Mar 20Member-onlyWe All Need to Read Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor”I read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s book, The Brothers Karamazov, on a dare. I struggled with the characters, the religious dialogue, and the sheer weight of 354,00 words written nearly 150 years ago. But buried within the novel’s daunting expanse are 8,000 words of brain-searing gravity. …Religion7 min readReligion7 min read
Feb 19Member-onlyWhy Have We Forgotten Willa Cather?Her observational skills are more important now than ever — I have nothing against Dr. Seuss. Indeed, I admire his cleverness and wit. But is he truly worthy of being America’s most popular author, ahead of Shakespeare, Poe, Twain, Orwell, and Dickens? So says YouGov.com, based on the results of its favorite authors survey in 2022: The most popular all-time writers in America | Entertainment | YouGov Ratings The most popular all-time writers in America according to YouGov Ratings. Popularity is based on millions of responses…today.yougov.comLiterature5 min readLiterature5 min read
Jan 8Member-onlyHow to Enjoy Knowing What You Don’t Know15 discoveries to fire up your curiosity — Some professions, such as science, engineering, and the creative arts, praise and prize curiosity. It’s easy to understand why. Curiosity unlocks the imagination and unleashes that particularly human power to see and pursue originality. When curiosity is downplayed, under-nourished, feared, or condemned as dangerous, we all suffer. Cultural vibrance wanes…Science5 min readScience5 min read
Dec 16, 2022Member-onlyWhere Western Civilization Took a Wrong TurnPutting God in the sky and hell underground has worsened our climate mess — We owe a lot to the ancient Greeks. From art and politics to mathematics and architecture, there is little in Western culture that does not carry at least a trace of their fingerprints. …Ancient History5 min readAncient History5 min read
Nov 14, 2022Member-onlyRandomania: Four Quirky Questions as the World ReelsCovid quarantines can focus the mind on both the trivial and the telling. Call it randomania, a state of mind that prompts questions of every sort. Why, for example, do humans have 10 toes and 10 fingers? Why not 12 or 7? What’s the reason for male pattern baldness? Why…Culture6 min readCulture6 min read
Sep 18, 2022Member-onlyWhy San Francisco’s Ocean Beach is a Picture-Perfect Eye on NatureAll beaches captivate, but they do so for different reasons and in different ways. Some seduce with the color of sand. Others are notable for their scimitar-like shapes or surging waves that swallow whole coastlines at high tide. Still others serve as historical witnesses to both hope and death. San…Oceans3 min readOceans3 min read
Sep 8, 2022Member-onlyHow America’s Far Right Nazifies Language — and What to Do about ItToday’s far-right nationalists and their political allies sure do know their modern European history. They’ve successfully shut off millions from the real world with their extreme contempt for facts. They’ve created an alternate world of false and salacious conspiracies. They’ve persuaded their followers to believe that everything is possible and…Culture9 min readCulture9 min read
Jul 14, 2022Member-onlyHow to Find — and Savor — San Francisco’s Animist TrailI must begin with a confession. There is no official animist trail in San Francisco. But in running throughout the city over the last 30 years, I’ve informally mapped my favorite soul-stirring stopovers. To be clear, I’m not speaking of religious shrines like those to St. Francis. Nor am I…Religion8 min readReligion8 min read
Jun 9, 2022Member-onlyWhat Skeptics Should Know about Organized ReligionIt’s enough to make the pious pant and the devout doubt. As widely reported in the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2020 Census of American Religion, religious faith is in retreat across the US. Nearly 23 percent of Americans are now religiously unaffiliated. Of those, five percent identify with non-Christian religions…Religion6 min readReligion6 min read
Apr 28, 2022Member-onlyHow to Consume Your Daily Gloom with a Grain of Salt and a Dash of DiogenesMy fellow doom scrollers, let us begin by acknowledging our addiction to the end of days. Barely an hour goes by without yet another blog, essay, or opinion piece describing in impressive and incisive detail why our environment, our culture, our form of government, our freedom, our planet — if…Climate Change4 min readClimate Change4 min read
