What does it feel like to get a PhD? Doctorate programs can be simultaneously exhilarating and demoralizing. However, day-to-day, there is more psychological warfare raging in one’s mind than most people may realize. These stories are written for graduate students. They follow the trials of Myron Oygold, a chain-smoking, Xanax-popping PhD student trying desperately to finish his doctorate, find lost love, and make something out of his life.

Myron’s heart and mind were broken by Ilana Berkowitz as their lives exploded in a mushroom cloud of...