Surface Level is where I dig into the choices we make and the inputs that shape them.

The big decisions that veer our paths, the tiny ones that make up the everyday, and all the medium choices in between—like picking the name of this newsletter. So, why Surface Level? One, the surface is where I start but try not to stay, in writing and in life. I like going beneath, to the interconnected roots of it all. But I also believe that even what appears to be shallow and straightforward has something surprising to tell us about the world we live in, and who we are.

I’m Sophia Laurenzi, a writer and journalist. In places like TIME, The Washington Post, Slate, and WIRED, I write human stories shaped by inhuman systems. Like about the catch-22s of working as a death row investigator (me in a past life), or about the limitations of how we talk about suicide prevention.

Here, I publish essays where I question something about my life as an entry point to thinking about the world in a way I hadn’t before. I’m a former investigator with an academic background in psychology—I love asking questions and going down rabbit holes, about things I know well and about brand new ideas.

I’m pretty obsessed with how we make the choices we do and what shapes our perceptions of agency. Again and again, I come back to topics that have to do with control, from law and policy that determines what harm is and how we respond to it, to how technology influences our attention and behavior. I also write a lot about loss, the gaps in the way we talk about mental health, and the tension between craving answers and living with uncertainty.

I decided to start this newsletter to both get more personal, and more political. It’s a way for me to be in conversation with readers (you!) about how culture, policy, and technology thread through our private experiences. I hope my writing here holds equal parts vulnerability and rigor, and that we build a community that does the same. But I’m also here for the experimental and the wondrous—mostly, I’m a curious person, and this is a place to let that curiosity wander and widen. I hope you’ll join me.

All subscribers get access to a monthly essay, along with a monthly column called Selected Inputs, where I give a behind-the-scenes look at the sources that shape my thinking. It’s part reading list, part discussion board for you to share your takes, ask questions, and take the conversation a level deeper. Those posts come out a week apart, always on Thursdays. Afterwards, you get another more personal, reflective essay.

Paying subscribers also get access to Medium Good, my round-up and review of choices I (or a special guest!) made in the last month, as well as bonus content that will include the more whimsical and experimental. Think book sneak peeks, humor essays, and the occasional illustrated something. Medium Good comes out at the start of each month, and then we take it from the top with a new essay deep dive.

Whether you’re a skimmer or a diver, a glider or an excavator, welcome to Surface Level—I’m happy you’re here.

Sophia