Picture of Justin Brown

Justin Brown

RECENT ARTICLES
Mind & Meaning

I grew up lower-middle class and I’ve noticed that every time I’m asked to describe my childhood I instinctively say “we weren’t rich but we had everything we needed” — and I’ve started wondering who I’m protecting with that sentence, my parents or myself

A couple experiencing relationship tension sitting silently on a sofa.
Human

Adults who feel lonely inside long marriages aren’t necessarily in failing relationships, for many it’s the slow recognition that being known and being lived alongside aren’t the same thing

Moody black and white portrait of an elderly man gazing thoughtfully.
Human

Nobody talks about why widowers in their seventies often fade so quickly after their wives die, and it isn’t always grief in the romantic sense, it’s that for many men of that generation she was the only person who knew their full name in a tender voice

Young ill bald African American female in blue patient gown looking away in window
Human

People who say they prefer being alone aren’t always introverts, some learned that company on the wrong terms is lonelier than an empty room

A woman in a gray blazer shares a laugh with colleagues in a lively office setting.
Human

The loneliest people in any room often aren’t the ones sitting alone, they’re the ones laughing along to a conversation they’ve already mentally left