Haley Barker

In the early 1970s, Allen Ginsberg was performing shows and poetry readings throughout San Francisco with accompaniment from the Kailas Shugendo Mantric Sun Band, an eccentric ensemble from a local Buddhist commune.

In the 1990s, Damchö Diana Finnegan found herself at an existential crossroads. After seven years as a finance and technology journalist in New York City and Hong Kong, then as a freelance correspondent across Asia, her career was thriving. Her finances were comfortable. She had seen much of the world. Yet something was wrong.

In a November 1997 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Carolyn Massey faced fierce criticism for her “irresponsible” parenting. Hoping to explain her family’s circumstances after years of media attention, she was publicly shamed—amplified by a statement from her mother and sister condemning her decisions. “I didn’t speak to my sister for two years after what she said about me on Oprah,” she later told Seattle Met, “but I’ve gotten over it.