The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday
Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 31, 2025
“The White Heart of God” by Jack Gilbert
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, January 28, 2025
The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend
How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths
By Janna Malamud Smith Friday, January 24, 2025
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Thursday, January 23, 2025
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine
“The Terrorist, He’s Watching” by Wislawa Szymborska
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Keepers of the Old Ways
Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025
Hunger Pangs
What it means to want in a world of plenty
By Karen J. Coates Monday, February 29, 2016
Lives of the Philosophers
The postwar thinkers who stripped the world of preconceptions
By Amanda Vaill Monday, February 29, 2016
At the Existentialist Café By Sarah Bakewell
Saving the Self in the Age of the Selfie
We must learn to humanize digital life as actively as we’ve digitized human life—here’s how
By James McWilliams Monday, February 29, 2016
Taking It to the Street
What it’s like to be down and out in America
By Jill Leovy Monday, February 29, 2016
Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an IdeaBy Mitchell Duneier / Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City By Matthew Desmond
All Fall Down
Tackling America’s aging infrastructure problem
By Henry Petroski Monday, February 29, 2016
All the World’s a Page
Crowdsourcing the Bard at the Folger Shakespeare Library
By Charlotte Salley Monday, February 29, 2016
The Pursuit of Middle Heaven
Missives about sex, love, and the value of really good talk
By George O’Brien Monday, February 29, 2016
Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934–1995 Edited by Avril Horner and Anne Rowe
I Will Love You in the Summertime
Between the rupture of life and the rapture of language lies a world of awe and witness