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Language has allowed us to be bound together by codes of law; to move easily between past and present and future; to fathom the deepest mysteries of the universe. But while scholars were busy defending our speciesâ superiority, biologists were uncovering mysteries of animal communication that shot down one âspecialâ human capacity after another.
Having retired and returned to civilian life, what did Bo Gritz try to teach or communicate to us? Unlike, say, John McCain, he never modeled reconciliation with former enemies. He did not go to Vietnam after 1995 with veteran groups for humanitarian purposes. He did not preach against violence, or for peacefulness, responsibility, or inclusion. Mostly, he seemed interested in anti-social things: radical individualism, extreme autonomy, distrust of people, and the assumption of his own power, by violence if necessary.
Recognition is complex, often mixed with merit, institutional needs, and fair randomness. If I produce something of value and receive no âgold medal,â I am no longer discouraged by not getting any recognition. I know the work I have done. I know the growth I have experienced.
Certain narratives travel more easily. Certain aesthetics are more readily absorbed into festival circuits that reward particular kinds of storytelling. The slow, observational film that gestures toward universality. The politically charged narrative that renders its context legible to an external audience. These are not the only films being made, but they are often the ones that circulate most visibly beyond their point of origin.
I have always loved my library. I have kept it with me, growing with me, since adolescence, through marriages and divorces, through changes in occupation from student to steelworker, from truck driver to college professor, and moved it from San Diego to Chicago, to Los Angeles, to Cincinnati, and finally to New York City.
The Cardinals under Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog (nicknamed the White Rat) were the daredevils of St. Louis in the 1980s, our biggest disappointments and our greatest heroes. St. Louisans lived and died for the guys who wore the birds on the bat. And this era was named for the style that the Cardinals brought to the game, Whiteyball.
Life after prison often felt like one step forward, four back. In the desert years, what made Carole Aldenâs life meaningful was trying to make conditions better for her animals. While the world struggled with wars, political, economic, and social chaos, she was grateful for qualified solitude.
At Trenton and Independence Hall, Lincoln wondered at the willingness of our patriotic ancestors to imperil their lives for a nation that did not yet and perhaps would never exist.
British Formula One driver Lewis Hamiltonâs move to Scuderia Ferrari signals a second act, a new opportunity to emerge victorious not only on the track but also to continue pushing the limits of what is possible beyond it.
The real world is filled with transformative âsecond chanceâ storiesâtrue tales of people who at some point in their lives answer the summons of a new path.
More than ten thousand species are now critically endangered. Humans have clear-cut forests, paved grassland, overharvested, overfished, and overhunted. Much of the existing ground is being strangled by honeysuckle, kudzu, vetch, cheatgrass, and various exotics. Can we get a second chance?
The âhatchet manâ for President Nixon, and a chief architect of both Nixonâs âdirty tricksâ and the team of âPlumbersâ who schemed to smear, libel, drug, and, in at least one case, even assassinate the presidentâs vast list of âenemies,â lived not just to endure the stain of a criminal conviction and seven months in federal prison, but seemingly transcend it. Watergate historians, however, are not so kind.
If you have ever cared for an addict, you know the desperate feeling of no easy solutions. Science has no inoculation or cure, so treatment is a combination of lengthy and often expensive behavioral and pharmacologic therapies that still depend on âthe individualâs desire to change,â as LAM puts it.
He seemed almost happy. Maybe because the river, the night, and the freedom felt good to him. He played one of his favorite songs, âMy Girlâ by the Motown group The Temptations, music from his youth before he went to prison.
Published less than a year after her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 election, 107 Days is an extraordinary feat in its turnaround time. However, in its haste to hit the shelves, there may not be enough distance in former Vice President Kamala Harrisâs assessment of her campaign to truly offer the clear vision of hindsight.
Kostya Kennedyâs Pete Rose is a tour de force display of journalism, top-flight writing, and excellent research. It is rich in biographical details, yet it is not meant to be a biography in the typical sense, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave account of a life. The book is more of an exploration of Pete Rose as a celebrity athlete, his rise, his fall, and how he has managed both, or how managing his failures hinges entirely on how well he can throw around the weight of his accomplishments.
Heritage is collective, aesthetic, and performative. It is something you inherit. Whereas history, on the other hand, is authored, linear, personal. It is something you produce. Museums often allow Africans the former but not the latter. Our art is heritage; European art is history. Our works are culture; theirs are achievements.
In a museum, we often try to understand what a painting means and where it is coming from, placing ourselves at the center of the experience. This sculpture removed me completely. I was forced to look outward instead of inward, as if I were seeing a world that existed without me.
Critical perspectives on the books, culture, and ideas that shape our world
I ask chatbots for recipes and gardening advice. Bash Ahmed, a brilliant friend who works in IT, has long exploratory discussions about politics, culture, and finance. When he commentedâafter the presidentâs message to âOpen the fuckinâ strait, you crazy bastardsâPraise be to Allahââthat we were living in Dr. Strangelove, Claude…
Unpacking the ideas behind today’s most compelling works
âA Dream Deferredâ is a thoughtful book, especially for those who lived through and remember Jesse Jacksonâs presidential runs. Abby Phillip gives us Jackson warts and all, the maddening egotism and opportunism, and the rumors of infidelity. Informed, highly readable, and even exciting at times as she recounts the thrills of the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. ï»ż
You might say, as the youngsters do, that Fetterman did his party âa solidâ simply by winning, especially as that seemed not so assured during the campaign. The problems Fetterman encountered during his Senate campaign are mostly what âUnfetteredâ is about.
âPhasers on Stun!â may not make future efforts at assembling a franchise-spanning overview of Star Trek obsolete, but Brittâs comprehensive approach makes such labor redundant, at least for now. He analyzes, anatomizes, celebrates, and criticizes every extant Trek television series and film in sometimes granular detail, making âPhasers on Stun!,â despite its sloganeering subtitle, too accomplished to ignore.
A look back at the ideas that shaped previous editions
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Insights into the cultural shifts and societal changes shaping our time
The impulse is to think that someone who makes plans for something else also helps bring it about. That fantasy does not seem to be doing us much good as a body politic, but the idea has taken root everywhere, including at Department of State.
A solid old brick house on Clayton Road with a sign outside: Living Insights Center. A meeting place, maybe, some kind of recovery program? I step inside. In the first room to the right, a lifesize statue of St. Therese of Lisieux gazes at an illuminated Qurâan, a silver menorah,…
Introduced to a chatbot, people soon pour out doubts and questions they would not dare reveal to another human being. Why not?
I am not losing my faith. I am wondering where that religion truly is. Is this really the place where God Himself enters into physical form in our midst?
Essays on science, technology, and the natural world
I ask chatbots for recipes and gardening advice. Bash Ahmed, a brilliant friend who works in IT, has long exploratory discussions about politics, culture, and finance. When he commentedâafter the presidentâs message to âOpen the fuckinâ strait, you crazy bastardsâPraise be to Allahââthat we were living in Dr. Strangelove, Claude…
Insights on creativity and the creative process
I found the book in a box in a storage locker just as I was writing a recent piece about a murderer. The amazing thing, the admirable thing, is that William Steig channeled his deep feeling into art over a very long life. The murder stayed in his dreams.
Stories of the people and places that shape our world
You know how in family obituaries they sometimes single someone out as a âspecial aunt,â or âspecial cousinâ or âspecial nephewâ? I had that kind of special relationship with a dog one time, a dog I dogsat down to her very last day. It is this feeling of wanting to remember Nala dog that has me telling dog tales today.
I could imagine generations of soccer players moving into this apartment with a coffeemaker, a fondue pot, a meat thermometer, what have you, then moving out and leaving it all behind. Since the landlord never inspected the place, there was no need for anyone to ever leave with anything that they did not want to take with them.Â
Having retired and returned to civilian life, what did Bo Gritz try to teach or communicate to us? Unlike, say, John McCain, he never modeled reconciliation with former enemies. He did not go to Vietnam after 1995 with veteran groups for humanitarian purposes. He did not preach against violence, or for peacefulness, responsibility, or inclusion. Mostly, he seemed interested in anti-social things: radical individualism, extreme autonomy, distrust of people, and the assumption of his own power, by violence if necessary.
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