False Profits

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"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, given how urgent the cause is.

Politics

Risk, growth, and political division

This post is a response to A Red/Blue Risk Divide by Allison Schrager in City Journal. I encourage everyone to read the full piece, but here are some relevant excerpts: Risk is fundamental to growth, but everyone has a different tolerance for downside risk and a different willingness to

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 DebtZaid Jilani in Persuasion Such debt relief would help underprivileged minorities, says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer... But this argument gets it exactly backward. Large-scale student-debt cancellation would

Technology

Exploring a new idea: Bubble

After watching the much-lauded doucmentary, The Social 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, they completely missed the mark. The

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 to a post on Tyler Cowen's fantastic blog, Marginal Revolution: Why will the important thinkers of the future be religious ones? - Marginal REVOLUTIONTony O’Connor requests I cover this: A few times you have said that the important thinkers of the future will be

Philosophy

Does God exist?

The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymous BoschIHundreds of years ago in the Western world the question, "Does God exist?" would have been met with pity and confusion; today, the question, "Does the world exist?" would be met with precisely the same kind of pity and confusion, meant to express a

Poetry

New moon

My eyes opened on an Autumn morning, drawn to a deep loss: the fading impression left by a familiar figure slipping out of reach. He drifted down the hallway of the house, which was no longer mine, always facing away, disappearing before I could ask why he was leaving, where

Economics

Why are federal student loans a problem?

In the 1960s, in an attempt to make college more accessible, the government started guaranteeing student loans. Predictably, this fueled demand and incentivized institutions of higher learning to charge higher tuition, even for degrees with questionable track records for placement in high-paying jobs. Over the same time period, a cultural