News, Notes, & Podcasts

For a while, the episode risked becoming an episode on unreliable narrators—but really we’re talking about obsession, a subject I suspect we all know something about. Send your song suggestions…

Shawn Regan describes the manifold benefits the Great Salt Lake provides and the cross-partisan effort to replenish it.

We’re approaching the ocean from fourteen different directions on this week’s A Symposium of Popular Songs, featuring, for whatever reason, some very long songs (as well as a few short…

Peter Mommsen articulates the real good that small magazines can accomplish.

We’re listening to songs about kissing this week. This is one of the perpetual themes of pop music, so I’m going to try to play only artists whom I’ve never…

Adam Gustine articulates the value of an ordinary life doing ordinary work in an ordinary place.

No readings this week—just fifteen songs about landlines, and some musing on why there aren’t any great songs about cell phones. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

Roosevelt Montás articulates the effects reading has on individuals and societies.

We start with some songs about faithful women this week before moving on to some more abstract examinations of constancy. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

James Rebanks warns of the fragility of a food system that prioritizes efficiency above all else.

It’s songs about salvation this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs—and not nearly as much Christian rock as I was afraid I’d play! Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com.

Nate Halverson has a level-headed and disturbing report on the use of glyphosate to manage US forests.