03/07/2023: Getting off your Phone is just the first step
Thank you to The Dispatch for the link to this article by Rhiannon Williams in MIT Review:
“The problem isn’t necessarily the amount of time you’re spending scrolling on the phone as much as what you’re looking at.” The piece touches on something I wrote about in this piece for The Atlantic, which is about how to develop a system for replacing the automatic go-to device scrolling that can take over our lives. I got there by essentially working through a process similar to the one that Williams describes in this article.
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11/03/2023: Ray Bradbury punk rock graduation.
Ray Bradbury was so poor growing up that in order to dress up for his graduation he had to wear his uncle’s suit. His uncle had died recently. The suite was the one he wore when he died. His uncle was shot. The suit still had the bullet hole in it. I learned that from […]
06/07/2023: Presidential Restraint
Matt Yglesias has a piece in the New York Times under the headline: “It’s Great to Have a President Who Knows When to Shut Up.” My favorite topic: presidential restraint. I spent a lot of time on the topic in my book, and why it’s necessary for the job. (Chapter 23: Restraint). There is no greater […]
04/29/2023: The Magic of Music
My cocktail chatter from the recent Gabfest: My chatter is on the magical properties of music. To me, musicians are the closest we have to actual Wizards. They can conjure a feeling and then make another human soul have that feeling or launch another feeling. Writing does this too, of course, but it’s rare when […]
04/22/2023: Long Tail Interviews on Prime Time
We cover the latest on Prime Time every day, but we also conduct a number of interviews that last beyond the move to fish wrap(*). Here are some interviews from the first four days of this week: 1. Why the fighting in Sudan matters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ffhTXOsAQ 2. Evan Gershkovich’s friend explains his condition in a Russian […]