-home nonsense can disguise.
By Scott Christenson🌴11 days ago in Humans
What the System Forces You to Become
The Question the System Replaces By the time a person has passed through employment law, healthcare coverage rules, unemployment insurance, disability determination, and benefit eligibility, the relevant question has already shifted without ever being stated out loud. It is no longer whether the system helped or failed them. It is whether they managed to remain legible long enough to survive it. Each institutional layer imposes requirements that appear reasonable when viewed in isolation, yet become coercive when experienced sequentially:
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast15 days ago in Humans
The Mall
Maggie was happy with her hip replacement. The physical therapist stretched her legs and massaged her lower back, then watched as Maggie did hip flexor exercises and the rest of the recovery routine. The surgery had been six months ago, and Maggie was now working on her strength, stamina, and balance. She went to PT and water aerobics twice a week. She planned to ski in the upcoming season.
By Andrea Corwin 19 days ago in Humans
Speaking to Time Instead of the Room
Much of modern communication is oriented toward immediacy. Writing is framed as something meant to be consumed quickly, reacted to instantly, and replaced just as fast by whatever comes next. Under this model, the value of a piece is measured almost entirely by its initial reception. If it does not land immediately, it is treated as a failure. This assumption narrows the purpose of writing and misunderstands how meaning actually travels through time.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast22 days ago in Humans
There Are New Rules Now
Hello and good morning to all American citizens. It's a bone-cold day here in America, and it's not just because of the temperature. I have taken over every media outlet with this very important message from the President, Donald J. Trump. The Democracy of America is no more. The Democracy of America has been shaky for the last 90 years or so, but as of today, we are grieving for our country as we now face the consequences of how truly broken the Democratic Government was.
By Hope Martin29 days ago in Humans
Essence, Embodiment, and Relational Reality
The Failure of Reduction and the Need for Synthesis There is a persistent failure in many modern attempts to explain what a human being is. Some frameworks reduce the person entirely to matter, insisting that identity, consciousness, morality, and meaning are nothing more than emergent properties of physical processes. Other frameworks move in the opposite direction, detaching spirit from reason and grounding belief in intuition alone, often at the cost of coherence or accountability. Both approaches fail because both misunderstand essence. One denies that essence exists at all. The other treats it as something vague and undefinable.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
Resistance Is Not the Enemy
Iron sharpens iron. Brakes save lives. Friction preserves form. Modern culture treats resistance as failure. Anything that slows momentum is framed as obstruction, anything that introduces friction is assumed to be opposition, and anything that interrupts progress is labeled a setback. But this instinct misunderstands how both physical systems and human growth actually work. Resistance is not inherently hostile. In many cases, it is the only thing preventing collapse.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
The Refiner’s Fire Is Not the Whetstone
There is a difference between being sharpened and being transformed, and confusing the two leads to frustration when growth does not feel productive. Sharpening implies refinement of existing form. Fire implies change in composition. Both processes are uncomfortable, but they operate on different levels and for different purposes. When people expect sharpening and receive fire instead, they often assume something has gone wrong, when in reality something deeper is taking place.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcastabout a month ago in Humans
