Josh Axelrad is a writer and editor living in Seattle. His memoir, Repeat Until Rich, was published by Penguin Press. A three-time performer on The Moth Radio Hour, he’s been a commentator for NPR’s Marketplace and the recipient of a Jack Straw Writers Residency. He’s a lifetime loser at poker who nevertheless has netted over $1 million playing card games for money and is probably the only alumnus of the Kenyon Review Summer Workshops of whom both things are true. Josh has tried to practice Buddhist meditation since 2009. He studies Theravadin jhana and vipassana techniques with Shaila Catherine and is a member of the lay community of Clear Mountain Monastery in Washington State. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times online, the Daily Beast, and elsewhere.
The commonplace book originated on Tumblr in 2009 and migrated here in 2026.