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The Power of American Originals February 26, 2025
“In the US, voters just loosed a genuine bull into the china shop of the ruling class.”Karl Zinsmeister, 2025BACKBONE: Maverick Essays in Middle America: Why American Populism Should be Welcomed, Not Feared is a collection of short essays about Ameri...
Labor Unions, Roman History, and Community February 26, 2025
Though the concept of organized labor may seem distinctively modern, what we today might call a workers’ strike has precedent in the early Roman Republic according to historian Sarah Bond in her insightful new history of the Roman world through labor...
The Loneliness of the Conservative Pronatalist February 25, 2025
A vocal group of conservative intellectuals really, really wants Americans to have more babies. The movement is small, but it doesn’t lack for high-profile adherents. Vice President J. D. Vance, a father of three, recently proclaimed, “Very simply, I...
Making the Arts Great Again February 24, 2025
The nation’s arts community is suddenly aflutter with apprehension, doubt, and some mild public protests over President Donald Trump’s recent decision to overhaul the leadership of Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In...
The USCCB Should Reject Federal Funds February 17, 2025
On Monday, Pope Francis sent a letter to the bishops of the United States. Criticizing the Trump administration’s plan to deport illegal immigrants, he wrote: “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is . . . love that builds a fraternity open to ...
Why Voice Notes Are a Small Act of Love February 13, 2025
Somewhere in the blur of 2020, as I slipped outside with a mask and running shoes in the early morning to walk around the block, the lilting drawl of a friend’s “hiiiiii” nearly stopped me in my tracks. It was the first voice note I remember clicking...
‘Severance’ Gets the Internet February 13, 2025
In Episode 3 of this season of Severance, Mark and his sister, Devon, have an idea. They need to ask Mark’s innie a question, but Lumon’s famous code detectors make this impossible. Nothing with any letters or symbols on it can pass through the eleva...
Writer's Diary February 10, 2025
It's harder to communicate now that people don’t read. One way to look at books is as shorthand—summarizing vast swaths of human experience. Reading a great book is like memorizing all the moves of chess grandmasters, like memorizing Fischer versus B...
All Talk February 06, 2025
One night in October 1952, an electrician named Frank Walsh crept down the stairs of his Long Island home, drew his gun, and blasted a hole in his family’s television. His wife and kids had been watching with the volume too high, keeping him awake, a...
Stop Blaming Misinformation for Cynicism and Mistrust February 03, 2025
Meta is ending fact-checking and removing restrictions on speech across Facebook and Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, its CEO, recently announced, calling the move an attempt to restore free expression on its platforms. Fact-checkers will be replaced with...
