Joshua Stephens
@joshuastephens.bsky.social
Writer | Photographer | Antifascist
Bookworm. Vegan. Coffee nerd. High school dropout.
I’ve written for outlets like AlterNet, Truthout, Gawker, The Blizzard, Standart, & BK Magazine.
🌏 Bangkok
www.jxshua.com
Bookworm. Vegan. Coffee nerd. High school dropout.
I’ve written for outlets like AlterNet, Truthout, Gawker, The Blizzard, Standart, & BK Magazine.
🌏 Bangkok
www.jxshua.com
If you’re still reeling from the recent gutting of @teenvogue.com, I might recommend either or both of these novels I finished this month. Stories of women-led anti-colonial revolt, but even more noteworthy — stories that tackle the messiness of resistance in pretty unvarnished ways.
November 16, 2025 at 1:46 AM
If you’re still reeling from the recent gutting of @teenvogue.com, I might recommend either or both of these novels I finished this month. Stories of women-led anti-colonial revolt, but even more noteworthy — stories that tackle the messiness of resistance in pretty unvarnished ways.
Today is the last day of the “jae” (vegetarian) festival in Thailand. Less interesting for its food than it is as a window into the history of migration and Thai ethnonationalism’s failure to erase local cultural diversity.
I’ve pitched a photo-feature on it for 3yrs now, high and low. No takers.
I’ve pitched a photo-feature on it for 3yrs now, high and low. No takers.
October 29, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Today is the last day of the “jae” (vegetarian) festival in Thailand. Less interesting for its food than it is as a window into the history of migration and Thai ethnonationalism’s failure to erase local cultural diversity.
I’ve pitched a photo-feature on it for 3yrs now, high and low. No takers.
I’ve pitched a photo-feature on it for 3yrs now, high and low. No takers.
Absolute dorks: “Veganism is a white people thing!”
Bangkok: “Get in, losers. We’re getting weird and eating vegan for ten days.”
Bangkok: “Get in, losers. We’re getting weird and eating vegan for ten days.”
October 28, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Absolute dorks: “Veganism is a white people thing!”
Bangkok: “Get in, losers. We’re getting weird and eating vegan for ten days.”
Bangkok: “Get in, losers. We’re getting weird and eating vegan for ten days.”
Scenes from the neighborhood, tonight, as I walked to check on a friend’s cat.
October 26, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Scenes from the neighborhood, tonight, as I walked to check on a friend’s cat.
Sunday roadtrip with the in-laws.
October 26, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Sunday roadtrip with the in-laws.
Having a miserable day? Here’s our cat, insisting I stop writing to play fetch with him.
October 24, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Having a miserable day? Here’s our cat, insisting I stop writing to play fetch with him.
First day back in over 2mos.
October 6, 2025 at 12:51 PM
First day back in over 2mos.
Pumpkin green curry w/ tempeh, long beans, and Thai eggplant. I know neither how to explain how bomb this is, nor why I’ve never made it before.
September 6, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Pumpkin green curry w/ tempeh, long beans, and Thai eggplant. I know neither how to explain how bomb this is, nor why I’ve never made it before.
Local supermarket was running clearance on veggies last night. Scored a small pumpkin + a bag the size of my head of Thai eggplant and long beans (each) for 5 MYR —about €1– total. 3 blocks of tempeh for about the same.
Breakfast spoils.
Breakfast spoils.
September 3, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Local supermarket was running clearance on veggies last night. Scored a small pumpkin + a bag the size of my head of Thai eggplant and long beans (each) for 5 MYR —about €1– total. 3 blocks of tempeh for about the same.
Breakfast spoils.
Breakfast spoils.
Word on the street is Trump might be dead.
Here’s some vegan kale-basil-cashew-chillie pesto I made after my workout this AM.
Here’s some vegan kale-basil-cashew-chillie pesto I made after my workout this AM.
August 30, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Word on the street is Trump might be dead.
Here’s some vegan kale-basil-cashew-chillie pesto I made after my workout this AM.
Here’s some vegan kale-basil-cashew-chillie pesto I made after my workout this AM.
Wrote 1500 words yesterday. Exhumed another 1500 from a decade-old draft I’d never used for anything. Then took a walk around suburban KL.
Scenes, all around.
Scenes, all around.
August 27, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Wrote 1500 words yesterday. Exhumed another 1500 from a decade-old draft I’d never used for anything. Then took a walk around suburban KL.
Scenes, all around.
Scenes, all around.
Got to sample a new vegan menu at a Michelin ramen spot in KL today. It ripped.
August 22, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Got to sample a new vegan menu at a Michelin ramen spot in KL today. It ripped.
Somehow, to my horror and amazement, I am suddenly trending dangerously close to a sub-25min 5K.
Lordy.
Lordy.
August 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Somehow, to my horror and amazement, I am suddenly trending dangerously close to a sub-25min 5K.
Lordy.
Lordy.
Scenes tonight in Kuala Lumpur, for Gazan journalists.
August 16, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Scenes tonight in Kuala Lumpur, for Gazan journalists.
The future missus flew down my first weekend on this Malaysian exile/writing retreat, to pal around Penang & KL. I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with this place, but I feel like I owe it plaudits for excellent coffee, sorely underrated literary culture, and (natch) world-beating food. Fuck.
July 29, 2025 at 1:49 PM
The future missus flew down my first weekend on this Malaysian exile/writing retreat, to pal around Penang & KL. I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with this place, but I feel like I owe it plaudits for excellent coffee, sorely underrated literary culture, and (natch) world-beating food. Fuck.
Just gonna leave this here.
May 22, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Just gonna leave this here.
Nakba Day, Bangkok.
May 17, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Nakba Day, Bangkok.
Another year waking up to this miracle of a human. Everything’s on fire, and yet I’ve never felt luckier.
May 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Another year waking up to this miracle of a human. Everything’s on fire, and yet I’ve never felt luckier.
Your moment of Zen:
May 10, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Your moment of Zen:
Time-honored cinema motif, too.
April 27, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Time-honored cinema motif, too.
And that’s a wrap on my weekend visa run to KL. Eager to be home again, but it is such a salve in this moment to sit with people who share my commitments and just improv the dumbest banter.
April 27, 2025 at 8:47 AM
And that’s a wrap on my weekend visa run to KL. Eager to be home again, but it is such a salve in this moment to sit with people who share my commitments and just improv the dumbest banter.
The gf is away handling family stuff. Which means Big Man guards me in bed, and I have to psych myself up to transfer leftover rice from the rice cooker to Tupperware (which I would normally do without so much as thinking).
April 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
The gf is away handling family stuff. Which means Big Man guards me in bed, and I have to psych myself up to transfer leftover rice from the rice cooker to Tupperware (which I would normally do without so much as thinking).
Made #vegan laab for the first time today, using nothing but ingredients bought at the neighborhood veggie shop. Enough for 2 people came out to about $1. Tossed in a Lao chili to give it kick.
Thought it would require a few passes, but totally stuck the landing.
Thought it would require a few passes, but totally stuck the landing.
April 9, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Made #vegan laab for the first time today, using nothing but ingredients bought at the neighborhood veggie shop. Enough for 2 people came out to about $1. Tossed in a Lao chili to give it kick.
Thought it would require a few passes, but totally stuck the landing.
Thought it would require a few passes, but totally stuck the landing.
Anytime this idiot gets in trouble for something, he circles back, climbs my chest, and makes me kiss him on the head so he knows he’s forgiven.
And I will do it for as long as he allows me.
And I will do it for as long as he allows me.
April 1, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Anytime this idiot gets in trouble for something, he circles back, climbs my chest, and makes me kiss him on the head so he knows he’s forgiven.
And I will do it for as long as he allows me.
And I will do it for as long as he allows me.