I’m a Chicago-based journalist and writer, obsessed with our longing for the perfect cure. Subscribe for posts about every other week on the history, present, and future of healing.
What is Magic Silver Bullet?
Everyone wants the perfect cure. Magic Silver Bullet delivers deeply reported, deeply personal, stories from medicine, art, culture, and history about our obsession.
I aim to help us grapple with that ache we all have for the perfect cure. I particularly love dipping into some of history’s weirdest health corners.
There are things I’ve longed to cure. Sure, medical things, but spiritual things, bad habits, societal woes. Why can’t it be that one injection, that one pill, the pilgrimage, the meditation, the offering? I’ve decided to look for kindred spirits, some of them a little bonkers, some of them brilliant. Along the way we’ll discover that healing rarely works in a straight line, except sometimes it does.
Every other week or so, you can expect to find me diving into an effort to find a perfect cure, that magic silver bullet.
MAGIC BULLET
: a substance or therapy capable of destroying pathogens (such as bacteria or cancer cells) or providing an effective remedy for a disease or condition without deleterious side effects
: something providing an effective solution to a difficult or previously unsolvable problem
(Merriam Webster. First use, 1940)
SILVER BULLET
something that acts as a magical weapon
especially : one that instantly solves a long-standing problem
(Merriam Webster. First use, 1806)
MAGIC SILVER BULLET
The perfect cure, or so it seems.
(Kristin Gourlay. First use 2023)
I’m a journalist, so you won’t be surprised to find me pawing my way through primary sources, mining news stories, unearthing obscure books, looking under rocks. I’m researching the hell out of what might have been, what was or is, and asking what we can learn from some truly inspired or truly bananas efforts. Sometimes you’ll find a story from my life, too.
Got a question? A story you’d like me to pursue? A comment? Get in touch. I’d love to hear from you. And I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber to support my work.
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