Running with hope

Also: An extended interview with two-time Olympian Kara Goucher [View in browser](    [❤️]( April 16, 2023 Dear Cog reader, I love the Boston Marathon. It’s one of my favorite days in the city; I look forward to it every year. When I realized a few months ago that this year would mark a decade since the bombings, I couldn’t believe it — had it really been that long? And then, of course, I started thinking about how Cog might help to mark this somber anniversary. We published several marathon-related essays this week (including [an extended interview with two-time Olympian Kara Goucher]( but I think our most original and important contribution is a piece that features many of your voices. When we put the call out to readers and contributors for their reflections on the tragedy, and how they’ve moved forward since, we were flooded with responses. People had visceral memories from April 15, 2013 – and they wanted to share them. But it was also clear that as traumatic and awful a day it was, folks were equally unwilling to allow an act of terrorism to define a day, and an event, they love. What we’re aspiring to do in pieces [like this]( is find the space between grief and joy, despair and hope. We know very little in life is all good, or all bad; it’s a mix. And it’s important to have the work reflect that nuance, or else it doesn’t feel true to the human experience. I hope we found that balance. If you make your way to the Marathon course tomorrow, or even just watch it on TV, I hope you see something special — whether it’s a record-breaking run by [Eliud Kipchoge]( a moment of triumph (or quiet contemplation) near the [finish line]( or all the fun being had in the [back of the pack]( I'll be hoping for cool temps and fair winds. Go Sox, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [Running with hope: The Boston Marathon, 10 years after the bombings]( The unthinkable happened when two bombs went off on Boylston Street 10 years ago. But the Boston Marathon has remained an event of human triumph — that part didn’t change. [Read more.]( [Running with hope: The Boston Marathon, 10 years after the bombings]( The unthinkable happened when two bombs went off on Boylston Street 10 years ago. But the Boston Marathon has remained an event of human triumph — that part didn’t change. [Read more.]( [Kara Goucher is running for herself]( I loved running before I knew I was good at it, and I'm glad I was good at it — it completely changed my life, writes American distance-running great Kara Goucher. I still look forward to my run every single day. [Read more.]( [Kara Goucher is running for herself]( I loved running before I knew I was good at it, and I'm glad I was good at it — it completely changed my life, writes American distance-running great Kara Goucher. I still look forward to my run every single day. [Read more.]( [Watch out, Boston: The world's fastest marathoner is coming to town]( Will Eliud Kipchoge achieve the unfathomable? A sub-2-hour marathon? Anything is possible, writes Barbara Huebner. [Read more.]( [Watch out, Boston: The world's fastest marathoner is coming to town]( Will Eliud Kipchoge achieve the unfathomable? A sub-2-hour marathon? Anything is possible, writes Barbara Huebner. [Read more.]( [On Marathon Monday, I’ll be cheering the runners in the back of the pack]( Tova Mirvis didn't think she could be a runner. Finishing a half-marathon, she writes, nudged her "toward an alternate idea of who I might be." [Read more.]( [On Marathon Monday, I’ll be cheering the runners in the back of the pack]( Tova Mirvis didn't think she could be a runner. Finishing a half-marathon, she writes, nudged her "toward an alternate idea of who I might be." [Read more.]( [Extremism is a disease. Why don't we treat it like one?]( Ten years after the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, our society sees extremism primarily as a moral and political issue, writes Myrieme Churchill. We are more preoccupied with showing our outrage than genuinely trying to understand the internal workings of the disease. [Read more.]( [Extremism is a disease. Why don't we treat it like one?]( Ten years after the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, our society sees extremism primarily as a moral and political issue, writes Myrieme Churchill. We are more preoccupied with showing our outrage than genuinely trying to understand the internal workings of the disease. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "The true test of a relationship isn’t the speed of the reply. It’s the quality of attention you receive." "[Your Email Does Not Constitute My Emergency]( The New York Times. "If the statute bars the mailing of abortifacients — drugs used to perform a procedure that is still legal in half the country — doesn’t it also criminalize mail-order birth control and Viagra? Mail-order sex toys, lingerie, pornography (for those without a good internet connection) and steamy romance novels? Paintings depicting nudity?" "[The Origins of the 19th Century Law That Could Determine the Future of Abortion]( Politico. "Mouth-to-mouth became part of the lifesaving formulary again, eventually adopted by the military and the AMA." "[How Abraham Lincoln’s last breaths may have saved others]( Los Angeles Times. "Should I have turned and run away? How could I ever do that? " — Tom Meagher, Boston Marathon finish-line coordinator, "[Running with hope: The Boston Marathon, 10 years after the bombings]( ICYMI [I’ll go for a run. That’s how I’ll mark this somber anniversary]( I left before the bombs exploded. But I love Boston and the marathon, so what happened is personal, writes Alex Ashlock, who covered the marathon for WBUR in 2013. [Read more.]( [I’ll go for a run. That’s how I’ll mark this somber anniversary]( I left before the bombs exploded. But I love Boston and the marathon, so what happened is personal, writes Alex Ashlock, who covered the marathon for WBUR in 2013. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2022 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.