RECOMMENDED READS
Inspired by the many who have curated knowledge for my benefit. My favorite reads from across the internet, magazines, and books.
August Recommendations
How Costco hacked the American shopping psyche
Ben Ryder Howe in The New York Times
More than 100 million people visit the retailer for their groceries — and gas and TVs and gold bars and pet coffins — but saving money may not be the only motive.
First Principles
Thomas E. Ricks
What America’s founders learned from the Greeks and Romans and how that shaped our country
The Trouble With Friends
Weike Wang in The New Yorker
The wonder, and curse, of friendship is choice
July Recommendations
China has become a scientific superpower
The Economist
From plant biology to superconductor physics the country is at the cutting edge
The exponential growth of solar power will change the world
The Economist
An energy-rich future is within reach
Debt: The First 5,000 Years
David Graeber
After a few month’s of devouring this in insightful chunks, I came away enthralled and with far more questions than answers.
June Recommendations
Glen Powell Is Absolutely Willing to Play the Hollywood Game
Brooks Barnes in The New York Times
In a town littered with would-be superstars, he’s trying to beat the odds by giving studios what they crave. It’s no coincidence he’s everywhere.
What will become of American civilization?
George Packer in The Atlantic
Conspiracism and hyper-partisanship in the nation’s fastest-growing city.
Keir Starmer: ‘People need hope, but it needs to be realistic hope’
Jim Pickard in the Financial Times
The UK’s would-be prime minister on resetting the Labour party — and his plan for rebuilding Britain
May Recommendations
Music vs Lyrics
Jemima Skala in
Dirt
Or is it a secret third thing? Jemima Skala leads a roundtable on an age-old question
The battlegrounds that could decide a US-China war over Taiwan
Kathrin Hille and Demetri Sevastopulo in
The Financial Times
Five key military contests are likely to determine the outcome of any potential conflict
The Three Body Porblem
Cixin Liu
Recommended for those who like “hard science fiction”, extra-terrestrial contact stories, and those fascinated by the Standard Model of Physics.
April Recommendations
Watch It Burn
Jessica Camille Aguirre in
The Atavist
Two scammers, a web of betrayal, and Europe’s fraud of the century.
The Foreign Language That Changed My Teenage Son’s Life
Paul Tough in
The New York Times Magazine
I worried about his ability to fit in. But then he fell in love with Russian — and on a trip to Central Asia, he flourished.
The Snowdrop: Lost in the Arctic
Paul Brown in
Singular Discoveries
“Captain or anyone who receives this message shall receive remains of the Dundee whaler Snowdrop, collided with an iceberg. No hope. 14th November, 1908. Sinking fast.”
March Recommendations
The Israeli Settlers Attacking Their Palestinian Neighbors
Shane Bauer in The New Yorker
With the world’s focus on Gaza, settlers have used wartime chaos as cover for violence and dispossession.
Toward a Leisure Ethic
Stuart Whatley in The Hedgehog Review
How people spend their time is a fundamental mark of civilization.
‘I’m sorry to have to announce that my cancer situation has developed not necessarily to my advantage’
Simon Boas in The Jersey Evening Post
Most of all, I have loved and been loved. I’m cocooned in the stuff; my cup overfloweth.
February Recommendations
The Super Bowl in Las Vegas: What Would Hunter S. Thompson Think?
Billy Witz in The New York Times
Thompson’s 1971 book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and a later article on the Super Bowl glimpsed much of what has become of these exemplars of American excess.
Dead Reckoning
Robert Kolker in The Atavist
Fourteen U.S. destroyers barreled down the California coast in a dense fog—until a wrong turn led to the largest peacetime disaster in American naval history.
What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet
Kathryn Shulz in The New Yorker
Disturbances on the sun may have the potential to devastate our power grid and communication systems. When the next big storm arrives, will we be prepared for it?
January Recommendations
The Case for Trump… By Someone Who Wants Him to Lose
Bret Stephens in The New York Times
Why does Trump hold so much appeal to so many? I thought this was one of the better attempts to understand.
Country Music’s Culture Wars and the Remaking of Nashville
Emily Nussbaum in The Atlantic
An important distillation of what makes the country scene so toxic today, despite the many talented musicians still making great country music.
Two Thousand Miles from Home
Lily Hide in The Atavist
As Russia invaded Ukraine, three women from the same family became pregnant at the same time. Then the war tore them apart.
December Recommendations
The Annotated Frederick Douglass
David W. Blight in The Atlantic
In 1866, the famous abolitionist laid out his vision for radically reshaping America in the pages of The Atlantic.
The Secret Life of the 500+ Cables That Run the Internet
Stephen Shankland for CNET
When you really learn how the internet works, it’s a miracle that it does.
Sunak discovers that politics isn’t like business
Janan Ganesh in The Financial Times
Janan Ganesh is one of the best writers and political commentators out there. This is my favorite article of his all year.
November Recommendations
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon Complex
Michael Schulman in The New Yorker
Ridley Scott thinks a lot of himself. So of course he would choose to cover Napoleon who surely felt the same.
20 years of tech has made life easier, not better.
Joan Westenberg
In talking about “technological mindfulness” Joan has captured something I’ve long been trying to reckon with.
Tom Hanks: “I was a pretty lucky guy” Emma Jacobs in The Financial Times
Tom Hanks for President?
October Recommendations
How NASA Brought an Asteroid to Earth
David W. Brown in The New Yorker
By sampling some of the oldest rock in the solar system, the osiris-rex mission could revise the story of the origin of life.
Homeland Economics: Special Report
Callum Williams in The Economist
Industrial Policy is en vogue. The Economist argues that is a big mistake.
First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by 21yo computer science student
scrollprize.org
An incredible application of AI to solve an ancient historical mystery.
September Recommendations
Ducks
By Kate Beaton
Powerful and painful reflections on economic insecurity, artistic aspirations, and sexual violence.
What Mitt Romney Saw in the Senate
McKay Coppins in The Atlantic
An insight into the modern Republican Party through the eyes of a former presidential candidate.
America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
The New YorkTimes
Incredible and urgent investigative reporting that illuminates the full scale of the water crisis in America.
August Recommendations
The Mixer
By Michael Cox
25 years of tactics, tinkering, and transformative football in the English Premier League.
How America Got Mean
David Brooks in The Atlantic
In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.
Interview w/ Christo Grozev
The Financial Times
The Russia investigator on exposing assassinations and Putin’s plots, looking over his shoulder — and using a cat to find a secret agent.
