China: The Limits of Transactional Diplomacy

Nixon’s 1972 visit to China is widely remembered as one of the great diplomatic turning points of the 20th century....

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:22:52 +0000

Net Zero and the Farm

It starts with a letter in the mail. A dairy farmer opens it to find new requirements from their milk...

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:22:52 +0000

CBS Radio News Signs Off

With the radio positioned above the refrigerator, WCBS Newsradio 88 was the soundtrack of our kitchen.  For much of the...

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:22:51 +0000

The Quiet Architecture of Chinese Influence

In recent years, Americans have become increasingly conscious of the extent to which foreign governments cultivate influence inside the United...

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:19:53 +0000

I Thought of You While Reading This Novel

Reading aloud has become an act of punk rebellion. Something like listening to a recording of The Clash, flirting in...

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:19:52 +0000

Pope Leo XIV’s Fatherly Balancing Act

From the age of Nero and Diocletian to the days of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and even under the...

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:19:51 +0000

Tale First, Facts Later

All stories are not equal. But we all equally live in stories. Who we are we know by the story...

Sun, 17 May 2026 02:16:51 +0000

Would the Whiff of AI Have Panicked Harold Ross?

Writers are now being advised to misspell words, vary sentence lengths erratically, insert small grammatical imperfections, and even draft longhand...

Sat, 16 May 2026 03:07:52 +0000

The Spectacle Ep. 419: Conspiracy Watch: Is Hantavirus the NEXT Pandemic?

As if The Simpsons weren’t eerily predictive enough, from Trump’s descent down an escalator to the COVID-19 pandemic, things got...

Sat, 16 May 2026 03:07:51 +0000

While Washington Looks Elsewhere, Ukraine Finds Leverage

For much of Vladimir Putin’s genocidal war, the conventional wisdom was that Ukraine couldn’t possibly defeat mighty Russia. That wisdom...

Sat, 16 May 2026 03:04:53 +0000