SPOTLIGHT

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025

Works in Progress

Separating Viral Truths and Lies

Nudging people to be more skeptical on social media

COVID-19: A Primer

Coronavirus as Crisis

We are not at war, America. There will be no victories or defeats.

Smarty Pants Podcast

What Zombie Movies Can Teach Us About Viruses

Dissecting how outbreak narratives infected our worldview

Viral Days

The Shot Heard ’Round the World …

(Except in one townhouse in central New Jersey)

Asturias Days

Sharpen Your Razor

With the virus wreaking havoc in Italy, neighboring Spain prepares for the worst

Read Me a Poem

“Poetry, a Natural Thing” by Robert Duncan

Poems read aloud, beautifully

COVID-19: A Primer

State of Vulnerability

Social distancing is important, but there’s more to consider

Smarty Pants Podcast

How Global Agriculture Grew a Pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis was preventable—if only we’d listened to the epidemiologists sounding the alarm

Next Line, Please

Above the River of Your Longing

Two new prompts

Asturias Days

Casa Gorín

Read Me a Poem

“The Purse-Seine” by Robinson Jeffers

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Book Reviews

Island Royalty

A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary

Article

The Writer in the Family

The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero

Asturias Days

Birthday Boy

Read Me a Poem

“The Horses” by Ted Hughes

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Amy Wetsch

Life, magnified

Article

The Weight of a Stone

Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology

NEWSLETTER

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Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)
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Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)
Book Reviews

Divided Providence

Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War

Article

The Fair Fields
loading

Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil

Poetry

The Art of Tuning In

Celebrating 20 years of poetry in the Scholar

Commonplace Book

Winter 2025