June 6 Friday roundup

For this week’s episode of “Next Comes What,” I looked at part 2 of the concentration camp tendency, outlining how Trump administration policies are helping to create conditions of instability and conflict while expanding mass detention around the world. You can watch it on YouTube or listen to it via Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. If you want to reach instead of watching or listening, or if you’d like to explore links to people and events mentioned in the episode, you can find them in this week’s Tuesday post.

Continuing the theme of observing how targeted groups are being excluded from society, the Washington Post published an opinion piece today detailing all the populations that the Trump administration is currently working on disappearing, metaphorically and literally.

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For those of you following my May voyage to Norway, you might already know that we never got there. After setting out from the Netherlands, we had some debris in the diesel tank (though it had been cleaned out twice), which managed to clog filter after filter, which inspired the engine to cut out repeatedly. Air got into the hydraulic system, making steering an adventure. And the sea was rough enough that on steep rolls (when a ship tilts onto its port or starboard side), we discovered that diesel was leaking out of the top of the tank, with a dozen or more liters making their way across the hallway and galley floor.

The ship has recently been through a major refurbishing. Our voyage was a test done in advance of any actual contracted expeditions or excursions this summer, to figure out if—after all the official inspections—everything was in good working order and ready for rough conditions. Eventually, the captains conferred and decided to head back to the Netherlands rather than pressing on across the North Sea. The ship was marvelously seaworthy in bad weather, but repairs will have to be made to address the issues that arose.

I was disappointed that our voyage was cut short. But, at sea, discretion is definitely the better part of valor. I wasn’t able to stay on for repairs because they’re going to take a while, and because my younger kid was graduating from high school this week. All of which means that I’ve been having lots of big feelings lately—from seasickness to joy for my kid.

I’m also having big feelings because I have a new book deal! I’m joining forces with editor Elisabeth Dyssegaard at St. Martin’s Press on Snowblind: Death on the Polar Ice, the true story of the tragic Brusilov/Albanov expedition, which set out from Russia in 1912 aiming to find a Northeast Passage to the Pacific Ocean.

The story of the harrowing events that befell the crew is electrifying and unsettling. Those of you who’ve followed my writing or social media accounts for a while will know that in 2021, I went on an expedition to Franz Josef Land, hundreds of miles above the Eurasian continent. And in February 2022, I was in Russia doing archival research when Moscow launched its massive invasion of Ukraine, at which point I left the country. Snowblind is the book I was researching on those trips.

The arc of events is of a piece with the collapse of the Russian Empire which followed on the heels of the Brusilov expedition, and part of the story of the country’s subsequent descent into something worse—and even sheds light on some of what’s happening in the world today. The team I sailed with to the High Arctic has made significant discoveries in recent years about the fate of people on this expedition. In addition to visiting where these events took place in person, I was able to review unpublished documents and see relics recovered from Franz Josef Land. I’m tremendously excited to write Snowblind, though you’ll have to wait a bit to read it.

The photos above and below are from the ruins of a building outside the city of Arkhangelsk, where someone from the expedition went at one point to recover from a nervous breakdown. I won’t tell you more for now, so as not to spoil the book for you.

And while you wait for Snowblind, I’ll continue writing about what’s happening in the U.S. today and to share stories about my childhood. Thank you for reading any or all of what you come across here…

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