News, Notes, & Podcasts

Chase Steely visits Elder’s Bookstore in Nashville and muses on the literary and cultural traditions born in that city.

We’re listening to songs about crying this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and there are so many of them that I’m only playing artists I’ve never played on…

Charles McNamara wrestles with how we might regain the virtues needed for real education.

Inspired by absolutely nothing in my personal life, we’re listening to break-up songs this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs. I’ll try not to make it too depressing! Send…

In a searing essay, Alvaro M. Bedoya, a former FTC commissioner, describes how he came to embrace populism.

In conjunction with the most recent issue of Local Culture and with FPR’s fall conference, we’re listening to songs about work on this week’s Symposium of Popular Songs.

Charlotte Alden profiles the fascinating school that the brilliant Donald Antenen has started in his hometown.

While I was talking with one Texan who was at her first FPR conference, she told me, "I think I've found my people."

My guest is my friend Andrea Kirk Assaf, whom I have known for, well, a few decades now. She is the author most recently of 365 Lessons From the Stoics…

Bars, saloons, taverns, whoopie spots—we talk about them all this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and I get to give one of my hackneyed theories about Cheers, too.…

Amber Lapp goes to Oliver Anthony’s Rural Revival and explores the conditions for genuine, constructive populism.

We’re listening to music about music on this week’s Symposium of Popular Songs. I’ve got fewer literary readings for you than usual, but more personal stories, including my all-time favorite…