Recent revelations from the “Twitter Files” in the United States and the “Lockdown Files” in the United Kingdom revealed a troubling relationship between prominent scientific institutions, the state, social media companies, and traditional media that shaped our COVID-19 response. The fallout on democratic institutions will have political and social consequences […]
A Guide to Better Conversations with Your Teenager
My teenage daughter and I have very different political viewpoints. Recently, while discussing difficult issues, I’ve realized that the more I try to change her mind, the more she digs in her heels. The harder I push my point of view, the more polarized we become. One day it […]
Not Religious? Might Want to Check on that Again
We are all children of modernity, which is to say, the intellectual and social movement that started in Europe some five centuries ago and placed mankind, with its capacity to think and make, at the center of the universe. This goes for even those calling themselves post-moderns, as they depend […]
Frankenstein Was the Foreshadowing
Two years before lockdowns, the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein, about which a wonderful movie was released on the author’s life and thought. At the same time, there was a book and an exhibit at the Morgan Library, and growing controversies about the personal and political ethos that a generation of […]
Speaking Up: The Struggle to Remain True
Here’s a poem I wrote in October of 2019, before the world became unrecognizable: She Opened Her Mouth and the Roof Fell In She opened her mouth and the roof fell in. The walls collapsed around her and the house she had built with the sweat of her […]