Today, Minnesota governor Tim Walz will accept the nomination for Vice President at the Democratic National Convention.

I wrote for MSNBC about Tim Walz, the Midwest, and the fight over what gets to be normal and what isn’t. 

The value of a land should not be decided on its politics. Right after an inland hurricane tore through my town and people were struggling for help, a common refrain on social media was, “That’s what you get for voting for Republicans.” As if the accidents of birth geography, and the intentional segregation of gerrymandering and voter suppression, meant people should suffer. I saw people saying similarly dismissive things after the energy crisis in Texas, and people will be saying it as Floridians suffer in the wake of its most recent hurricane. It’s a cruel calculation. One that equates politics with virtue and virtue with worthiness. But the reality is people need help simply because they are people.

You can read the whole piece on MSNBC.

While writing about Tim Walz, I realized I’ve written a lot about middle places. Here is a quick link round up of some of my favorite things I’ve written about corn, flyover land, and belonging. And here some links to other people’s work too!

If you don’t like it, move! An essay about staying.

A review of the television show Somebody Somewhere and the narrative’s of friendship.

Some thoughts I had about Iowa after my book tour this spring.

One of the most popular newsletter’s I’ve ever written examined the cult of Casey’s gas stations and Midwestern culture.

A history of casserole.

CORN! I wrote about it for MSNBC in 2020. 

Sweet corn is now the cheery yellow phallus we heat and butter up every summer, alongside hot dogs, hamburgers and salads of dubious mayonnaise bases. Its presence is a necessary accoutrement to our summertime activities — saluting a flag, watching baseball, drinking beer, being forced to hug a mascot, sweating at a fair.

The agony and the excess of the State Fair.

The secret feminist history of the butter cow.

Ope! I wrote a whole ass book about the Midwest and religion and politics.

I love this Phil Christman essay about the Midwest and the burden of normality.

Is this heaven? No, it’s nostalgia. 

Everybody is always leaving Iowa.

Remembering the 2020 derecho.

And in 2021, I wrote for the Washington Post about Iowa, the pandemic, and the mean politics of this place. The op-ed “Welcome to Iowa, a state that doesn’t care if you live or die” has aged very well. But it is one of the pieces that made the conservatives the most mad. And people dig it up anytime I have any sort of success, Tweet screenshots of it at me, and tell me “If you don’t like it, leave.” To which I say, nope. I may be a problem but I’m a Midwestern problem now.

What is your favorite piece of writing about the Midwest?