14 hours agoMember-onlyA Donation Supporting the Best Candidate Comes with This MerchYou’re not donating directly to the candidate, yet you support them — Today I want to talk about a financial transaction you can make to support the best political candidate. No, I don’t know who the best political candidate is. I may not even have an opinion on whom you should support, as I don’t know where you live nor when you’re…Cities5 min readCities5 min read
Published inBooks Are Our Superpower·5 days agoMember-onlyWhy Are We Here? Chaos Brought Us Together‘Fluke’ by Brian Klaas — Extreme or prolonged weather obviously affects us, but it’s trickier to accept that mild, temporary shifts in the weather can also change the course of our lives. A cloud moves, and a plane doesn’t take off or changes its flight path. It matters who is or isn’t on the plane…Self-awareness9 min readSelf-awareness9 min read
Nov 20Member-onlyRosalynn Carter: ‘The Best Part’ Ended. Then Came the White House.Highlights from her autobiography — Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady of the United States, died today at age 96. In her 1984 autobiography, First Lady from Plains, she recalled: “With Jimmy’s [1977] inaugural, we hoped to set a tone for an open, inclusive administration, one that would focus on all kinds of people…We planned a…Rosalynn Carter6 min readRosalynn Carter6 min read
Nov 18Member-only‘The Grift’ Started Long Before TrumpClay Cane‘s book on ‘Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump’ — Clay Cane has hosted a SiriusXM radio show since the first year of Trump’s presidency. His book The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump is available for preorder. It’s a thorough examination of a complex topic, connecting Black American…Trumpism8 min readTrumpism8 min read
Nov 18Member-onlyGilbert Highet on Censorship, 1954A collage of his words — An erasure/collage of “External Hindrances,” Part Two, Chapter Three of Man’s Unconquerable Mind (Columbia University Press, 1954) by Gilbert Highet (1906–1978). ‘Man’s Unconquerable Mind’: External Hindrances At first, I’m intrigued. Cave man painting a running stag? Standards of good and evil? Transmuted into living flames? I’m in. Then it gets a little weird. The author is just very intense and specific about whatever he’s talking…Censorship4 min readCensorship4 min read
Nov 12Member-onlyNew ‘New Atheist’ Cry: There Is No TransYes, Dawkins did fall down the transphobia rabbit hole. QED. — Richard Dawkins, a biologist famous for his book The Selfish Gene (1976) and for his later collaboration with the New Atheists, made a transphobic tweet in April 2021. Consequently, the American Humanist Association revoked an award it had given him 25 years earlier. One might imagine there were other reasons…Transgender11 min readTransgender11 min read
Nov 12Member-onlyRichard Dawkins Had Lawrence Krauss on His ShowWe are not ever going to hear a dialectic — I’ve been writing about Richard Dawkins’s podcast The Poetry of Reality, examining the development of its transphobic purpose. He Dismisses Trans-Inclusivity as a ‘Religion’ The next part I want to discuss is the 8-minute episode released October 10, 2023: “Does Woke Count As A Religion?” This is a slick video remake of his August 3 Substack…Transgender6 min readTransgender6 min read
Nov 12Member-onlyRichard Dawkins Is Stuck With a Transphobic PodcastIndulge transphobia long enough, and it becomes part of who you are — On June 26, 2023, Richard Dawkins posted the inaugural episode of The Poetry of Reality. Then he released an episode with Helen Joyce on July 29 (entirely devoted to being transphobic) and an episode with Peter Boghossian on August 5 (mostly devoted to being transphobic). Can he recover from it…Transgender9 min readTransgender9 min read
Nov 10Member-onlyRichard Dawkins Had Peter Boghossian on His ShowThey’re both involved with the University of Austin — On August 5, 2023, Peter Boghossian appeared for an hour-long conversation with his host, Richard Dawkins. The episode is called “‘Is Religion Inevitable?’ — Richard Dawkins Reveals All” and it’s on the Poetry of Reality…Transgender12 min readTransgender12 min read
Nov 10Member-onlyRichard Dawkins Had Helen Joyce on His ShowI like to stay informed about what they’re saying about trans people — In April 2021, prominent biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins made an offensive tweet for which he faced consequences. A lot of people recognized it as anti-transgender, while many others tried to defend Dawkins and paint his comment in some other light. At the time, I wrote a long article explaining…Transgender13 min readTransgender13 min read
