The Couch
A personal magazine for the stories, questions, investigations, and curiosities I keep coming back to.
Vol. I
No. 01
May 2026
A magazine in slow motion
Cover story · De la Cocina
Why I wrote my first menu in a notebook.
Lo Pecao began on the page before it ever became a kitchen. A story about the small choices that decide whether a restaurant survives Tuesday.
Issue 01
Six stories
El Bufete
The most expensive sentence I ever read
Six years of corporate banking law taught me that contracts are not paragraphs. They are time bombs, and they are gifts. Mostly time bombs.
De la Cocina
What working the line taught me about strategy
A season as a line cook in Stanley Park, and what every executive should learn standing next to a flat-top on a Saturday night.
Dos Lenguas
Two languages, one brain
On the daily strangeness of thinking in English and dreaming in Spanish, and the small things that get lost in the gap between the two.
Codigo
The first AI tool that changed my mind
I came to AI suspicious. I left it convinced. A short account of the day my conviction flipped, and what it might mean for everyone running a small business.
Postales
From Santo Domingo to Stanley Park
Notes on the immigrant arc from the Caribbean to the Pacific Northwest, and the small surprises of building a life in a new city.
Departments
What lives inside.
These are not rigid categories. They are rooms in the same house.
Ensayos
Long thoughts that need room.
De la Cocina
Food, restaurants, service, and the people behind them.
El Bufete
Law, contracts, risk, and the fine print of life.
Libros
The books that changed something in me.
Dos Lenguas
Living between languages without making it the whole story.
Codigo
AI, code, and what small businesses can finally build.
Postales
Vancouver, Santo Domingo, and everything in between.
Colophon
The Couch is published from Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Edited and written by Iliana Paulino. Issues appear when they are ready.
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