Current listening: my local symphony orchestra’s recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies.

'What man needs is silence & warmth; what he is given is an icy pandemonium.' ~Simone Weil
Reading
The Power Broker
Robert A. Caro
Two of the great moral philosophers of recent history are Bernard Williams and Alaisdair MacIntyre. This essay does an admirable job articulating the differences between the two thinkers—the former a pessimistic and skeptical classical liberal, the …
Joshua Cohen is the guest on this week’s episode of Bookworm, discussing his new novel, Moving Kings. It’s an incredible conversation about what sounds like a superb book—do check both out.
This post, on the rift between the White House & the State Department on Qatar, confirms that foreign policy is turning out to be the most terrifying part of a terrifying presidency.
Current listening: Sun Ra, Monorails and Satellites, vol. 1. Inspired by the remarkable NYT Magazine portrait of Craig Taborn published Sunday.
Current listening: Jobim’s Stone Flower, a melancholy masterpiece of the late Jobim.
Current listening: Max Richter, from Sleep. Beautiful music, composed about, and for, sleep.
Tyler Cowen’s interview with Jill Lepore is, like all his conversations, fascinating and wide-ranging.
This one is particularly recommended for its focus on writing, on the ways we understand and interpret history, and on time-travel.
Exciting news: Jeffrey Stout will give a series of Gifford Lectures this May 1-11. Entitled “Religion Unbound: Ideals and Powers from Cicero to King,” the lectures will “trace the ideal [of ethical religion]‘s history and …
I’m very proud to have helped edit one of the essays that became this book, Reaping Something New: African American Transformations of Victorian Literature, while I was managing editor of Victorian Studies. The essay, “Wild Charges: The …