Happy Fucking Birthday
An exhausted America turns two hundred and fifty by Christopher Hooks
Republican Machines
Can the GOP save the humanities? by Ann Manov
American Ephemera
A primer on a free people’s government by William T. Vollmann
Tag Archives: Essays
THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE – JUNE 13, 2026 PREVIEW
The World Cup paradox
How the rules of both entertainment and soft power are being rewritten
Donald Trump’s least bad option in Iran
He must swallow his pride and accept a deal worse than the pre-war status quo
The Federal Reserve must soon give Donald Trump bad news
Kevin Warsh, the unlucky new chairman, has seen his case for lower interest rates disintegrate
For its own sake, China should change its growth model
It is suffering economic costs for its industrial dominance
THE YALE REVIEW JOURNAL – SUMMER 2026 PREVIEW
THE YALE REVIEW (March 11, 2025): The latest issue features a central folio, “What Was AI?,” exploring artificial intelligence through essays from Lauren Oyler, Christopher Sorrentino, and Melanie Mitchell. The issue also includes new memoirs and essays from Annie Ernaux and Namwali Serpell, alongside a visual portfolio by Vera Molnár.
Jagged Intelligence
The dangerous unknowns at the heart of LLMs by Melanie Mitchell
Reading the Declaration of Independence as Holy Text
How the American creed emerged—and evolved—over 250 years by Kathryn Lofton
Is the Twenty-First Century a Creative Void?
Critics mourn a bygone cultural era. But nostalgia for the new isn’t new by Audrey Wollen
The Birthday Party No One Wants
Why Americans aren’t celebrating the semiquincentennial by Samuel Moyn
I am back in writing hell. As if each time I start writing, I have to go through the same hell again. Annie Ernaux Unpublished journal entries
IMPACT MAGAZINE ———- SPRING 2026 PREVIEW
Pacific Research Institute: The latest issue features America’s 250th anniversary through profiles of historical figures like Benjamin Rush and R.C. Hoiles, while advocating for free-market healthcare and criticizing California’s policy landscape. The issue further highlights American culture through the influence of Sarah Josepha Hale and provides critical analyses of state leadership and economic policies.
PRI, in celebration of America’s 250th birthday, has produced a series of videos and supplemental lesson plans for teachers highlighting the achievements of some of this country’s, and California’s, in particular, greatest unsung heroes. Three of my favorites have been compiled in the pages that follow. The first profiles one of my heroes, Benjamin Rush, a physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Another features R.C. Hoiles, a free-market newspaper publisher whose son-in-law Dick Wallace served on the PRI board until his recent passing. Hoiles, a great defender of liberty, built a large group of newspapers around the country including the popular Orange County Register.
And we also honor Sarah Josepha Hale, a poet, author, and visionary force in American culture. She championed Thanksgiving until it became a national tradition and holiday. Through her magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, she helped to shape American tastes from beloved recipes to the white wedding dress.
THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE – JUNE 6, 2026 PREVIEW
THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘The rise of Gen-Z socialism‘….
How to fight back against Gen-Z socialism
The me-first doctrine is a threat to prosperity
India’s surprise baby bust is a warning to the world
It is not just rich places that are becoming less fertile
Europe needs Ukraine’s help just as badly as the other way round
The EU should start drafting a full accession treaty now
America’s decaying Treasury market needs a fix
High debt, disjointed markets and pugnacious trade policy all threaten the world’s safe asset
How to make football more exciting
The World Cup is wonderful. It could be even better
SKEPTIC MAGAZINE —– SUMMER 2026 PREVIEW
SKEPTIC MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘The Conspiracy Grift’
Skepticism and the Attention Economy
We founded Skeptic magazine and the Skeptics Society in 1992, partially in response to a market demand from consumers and the media for a scientific and rational response to increasingly tantalizing claims of the paranormal and supernatural, ESP and Psi, telepathy and telekinesis, NDEs and OBEs, ghosts and poltergeists, astrology and psychics, cryptozoology and strange creatures, haunted houses and mysterious places, UFOs and aliens, conspiracy theories and cults, and a litany of anomalous psychological experiences people reported.
Anti-Woke, or Just Wounded? A Typology of Two Types of Anti-Woke Intellectuals
I’m a humanistic weirdo, and as such I’m not sure where I belong in this modern culture war. I love truth and reason — I’ve built a career on them — but I belong to a humanistic tradition that refuses to stop at the head and leave the heart out of it. And these days there aren’t many of us. So when I look at the people we’ve come to call “anti-woke intellectuals”—many of whom have written for Skeptic or appeared as guests on The Michael Shermer Show podcast—I don’t see them the way either side wants me to.
Christian Nationalists, Christian Dominionists, and Women’s Rights
Dissent Magazine —- Summer 2026 Preview
DISSENT MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘America At 250’
Call It the End
Introducing our Summer 2026 issue on America at 250. Patrick Iber
The American Revolution in Global Retreat
More so than at any point in the last century, U.S. independence now seems like a parochial affair. Aziz Rana
Rot and Reform
An interview with David Bateman and Julie C. Suk on the state of American democracy in 2026. Patrick Iber, David Bateman and Julie C. Suk
New Declarations
By invoking the American Revolution, twentieth-century anticolonial figures connected their project with the movement for civil rights in the United States. Adom Getachew
FREE INQUIRY JOURNAL – JUNE/JULY 2026 PREVIEW
Medieval Christendom? Are They Serious?
Would we be better off living in the Middle Ages? Astonishingly, influential voices on the American intellectual Right now seem to think so. Rather than affirming the Enlightenment ideals that inspired this country’s founding—reason, rights, markets, liberal democracy, and church–state separation—they are longing for, of all things, rule from the throne and altar. Last October …
The ‘Wall of Separation’ Needs a Good Patch Job!
On the 200th anniversary of his death on July 4, 1826, and the 250th anniversary of his Declaration of Independence, we need Thomas Jefferson now more than ever. We especially need his progressive views on the severance of church from state by a “wall of separation.” We in the United States live in troubling times …
Secular Approaches to Moral Education: Building Character without Commandments
The question confronting American educators today is not whether we should teach ethics to children—virtually everyone agrees that moral education is essential. The question is how we should teach ethics in an increasingly diverse society where traditional religious approaches no longer work for everyone. I believe we need to fundamentally rethink our approach to moral …
HARPER’S MAGAZINE ——— JUNE 2026 PREVIEW
HARPER’S MAGAZINE: The latest issue features a memoir from a Quebec garbageman; Katie Thornton on the undying dream of Esperanto; Wyatt Williams on weather modification; Andrew Cockburn on the data-center divide; Kevin Lozano on Bernie Goetz; and a story from Kevin Brazil.
The Conscience of the City
On the life of the garbageman by Simon Paré-Poupart
Love Language
[Letter from the Czech Republic]
The undying dream of Esperanto by Katie Thornton
Hard Rain
The battle over weather modification by Wyatt Williams
THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE – JUNE 2026 PREVIEW
THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE: The latest issue features The men who don’t want women to vote, a venture-capital populist, Karl Lagerfeld’s feline heir, and new fiction by Stephen King. Plus the Indianapolis Clowns, how to win on Jeopardy, Lee Friedlander, heartland rock, Denyce Graves, Elizabeth Strout, alien conspiracy theories, the U.S. centennial, and more.
The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet
A virulent form of misogyny has become the single most important force holding together the American right. By Helen Lewis
The Richest Cat in the World
Did Karl Lagerfeld really leave millions to his blue-cream Birman, Choupette? By Chris Heath
The Venture-Capital Populist
How David Sacks and the new tech right went full MAGA and captured Washington By George Packer
Boomers Daily 