The Editors
Articles by The Editors
We Should All Stop Talking About Harvard So Much
It is not because I bear Harvard any ill will that I wish we could all just shut up about it already. Rather, I am concerned that our national obsession…
In Defense of Nature Writing
Perhaps this, above all, is the work of nature writing: to bring the wild and the domestic together and to reveal the mystery at the heart of both. That Springer’s…
Principles Over Power: Lessons from Bush and Nixon
If there is to be the equivalent of a Reagan following President Biden, he or she will face a more difficult task than the one leaders faced in 1980. Reagan…
Who Loves Academic Discourse? A Review of Rita Felski’s Hooked
Attunement, attachment, engagement, and identification are all absolutely necessary for properly considering artworks of all kinds. However, I struggle to identify the application of Felski's argument. Perhaps it is because,…
Forest Rebel Cinema
With this love and materiality, these two films express the pure reality to which their protagonists are so devoted. In a world of frictionless unreality, endless abstractions, and tepid and…
The Irony of a Wendell Berry NFT
While some are admittedly pleasing, NFTs will not be the great decentralizing force many of us long for. Instead, their rapid profusion creates speculative bubbles and too often rewards unvirtuous…
A Good Party: A Review of Breaking Ground
A Good Party, Tara Isabella Burton suggests, is “a place where bonds of friendship, fostered in a spirit of both charity and joy, serve as the building blocks for communal…
Fr Harrison Ayre & The Sacramental Worldview
Father Harrison Ayre is one of the co-hosts of the podcast Clerically Speaking. I definitely recommend it as it is a favorite of mine. Father Harrion’s new book is Mysterion:…
Motherhood as Sacrament: A Review of Maya Sinha’s The City Mother
Sinha’s writing should appeal to multiple audiences, from those disillusioned with modern urbanity to young mothers to thoughtful people concerned with the persistent presence of evil in our times. The…
From Endoscopy to Colonoscopy: One Man’s Strange and Confounding Journey Through American Health Care
Beneath these critiques of the American medical system and the biological mysteries of the human body throbs a more existential question: How does one deal with suffering? These are some…
Ross Douthat’s Landscape of Suffering
Douthat continues to discover remedies for his condition, but his experience has produced a book in which the natural world confronts us with suffering’s source and signifies the possibility of…
The Stories We Share
Douthat is, I think, proposing a conversation. As a low-level functionary in the medical-industrial complex, I would like to take him up on that offer. There may be much to…
On to Ottawa Redux: Notes from Canada’s “Freedom” Convoy
The Revolutionary Spirit promises—especially to the disaffected in extreme situations—a false hope in burning the status quo to the ground. It promises a new world order. It promises a reset.…
500 Acres and a Castle
By acquiring sufficient acreage, typically a minimum of 500 acres, ideas can be given the isolation they need to have a chance at succeeding, unmolested by the outside forces of…
When Foot Voting is Necessary: A Review of Free to Move
It would be nice if Somin would see migration (national and international) as a remedy for intolerable situations, a lesser evil, not a desirable thing in itself. Those who aren’t…
A Farmer Who Walks the Talk
Human stories, centered around human persons in pursuit of wisdom, are the roots from which communities grow. We can be sure, by the sweat on the brows of each person…
Substitution and Exchange
If such substitution and exchange were genuinely possible, would we agree with Lewis that no gift was more gladly given? Would we too readily assume we could bear another’s burden…
Swan Songs With Réginald-Jérôme de Mans
This episode’s guest is the author of the new book Swan Songs: Souvenirs of Paris Elegance. He writes under the pseudonym of Reginald-Jerome de Mans. In the book, he chronicles…
Ishiguro’s New Novel Contemplates the Relationship between Humans, Machines, and the Natural World
Sterling, KS. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s eighth novel, Klara and the Sun (2021), the humans believe in science. The titular character, however, believes in the Sun. Klara is a solar-powered robot whose…
Intellectual Grounding: A Conversation with Wes Jackson
It’s hard to escape from beauty if you’re ready to observe the biotic activity and geologic history of the world. Beauty is essential, and I’m saying that, even with the…
Pretend It’s a Book
Fran Liebowitz suggests that “a book isn’t supposed to be a mirror, it’s supposed to be a door.” Universities are the same. They are not meant to simply reflect the…
Finding Common Ground on Climate: A Review of Saving Us
In the balance, Hayhoe’s book makes a positive contribution to the climate conversation. The book encourages dialogue rather than hectoring. In that sense, though the targeted topic is climate change,…
Opting Out of the Outrage Machine: A Review of Bad News
My least-favorite bumper sticker of all time reads, "If you're not outraged you're not paying attention." As a remedy for this sort of dopamine-fueled attitude, the author suggests that we…
Scenes of Arrival, Stories of Home
Here are three novels about three places in the world. Each conveys not just a perfunctory setting but a web of topography, livelihoods, pastimes, and lore. And in each the…
