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Belt’s Top Stories of 2023
When trying to describe what exactly I envision the magazine to be, I often joke with people that I aspire for Belt to be The New Yorker of the Rust Belt (except that I’m not really joking).
Ghost Towns Lost and Found
David Exelby was scrolling through Reddit when he came across a mysterious post. This guy had stumbled on a ghost town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The problem was no one could find it. David and producer Max Howard go looking.
Down and Out in the Midwest
I’m sure you’ve read a lot about rejection because you’ve been rejected a lot. Me too.
Damned in Ohio
My immediate family was irreligious. My grandparents were raised in contradictory faiths, and their first grandchild was the singular blessing, the lone scandal, that could unite them in disbelief.
Beyond Chicago’s Sustainable Square Mile
“The Sustainable Square Mile was born to be in Black communities everywhere. So, our vision at Blacks in Green is self-sustaining Black communities everywhere.
To Be Marquette
“If you lived up here, you’d know what it was. It’s all anyone talks about. You’re either for it: it’s going to create jobs. Or you’re against it: it’s bad for the environment. No one’s neutral.”
Episode Five – Paradise on Fire
On colonization, Indigenous knowledge, and how we learned to cook the planet.
Psychedelia in the Burgh
The Psychedelic Club of Pittsburgh is an open-to-all monthly discussion group geared as a free-form way for anyone with an interest in psychedelic substances to trade experiences, tips and tricks.
Barbara Kingsolver’s Appalachian Epic
It took a long time for Kingsolver to be able to write a book that goes right at the hardest parts of her home. The notion that everybody in Appalachia is hanging out on their porch, eating cornbread and drinking moonshine is certainly a stereotype, but there is some truth to it.
Episode Four – Centralia
On a ghost town, a garbage dump, and Pennsylvania's forever fire.
The Mennonite Verse of Julia Spicher Kasdorf
“Mennonites have not been in the habit of changing details to suit the story: from our very first confessions of faith we've expected language to be a useful, solid bucket to hold truths as clear as water.”
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