On Tuesday of this past week, a Russian missile struck a crowded pizzeria in the city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine. One of those killed was an award-winning writer, Victoria Amelina. Here is an auto-biographical piece she wrote, “Expanding the Boundaries of […]
Summertime in the city
I love Talia Levin’s writing (even when she over-writes it a little). Here’s some graphs from her How to Survive Midsummer in New York originally published in The Village Voice in 2018. I’ve never spent a summer in New York […]
Welcome to Pottersville
Back at the dawn of this century, writer Gary Kamiya penned one of the most arresting meditations on America I know. It was hard to tell just how tongue-in-cheek “All hail Pottersville!” was. The setting of George Bailey’s nightmare vision […]
Reflections on A.I. in the wake of David Brooks’s comments last week
“A.I. is 100 times more important” than any other subject we’re talking about today, says David Brooks in last week’s PBS interview. I came in thinking that A.I. was, like, it’s kind of important, and then maybe it’s as big as […]
A moving meditation from Megan McArdle on the loss of her mother
However old they are when they pass, your parents pass too soon. For you, at least. You are, and always have been, their child, and a child is born to and cared for by these folk who are always somewhere in […]
Revisiting the Cuban Missile Crisis
“What’s important,” Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev reflected in October 1962, “is not to cry for the dead or to avenge them, but to save those who might die if the conflict continues.” That so many didn’t die, then, was the result of Khrushchev’s, […]
A Cut to the Flesh
Without the surgical incision of sarcasm, we might not have America!
REVIEW: Religious War and Religious Peace
What if religion is not responsible for religious wars?
Unhealthy by Design?
The very notion of “the common good” may be downright un-American
Post-Dobbs America: Federalism Revived, Transformed
How useful are historical analogies in our new political era?
Executioner’s Lament
Choosing life for the wild creatures we encounter—when possibleÂ
FORUM: The End of Roe, Day One
A time to listen
Avoid War
History—especially modern history—underscores the limits of force
Unhealthy by Design?
The very notion of “the common good” may be downright un-American
Look Up—and Look Out!
Adam McKay’s new film isn’t about our era. It’s about us.
On the Outs in Afghanistan
Our recent history’s rhyming patterns are not exactly poetic
Leaving Afghanistan
The trail in and out seems all too familiar
Juneteenth: What Lies Beneath?
This holiday requires a new twist: hard questions about our past