Meg Bernhard

Las Vegas, Temecula

Writer from inland socal, mostly in vegas -- DAVIS CA on a fellowship. WINE, with Bloomsbury, out now. Work in @NYTmag @newyorker @latimes @harpers & elsewhere

Articles

Going Critical | Meg Bernhard

3 weeks ago | thebaffler.com | Meg Bernhard |Abe Beame

The tour guide for ASARCO’s open-pit copper mine in Sahuarita, Arizona, was a stooping man with a salt-and-pepper beard and a monotone voice. His name was Dave. He addressed us from the front of a bus, where our group sat wearing branded hard hats and orange safety vests. “Mines,” the tour website had warned, “are inherently risky places.” By visiting an active copper mine, we assumed the risk of injury or death, but thankfully we could mitigate that risk by wearing closed-toed shoes.
More young people are getting cancer. It changes everything

1 month ago | economist.com | Meg Bernhard

Having breast cancer in your 20s or 30s brings a unique set of considerations - and agonies By Meg BernhardAnn Young wasn't sure whether she would ever be a mother. She was 32 years old, married and completing a fellowship in paediatric emergency medicine at Boston Children's Hospital - the final step in her 15 years of medical training. She was devoted to her work, and looking forward to becoming a doctor.
Attack of the 75-Foot Roving Mud Puddle

1 month ago | altaonline.com | Meg Bernhard

My obsession with the roving mud puddle of Imperial County started several years ago, when my then-boyfriend sent me a YouTube video. Titled “Giant Moving Mud Puddle Tries to Take Out a TRAIN,” the clip from science influencer Physics Girl showed a brown, bubbling puddle some 50 feet from Highway 111, where the road runs along the Salton Sea’s eastern shore.
The Prom of the Colorado River - The Paris Review

Mar 11, 2025 | theparisreview.org | Meg Bernhard

By Meg Bernhard March 11, 2025 Alfalfa smells warm and earthy and sort of sweet, like socks after a long hike, but not in a bad way. It is soft, with oblong green leaves the size of a pinkie nail.I know this because on a chilly February afternoon I drove a hundred and forty miles to the Imperial Valley, one of the state’s largest farming regions, pulled over to an unattended field, and ripped up a clump.
Nevada's Lithium Could Help Save the Earth. But What Happens to Nevada?

Jan 24, 2025 | nytimes.com | Meg Bernhard

Few Americans follow the nation's lithium-mining industry as closely as Patrick Donnelly. Since 2021, he has set up 30 or so Google Alerts for variations on the word "lithium," and he uses the findings to populate an online map of projects across the West.
Let's Not Pretend

Dec 19, 2024 | hazlitt.net | Abhrajyoti Chakraborty |Meg Bernhard |Michaela Cavanagh |Rollie Pemberton

Fifteen minutes into Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura (1960), you sense that this is a movie about lying adults. Anna (played by Lea Massari) is on a yacht cruise with a group of friends near an abandoned island off Sicily. She is lolling about the waves in her swimsuit when she cries that she has spotted a shark. Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), her architect boyfriend, rushes to her aid and escorts her safely back to their boat.
Chappell Roan and the Parasocial Media Backlash

Oct 23, 2024 | hazlitt.net | Rollie Pemberton |Carleigh Baker |Abhrajyoti Chakraborty |Meg Bernhard

Welcome to Mind in Bloom, a column deconstructing current events, music and art. A couple weekends ago, on a layover after playing a show in Hamburg, I found myself with some friends at a rock bar on a typically soggy night in East London. Having recently gotten the Sunfly mascot tattooed onto my forearm, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was karaoke night.
Dark Matter | Hazlitt

Apr 3, 2024 | hazlitt.net | Meg Bernhard |Nora Lange |Niko Stratis |Krista Diamond

In the early aughts, Frank Warren ran a medical document delivery business in Germantown, Maryland. It was a monotonous job, involving daily trips to government offices to copy thousands of pages of journal articles for pharmaceutical companies, law firms, and non-profits. By his early forties, he had a house in a nice subdivision, a wife, a young daughter, and a dog.
Men at Work | Hazlitt

Feb 7, 2024 | hazlitt.net | Abhrajyoti Chakraborty |Carleigh Baker |Rollie Pemberton |Meg Bernhard

Welcome to Wayward Watching, a column on the seen and unseen in film. The scariest moment I’ve seen in a film occurs sometime during the first half of Casino. Sam (played by Robert De Niro) runs a sprawling Mafia-backed resort in Las Vegas and midway through his rounds of the chip tables downstairs one evening, he spots a couple of men scheming to read a dealer’s cards. He secretly pokes the tougher-looking man with a cattle prod and tells his enforcers to whisk him off to another room.