“Big Ag Has Corrupted Our Food System. Here’s How We Can Rebuild.” Sara June Jo-Sæbo talks with Austin Frerick about how to fix America’s broken food economy: “The first antitrust laws in the world come out of Iowa. It was Iowa farmers mad against the railroads and grain elevators. So they organized the Iowa legislative body to pass the first antitrust laws in the world. Then a few states copied it. And then eventually D.C. copied it as well. I love telling this story because it’s ingrained in me the notion that D.C. is always the last to know. Change in America always starts locally.”
“With Love from Minnesota.” Rachel Lu describes what it’s like when your home becomes a flash point in the culture wars: “Even without the smoke and shattered windows, these have certainly been Interesting Times, which naturally prompts reflection. It’s a very curious thing. I myself, throughout the month of January, was earnestly trying to grasp what was happening in my city, and finding it genuinely difficult. It seemed to me that local friends and neighbors were often in a similar place. But lo! The people who don’t live here seemed quite confident in their grasp of the situation. My more distant acquaintance found their footing rapidly, with the great majority lining up in predictable places, taking the stances one would expect. The public conversation was all too easy to follow. It was only events on the ground that were hard.” (Recommended by Aaron Weinacht.)
“My Childhood Friend, Renee Good.” In a similar vein, Jane Clark Scharl writes about the experience of seeing a childhood friend killed and then become a political talking point: “It is appalling to see how quickly human beings are willing to assume the worst about another human being. It is also appalling – and clarifying – to see how many people abandon their beliefs to follow partisan politics. I could go on about that, but what I’d like to do here is simply tell you about Renee, because I believe that the only remedy to what we’re facing right now as a nation is humanization, the restoration of the belief that every single human life is unique and valuable and worth protecting.”
“Why and How to Give Up Your Smartphone.” Phil Woodward explains his animating vision of a good life (one informed in part by time spent at the same Trappist Abbey I’ve stayed at) and the practical steps he’s taken with regard to digital technologies to pursue this life: “a vision of the good life started coming into focus for me. It goes like this: to live well is to offer loving attention and care to things that are worthy of it, such as: meaningful work, the wonders of nature, the beauty of good music and poetry and art, one’s intimate friends, the needy who come across your path, and above all the presence of God, who is the greatest good.”
“The Terminator as Non-Fiction.” Christian McNamara isn’t sure about the apocalyptic claims of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, but he finds it worth reading nonetheless: “as with the ‘deregulate or die’ narrative, the ‘ASI equals extinction’ scenario also requires caution. A storyline about the ability of AI to wipe out humanity is itself an endorsement of the technology’s potential. A technology powerful enough to kill us all would presumably also be capable of achieving Yudkowsky’s initial dream of fostering human immortality and interstellar travel.”
“From the Stacks: A Place on Earth.” I wrote a bit about the different published versions of Wendell Berry’s early novels: “The revised versions of both novels are aesthetically and imaginatively better than the originals. But some gems inevitably got cut in the process.”
“How to Build a Goddess.” Paul Kingsnorth describes the difficulties of learning about and reckoning with the strangeness of a saint like Brigid: “History is always a battlefield: control the past and you control the present. Those who tell the stories set the tone, as we can see all around us today. The people who are currently rewriting St Brigid’s story for the age of therapeutic individualism are only doing what they imagine the Christians did to their ‘triple goddess’ in the first place. And to be fair to them, Christians throughout history have hardly been shy when it comes to doing the same thing for their own purposes.”
“The Left Case for Great Books.” Daniel Walden cuts through the political battles over classical education and reading great books and offers a humane vision of education that stands athwart the disputes of the day: “Reading Freire’s introductory chapter a couple of years ago, I found myself surprised not only at how strongly his vision overlapped with those found in more conservative ‘classical ed’ materials, but also at how strongly they resembled the ethos of a ‘great books’ seminar. My own teaching has confirmed the resemblance. The great books have their own pedagogical tradition, one from which classical ed draws to greater or lesser degrees but which has a history and institutions distinct from those most commonly associated with classical ed. I’d like to make the case that a great-books model at the undergraduate level is, in fact, so consonant with Freire’s radical critique that it represents a far better path forward for a left-wing vision of education than virtually anything else currently on offer in the United States.”
“MAHA Cedes the Obesity War to Ozempic.” Garth Brown lays out the different options for the future of the American diet and holds out hope for radical change: “There are three possible futures for the food environment in America. First, things could continue much as they have for the past thirty years, with obesity and related illnesses being the norm and weight loss drugs being limited by regulations and cost. Second, the food system could remain largely unchanged, but GLP-1s could significantly reduce the harm it does. And third, a less hedonic food environment could bring about real improvement in the baseline level of health.”
“Stehekin River Emergency Restoration.” Stehekin is a town nestled within North Cascades National Park and only accessible by boat or plane. Severe flooding last year has cut off some residents from the rest of the community, and they are asking for a commonsense approach to restore the road: “We treasure Stehekin’s natural beauty, care deeply about clean water and responsible stewardship, and believe this community should continue to exist and thrive. The river is naturally dynamic, but years of inaction have allowed excess material to accumulate in the riverbed, raising water levels and contributing to the destructive flooding now threatening a huge portion of the community. The path forward is not a choice between a healthy river and a viable town—it is the restoration of balance between the two.”
