The Water Dipper

Meritocracy, the Wingfeather Saga, and Civility

“What if Local and Diverse Is Better Than Networked and Global?” Damien Cave profiles Helena Norberg-Hodge and her work with Local Futures for the New...

Creatures, Outsourcing Food, and Local News

“Is Self-Help Advice Doomed to Be Conservative?” Rebecca Onion interviews Pete Davis about his new book, and Pete articulates the goods that come with...

Avoiding Demagoguery, Quantification, and the Dire Hose

“How to Protect America From the Next Donald Trump.” While proposals to abolish the Electoral College are popular at the moment, Bryan Garsten recommends...

Conversion, Catan, and Vinyl

“Arcs of Life.” Matthew Loftus considers the claim that all suffering is bad and should be eliminated: “Yet taking this dictum and making it...

R. S. Thomas, Paul Kingsnorth, and Monsanto’s “Demise”

“Poetic Orthodoxy.” Peter Leithart writes about the faith and the conflicted attachment to Wales that animate R. S. Thomas’s poems. “Why ‘Monsanto’ is No More.”...

Gerald Russello, Lyceums, and the Common Good

“In Memoriam: Gerald Russello.” Susannah Black remembers the life of a fine man who, among other things, served as the editor of the University...

Groundhog Day, Apps, and Foie Gras

“America Needs a Miracle.” The first section of Andrew Sullivan’s musings, where he reflects on Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized and Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement,...

Local Food Systems, Good Stories, and Grassland 2.0

Many of the essays being published right now respond to the coronavirus, and while I’ll link to a few of these below, they all...

Old Tractors, Social Media, and Idolatry

“Once it Comes Time.” Michael Adno narrates the life and work of the photographer William Christenberry: “The thread of memory applied to all his...

Monsanto, Walking, and Hardware Stores

“Monsanto Ordered to Pay $289m as Jury Rules Weedkiller Cause of Man’s Cancer.” Sam Levin reports on the remarkable finding of a San Francisco...