False Profits

May 2022

Selected essays, including Galen Peterson on wild fire in the American West; Erik Hoel on why A.I. art is not art; and several authors on the origins and implications of conflict around abortion.

Review

April 2022

Selected essays, including Esme Partridge on a generational rejection of ideals; Nina Power on the family as a bulwark against the tyranny of Left and Right; and pseudonymous lawyer, Techno Fog, on the political power struggle over moral identity in public schools.

Review

March 2022

Selected articles and essays, including Nina Power and Chad Pecknold on the patriarchy; Ethan Strauss on Gen-Z athletes' mental health paradox; and Paul Kingsnorth on the culture of inversion. Plus, links to four essays on Russia, Ukraine, and the global order.

Review

February 2022

Selected articles and essays, including Barbara H Rosenwein on the love and the stories that shape it; Blake Smith on René Girard and the secular apocalypse; and Elizabeth Breunig on the paradox that kids pose for liberalism.

Philosophy

Why cultivate a relationship with the sacred?

Something is drawing me to cultivate a relationship with the sacred – to cast off secular skepticism; to take an interest in the divine order of the world; and to rediscover how interfacing with that order shapes both the soul and the world as we see it. Why should I listen?

Review

January 2022

Selected articles, including Kat Rosenfeld on the death of intimacy; Ilana Redfield on our crisis of moral legitimacy; and Chad Pecknold on the city as an inherently religious structure that forms the souls of its citizens, for better or worse.

Review

December 2021

Selected articles, including Mary Harrington on the threats of bio-libertarianism; Liel Leibovitz on his process of political disillusionment; and Sam Kriss on various interpretations of an "unwellness" that was once called hysteria.

Review

November 2021

Selected articles, including Ilana Redstone and Paul Kingnorth on coercion, wisdom, and unintended consequences in the context of the vaccination conversation; Paul Bloom on parenting, struggle, and meaning; and Iain McGilchrist on the coming together of opposites.

Review

October 2021

Selected articles, including Jonathan Haidt on "collective monomania"; Justin P. McBrayer on diversity; and Sir Roger Scruton on declining and dying virtuously in a hyper-medicalized age.

Review

September 2021

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on the power of viewpoint diversity; Paul Kingsnorth on his religious journey; and Theodore Dalrymple from Autumn 2001 on the civilization we inherit, and our responsibility to steward it, especially in the darkest times.

Poetry

Countless

Numbers have captured me countless times: following their rhythm synchronizes the space between breaths; unfolding their patterns provides proof of nature's spiraling grace; even counting, simplest of all, lets children collect handfuls of vanishing stars in the endless night sky, placing each one in an inventory along with a few

Review

August 2021

Selected articles, including Connor Friedersdorf on a better slogan for criminal-justice reform; Sahil Handa on the life and writing of James Baldwin; and Matt Yglesias reminding us all to calm down.

Review

July 2021

Selected articles, including Jonathan Haidt on saving teenagers from smartphones; Katie Herzog on gender ideology in medical schools; and Glenn Loury making the case for black patriotism.

Review

June 2021

Selected articles, including Martin Gurri on the reactionary dilemma facing America's elites; Wilfred McClay on the urgent need to improve civic education; and Lenore Skenazy on integrating risk into parenthood.

Review

May 2021

Selected articles, including Matti Friedman on the complex forces within Jerusalem; Cameron Hilditch on CCP's efforts to revise the Bible; and Glenn Loury making the case for Black Patriotism.

Poetry

Despair

When the iron angel visits, cloaking you in her thick presence, do not tremble and do not forget that there are deeper realms where she cannot go: through the cavern beneath the base of the rib cage, where the darkness is more ancient than the starry midnights of younger, more

Review

April 2021

Selected articles, including Richard Hanania on why everything is liberal; Tyler Cowen on green jobs as an obstacle to green energy; and Bari Weiss curating a roundtable on systemic racism.

Poetry

Westerly winds

Westbound and head first into the unrelenting swell—a thunderclap crescendo refusing to release crashes over the plains, electrifying the frenetic dancing limbs of the cottonwoods, kicking up their fallen leaves for one final waltz, leaving no space for imagination—an invisible stampede flushing the cavernous west with bone dry

Philosophy

The trouble with microscopes

Three biology professors walk into a bar. The first says, "What a great day! My class was arguing about the nature of penicillin, so I put a slide under the microscope and answered everyone's questions." The second one says, "I had a great day, too! I was struggling to read

Review

March 2021

The Warped Vision of "Anti-Racism" [https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-warped-vision-of-anti-racism] Batya Ungar-Sargon in Persuasion > It’s difficult to stand against “social justice,” especially for those of us who are deeply concerned about inequality. We feel humility toward activists, writers and politicians who take up the language of racial justice,

Politics

Risk, growth, and political division

This post is a response to A Red/Blue Risk Divide [https://www.city-journal.org/pandemic-revealed-risk-divide-in-red-blue-states] by Allison Schrager [https://www.city-journal.org/contributor/allison-schrager_1488] in City Journal [https://www.city-journal.org/]. I encourage everyone to read the full piece, but here are some relevant excerpts: > Risk is fundamental

Review

February 2021

Welcome to February 2021 in review: links, excerpts, and clips of what I've been reading and listening to. Don't Forgive Student Loan Debt [https://www.persuasion.community/p/dont-cancel-student-debt] Zaid Jilani in Persuasion > Such debt relief would help underprivileged minorities, says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer... But this argument gets

Technology

Exploring a new idea: Bubble

After watching the much-lauded doucmentary, The Social Dilemma [https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/the-dilemma/], I was left feeling disappointed. As a social media curmudgeon, my hopes were high that our problems would be accurately diagnosed, but aside from a handul of good observations that had already been made by others [https:

Economics

Should the federal minimum wage be $15 per hour?

President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have voiced interest in raising the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15.00 per hour. Polling suggests that two-thirds of Americans are in favor, but economists are divided.1 Those in favor claim that Americans should "receive the pay and dignity

Philosophy

Why will the important thinkers of the future be religious ones?

This post is my response [https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/02/why-will-the-important-thinkers-of-the-future-be-religious-ones.html?commentID=160226739] to a post on Tyler Cowen's fantastic blog, Marginal Revolution [https://marginalrevolution.com/]: Why will the important thinkers of the future be religious ones? - Marginal REVOLUTIONTony O’Connor requests I cover this: A few