When we first chose the theme for this issue, we didn’t intend for it to be quite so on the nose.

“Garbage” had long been on our list of topics to cover in our normally abnormal way. It’s weird, but also deeply sensory—someone says the word garbage and you can immediately picture it (and smell it, too). After an edible and a few puffs, we started to wonder what a different perspective on garbage could look like. Plus, the idea of calling something the “Garbage Issue” just made us laugh. And so, here we are.

Volume Six includes Conversations with chef Sophia Roe, activist Emily Barker, designer Sarah Nsikak, and writer Anand Giridharadas; meditations on space junk, garbage time, houseflies, and loss; and art by Arielle Bobb Willis, Rajni Jacques, Ekua King, and David Brandon Geeting; and much, much more. We hope Volume Six offers some kind of escape. After all, like five o’clock, it’s always garbage somewhere.

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