I saw Black Widow just before the beginning of the Tokyo Olympics, and, as I wrote at The Bulwark, the juxtaposition was an uncomfortable one. The story of the girls reshaped and thrown away by the Red Room trainers isn’t so different from the story of USA Gymnastics over the last decade. With the Summer… Read More
Author: Leah Libresco
Penance and Public Shaming
I was glad to get the chance to make my Bulwark debut with an essay on a question I've been wrestling with for some time: "What do we do with people who have committed a wrong that they themselves cannot put right?" Cycles of public shaming ebb and flow through our public discourse. Some implicate… Read More
Paid Family Leave Should Cover Miscarriage
New Zealand unanimously passed a law requiring three days of bereavement leave for parents who lose a child through miscarriage. I wrote a piece for the Institute for Family Studies on why I think this kind of leave is sorely needed. Parents who lose a child through miscarriage can have their grief dismissed. When my… Read More
Making Mothers Count in Medicine
At Capita, I've written an appreciation of doulas. My daughter was born with the help and support of a close friend who was training as a doula. That experience left me grateful for Bria... and furious her work was considered "extra" to medicine. A medical system that ignores the value of doulas leaves a lot… Read More
Why Pro-Life Catholics Should Get Vaccinated
In The New York Times, I made the case for pro-life Catholics to get covid vaccines, despite their dependence on cell lines derived from aborted children. Even people who are comfortable with the vaccines need to grapple with the question of how we make amends for our material cooperation with evil. I’ve gotten both my… Read More
The Cautionary Tale of WandaVision
WandaVision is an ambitious offering from the Marvel Industrial Complex, but it falls short of its potential. I reviewed the show for Mere Orthodoxy (in a way I hope was comprehensible even to non-watchers!). The show is ultimately about the consequences of the stories we tell about our lives. The show uses the heightened style… Read More
Game Design with Questing Beast
My husband Alexi and I were guests on Questing Beast for a discussion of game design and storytelling. I really enjoyed the conversation, particularly when we talked about how social conflict in incorporated into a game's mechanics. A more freeform game can turn on the player's quick-thinking, rather than the character's. We talked a bit… Read More
How The Government Wasted Our Pandemic Sacrifices
In my first piece for The Week, I'm discussing why the lack of high-quality masks is our pandemic failures in miniature. Throughout the pandemic, Americans have made extraordinary sacrifices to slow the spread of the virus. We haven't been unequal to the disaster, but our leaders' lapses have left people filling in the gaps of… Read More
The Case for Unconditional Child Allowance
I defend the Romney child allowance plan against criticism from Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee in The New York Times. The senators called the Romney proposal “welfare assistance” and added: “An essential part of being pro-family is being pro-work. Congress should expand the Child Tax Credit without undercutting the responsibility of parents to work… Read More
A Game About Grace and Weakness
During Zinequest 2021, I wrote a piece at Mere Orthodoxy about the design choices and theology behind Back Again from the Broken Land, a game I wrote together with my husband. The game is Tolkien-inspired—it's about small adventures walking home from a big war. Part of our goal was making it Tolkien-like in the action… Read More