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Hello and welcome! My name is Michael Z. Zaki. 

For the last twelve years, my writing has been about making the obscure inside us clearer and more understandable. I love taking the pieces of experience that can feel like a flurry of emotion and intuition, and turning them into a clear and cohesive narrative.

I believe that storytelling is one cornerstone of culture, and it is an honor to tell stories. Even non-fiction is storytelling - a set of facts with no story is hard to understand and integrate, and my goal is to generate understanding, curiosity, and reflection.

I hope you enjoy exploring my work here, and I would love to hear from you!

Say hello at: michael@michaelzzaki.com

Recent Posts

Michael’s Substack •

March Newsletter from Michael Z

It’s March! I have committed to it being spring. It hasn’t actually been warm most days, but it has still felt springy. Some flowers are blooming, and a lot of birds are back. They are demanding bird seed, which is fair since we have a bird feeder.I started feeding crows this week too, and it’s amazing. When I am outside one will now make a sound at me and I’ll go get the peanuts. My partner is a crow-feeding pro and advised me to crush the shells a little to make it easier for them, and throw t...
Michael’s Substack •

When I lived by the lake

For three years, I lived in a house with friends a few blocks from a huge lake. I could see the lake from huge living room windows, and it was beautiful. Because the lake was at the bottom of a hill, and my house was at the top, I did not go down to the water very often. It was often painful to hike back up, and I am an anxious person who often tries to over-conserve energy on top of what I actually need to conserve.The whole time, I kept thinking I would regret not taking more advantage of how...
Michael’s Substack •

Why housekeeping talk is so hard

As a person who enjoys clutter, hates dirt, was barely raised, enjoys cleaning, and has sometimes severe fatigue and pain that limit my ability to do any of the things I want to be doing, I have had a hard time communicating with housemates about cleaning and tidiness. I have also seen friends go through the same thing—not able to communicate effectively with the people they live with, feeling frustrated, misunderstood, and unhappy at home.I think part of why this happens is that there is usuall...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's February Newsletter

I hope you’re having a good mid-late winter! I am almost keeping up with my goal to have small social gatherings each month. My partner and I tried in February, but attendance kind of comically fell apart. Oh well, at least we cleaned.Happy belated Valentine’s, if you enjoy it!I love Valentine’s day. It’s either a day to appreciate my friends, or it’s that plus a nice opportunity for a special date. I know a lot of people hate it; it can be a reminder of sadness about being single, or it can fee...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's January Newsletter

Hello lovely readers! I’d love to hear how you rang in 2025. This year I was able to go to a NYE party and co-host a few friends/family for New Year’s Day Japanese lunch on January 1st with my partner. This is the second New Year’s day since we’ve lived together, and I felt more involved this year in preparing, which was very lovely. I hope in a few years I’ll reach my full holiday prep potential.In general, I really love hosting small parties, and that’s only grown now that I live with my also-...
Michael’s Substack •

Taking it personally

I’ve been working on not taking it personally when I hear things that aren’t aimed at me personally. The other day I was listening to a podcast, and the people on it were addressing a listener question about wanting their partner to change living habits before they live together. In answering this, they mentioned that some people live in an unsafely dirty environment and that it’s reasonable to want that to change, but short of that, people also just live differently from each other and it’s some...
Michael’s Substack •

A friend who inspires me

I am subscribed to a wonderful Substack called “Whimsical Writing with Wake.” Wake is a friend I met once in person then many times on the internet over the past six or so years. I’m so grateful we met, then connected on Facebook in the time you could so easily connect with all the cool people you met (I’ve since brought myself to make the effort to ask for people’s contact info). Wake writes daily writing prompts, sending them weekly as a list, then daily they send their response to the prompt...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's October Newsletter

October has been an eventful month! I turned 33. I quit my job. AND October brought the first full week of being engaged!!! I made us rings and we kissed our first engaged kiss on the beach!It’s been a huge moment of change, a big wave of rediscovering myself, trusting loved ones, and looking at a beautiful future (with my betrothed).This month, I have been trying to approach life with a willingness to use up my energy. For years I have tried so hard to protect my energy because it felt so limit...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's September Newsletter

I’m home alone for a few weeks (cry) and so it’s been boys’ night for a while. The boys being me and the rabbits. I started calling Tilly my son a few years ago as a joke, because he is a little marshmallow, and I’m not particularly masculine, and he is in fact a rabbit, so I enjoy the idea of presenting our relationship as a masculine, familial, and human bond. This became my partner’s “stepson” and our “second son” Tiramisu. I am not sure if it’s a joke anymore, in my heart. Careful what you s...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's August Newsletter

Hello lovely subscribers! It’s time for my August newsletter. I’m mid-writing an essay, so that will be coming soon. Here is my August list of thoughts, opinions, reflections, and of course a bunny update. I hope you enjoy reading! The sections are “Thinking about,” “Reading,” “Opinions,” “Little updates,” and “Rabbit update.”I’m thinking about writing itself. I have been in a bit of a tailspin trying to understand my relationship to it. I have been a writer longer than I’ve been almost anything...
Michael’s Substack •

Is Online a Place?

There have been times in my life where “online” was a place I went, and times where “online” has been something I’m consuming—social media feeling more like a book or a TV show than a social space.I’ve had a few stretches of mostly-online life. One of the longest was just after college, around 2014-2016, just before and after I moved to Seattle. I was heavily present on Facebook at that time, and I was in several groups, many of which were around identities or ideologies; a type of cross-world c...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's July Newsletter

Hello lovely readers! It is July, and time for a new newsletter. It is very hot in Seattle, which is not normal, and so we are melting and thinking about climate change.I ambitiously called my last newsletter “Early June” and promised some think pieces in between. The trouble is, I got lost in those think pieces. I have been thinking a lot; even more than usual. I have even been in a better place for reading the news. For many months I’ve been reading only local news, because I wanted to know wh...
Michael’s Substack •

Michael Z's June Newsletter

Oh hello, almost summer

I cannot believe it’s June. This year is flying by like none past. I think that might be a good thing, right? Nothing particularly significant is happening month over month, or something (in my personal life; many things are happening externally).

I think part of why time “goes faster as you age” is maybe routine? We’re used to life more and more every year, not much data to save. Maybe that’s it, maybe not. I’d love to hear your opinions or knowledge (comment! email me
Michael’s Substack •

Enemies to brothers

When I got my bunny Tilly a few years ago, he was high energy, curious, and a little erratic. I remember the moment his love of being pet went from “I like to be pet” to “I like to be pet by you.” I really love him, and he loves me. I saw that moment as when he really understood he was home, and that I am there for him.

About a year ago, I noticed he was getting what me and my partner called “bratty.” I think he was just really bored. He is very industrious and curious and I honestly ran out of
Michael’s Substack •

Springtime Springtime

It’s felt like such a long winter! This winter I learned why people try not to move in the winter. I moved in November, barely even winter! But it was dark before 5pm every single day of my move (including packing) and I do not recommend it! Aside from just fewer daylight hours to move, there are fewer daylight hours to pack, and it is surprisingly demotivating to try and pack after work when it’s dark before you even end the workday. This taught me...
Michael’s Substack •

New Year, Newsletter

It’s the first day of 2024, as I’m writing.

This is the first New Year’s Day, preceded by the first New Year’s Eve, in many years where I didn’t spend any time reflecting, tying up, or planning ahead. I just moved (homes) this season (I heavily do not recommend moving when it gets dark at 4:30pm) and spent the last week trying to finish unpacking enough to have company this weekend. Everything has been really busy, and really good, and stressful, and new, and just a lot.
Michael’s Substack •

A little newsletter

For most of my blogging life, I’ve written persuasive think-pieces or just shared how I’m thinking about a topic with a pretty clear persuasive goal. In my last piece, I really enjoyed just writing about my experience. It was nice to have a point but not one that I felt any desire to pull anyone towards. That is more who I want to be in this moment — reflecting, sharing, offering.

So here is some more of that; let me know if you like it! I will probably send longer versions of some of these tho
Medium •

Pets can have just okay lives too

The internet is full of advice and criticism; how much does it matter?

I have two rabbits, and if you know anything about pet rabbits, you may know that they’re a bit fragile. Their digestive systems fully shut down sometimes if you don’t catch symptoms quickly, so it’s understandable that people can be a little extreme with their concerns about them.

But — I’ve seen this about every type of pet: intense, extreme advice and critique, that ultimately seems to be sending the message: if you cann
Medium •

I don’t want to like everyone in my community

Learning what a community is as an adult has been a journey.

I grew up very isolated outside of school; I wasn’t connected to much — not to my neighborhood, not to a religious community, not to any group. I was home a lot, with my family and media. I didn’t know what belonging to people felt like.

When I was able to go away to college, I learned what it felt like to have a community for the first time. In college, community is easy. Everyone is within walking distance, you have some things in
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