Scatological Politics
The gut is a place of confusion. And yet, it remains our best guide....
Dispatches
We Doth Protest—Not Enough
Hey, was that a police car honking in support? Mmm. Probably not.
I Hate Nazis. Why Does Facebook Want Me to See Them So Badly?
Facebook’s algorithms, which drive what any of us see individually, are a mystery to most of us. At best they make us passive consumers; at worst, easy pupils to brain-train for nefarious ends.
The Universal, Demarcating Power of The Scream
By drawing a line between its disturbed central figure and the serenity of the two bystanders at the vanishing point of the painting’s perspective, The Scream asks us to question the “sanity” we pretend to hold on to.
Prejudice Is Natural
But why is race the dividing line?
Music Not Missiles: Memories of a Reluctant Cold Warrior
The guys in Gaza must be nearing 60 like my bandmates and I. I wonder if they stayed in our country after they were free to return to theirs without booking a steady gig in a gulag. I wonder what they make of Vladimir Putin having an ally in the White House or a short-timer like Pete Hegseth having oversight of the mightiest military on Earth.
Oksana Maksymchuk and the War in Ukraine
Oksana Maksymchuk explained that she started writing ‘Still City’ in Ukraine, “maybe half a year before the actual invasion in the summer of 2021…and the Russian troops were amassing on the border, and we were assured that there would be nothing happening, but it seemed very threatening. I thought, ‘I’m going to write it as a kind of narrative about a non-event,’ something that I was sure would not take place.”
Accelerationists? Goethe Warned Us
Past a certain speed, you only create chaos.
Our Current Saga of Eggs
For the resourceful and the resilient, there will always be something else to eat for breakfast. Still, how interesting would it be if we let the high price of eggs direct our thoughts and actions beyond the simple matter of cost?
Gut Reactions
To research Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, MS, anxiety, and depression, you have to start in the digestive tract, not in the brain.