Uneasy Riders & The Noblest of Things

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Uneasy riders

The Globe and Mail • 1 Oct 2024 • ~8950 words • Archive Link

I normally do not include U.S. election stories here, and while this is technically one, it’s also so much more than that. In this journey by Ian Brown through America’s swing states, a bus serves as both a literal and metaphorical vehicle for exploring the country's deep political divides. The author captures candid conversations with a diverse group of travelers, revealing their hopes, fears, and beliefs about the upcoming election. It’s a fascinating snapshot of the complexities that shape American identity today.

The story is also beautifully photographed. I recommend taking a look at “Eyes on the road,” the companion piece to the story, a Q&A between the author and the photographer Barbara Davidson.

I am always eager to get off the bus after a long haul, to get away from so much sadness and unslakable rootlessness. But I am always eager to get on again the next day, because once you dare to break the ice, everyone wants to talk, to tell the stories of their lives that few people ever ask to hear. It’s a generous impulse, even humbling. The people I rode with on the bus reminded me that, whatever happens, I can never say I have not been lucky.

The Noblest of Things

The Threepenny Review • 22 Sep 2024 • ~2750 words

David Fowley reflects on the bittersweet relationship with a colony of bees that brought both sweetness and lessons about cooperation and sacrifice. As he navigates the challenges of beekeeping, he shares poignant moments that reveal the delicate balance between nurturing these creatures and the inevitability of their fate.

I imagine each bee knows, somehow, that its time on earth is short. Maybe it is the honor of those ancestors who did likewise, and the hope of the descendants that will follow, that motivates the individual bee to persevere until she drops lifeless from the air into the meadow, laden with nectar which she will never deliver.

Recommended Articles

Why a Minnesota Man Walked Around the World, Traversing 13 Countries and 14,450 Miles in Four Years

Smithsonian Magazine • 4 Oct 2024 • ~3250 words

In a remarkable journey that spanned over four years and 14,450 miles, David Kunst set out from his hometown in Minnesota to walk around the world alongside his brother John. This piece explores the brothers' motivations, the challenges they faced, and the lasting impact of their historic journey, including the tragic events that occurred in Afghanistan.

Nearly 50 years ago, on October 5, 1974, one of the Kunst brothers made history, crossing into Waseca, Minnesota, more than 4 years, 13 countries and 14,450 miles after he’d first walked out of the town.

Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?

Aeon • 4 Oct 2024 • ~3250 words

This piece explores the history of cocaine, from its initial discovery as a medical wonder to its transformation into a dangerous and stigmatized recreational drug. It examines how cocaine's perception shifted over time, from being seen as a technological triumph to becoming associated with addiction and social prejudices. The article delves into the cultural and ideological meanings that became attached to the drug and how these perceptions evolved as cocaine spread through society.

Over the decades, cocaine had transitioned from a wonder of the newly technological and industrial Victorian age to a frightening and corrupting source of addiction. The story of cocaine illustrates not only how much our perceptions of specific drugs can shift over time but how readily drugs can capture and condense our emotions. Cocaine was always a drug peculiarly surrounded by fantasies: hopes, fears, optimism and anxiety. Describing its history reveals the degree to which our fantasies and fears about drugs shape, and are shaped by, our fantasies about their users.

Age of Invention: The Coal Conquest

Age of Invention • 4 Oct 2024 • ~9200 words

Anton Howes explores the historical transition from wood to coal as the primary fuel source in Britain during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It challenges the commonly held belief that this shift was driven by deforestation and instead argues that the arrival of cheap and abundant coal was the primary driver behind the decline of Britain's woodlands. The article delves into the complex relationships between the rise of coal, the transformation of Britain's landscape, and the impact on various industries that had previously relied on wood as a fuel source.

It’s no wonder that people at the time complained of a wood shortage and frequently noted how wood’s prices were on the rise. After all, wherever coal replaced it first as a fuel for people’s homes, and then in blacksmithing, brewing, glass-making, iron-making, and more, what little woodland was left was only kept around for a dwindling number of well-paying industries and for the recreation of the rich. Such a diminished supply was going to be far too expensive for ordinary people with much smaller budgets for fuelling their homes. Yet although prices of wood rose, this was the inevitable consequence, not the cause, of coal’s rise.

Tunisia: When obsolete anti-imperialism kills democracy

The Ideas Letter • 3 Oct 2024 • ~3250 words

This piece examines how a segment of Tunisian intellectuals and activists, driven by an obsolete form of anti-imperialism, have turned a blind eye to the authoritarian turn of President Kais Saied and the erosion of democracy in Tunisia. It explores how this nativist and xenophobic version of anti-imperialism has been used to justify Saied's crackdown on political opposition, civil society, and democratic institutions. The article also raises questions about the underlying factors that enabled this anti-democratic narrative to gain such prominence in the post-2011 political landscape.

It has often been asked how a country once seen as the poster child of democratization in the Arab world sunk into such an abyss of authoritarianism. A question that has attracted less interest is: why and how so many of the intellectuals and civil society activists on the left, who had been so intransigent with Ennahda’s democratic attitude, have been so willfully blind to the dangers of Kais Saied?

AMLO’s Surrender

Phenomenal World • 3 Oct 2024 • ~3450 words

Camilo Ruiz Tassinari provides an in-depth analysis of the political and economic landscape in Mexico under the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his party Morena. It examines AMLO's efforts to transform Mexico's political system, the challenges he faced in confronting the country's powerful elites and military, and the consequences of his compromises on issues like tax reform and public services. The article raises questions about the limits of AMLO's progressive agenda and the broader implications for Mexico's democracy.

To understand the government’s apparent shortcomings, we ought to situate its efforts in relation to three central features of Mexico’s political economy: the state, the elite, and the military. In its loyalty to the first, Morena ultimately yielded to the latter two.

Michael Jordan, Anti-Monopolist

BIG by Matt Stoller • 3 Oct 2024 • ~2100 words

I really like reading Matt Stoller’s “BIG” where he covers issues around monopolies. In this piece, he discusses how basketball legend Michael Jordan has filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, alleging that the organization engages in monopolistic practices that harm racing teams, drivers, sponsors, and fans. It explores how this lawsuit relates to the broader "antitrust revolution" happening in the U.S., and whether the recent successes in antitrust cases against tech giants like Google could pave the way for similar challenges against other industries like NASCAR.

For almost two decades, we didn’t have many real cases on monopolization, and so lawyers could easily discourage private suits by suggesting they would be expensive losers. Antitrust is outdated, the courts will strike it all down, antitrust is a dead letter, et al. But after Google was declared a monopolist, the floodgates started to open. Monopolization is once again illegal. And it’s become clear that judges, contrary to conventional wisdom, are quite open to antitrust suits.

How North Korea Infiltrated the Crypto Industry

coindesk.com • 2 Oct 2024 • ~4250 words

This investigation from Coindesk reveals how North Korean IT workers have managed to infiltrate the crypto industry, often without the knowledge of the companies hiring them. These workers, using fake identities and impressive resumes, have not only landed jobs at major blockchain projects but have also been linked to security breaches and hacks.

Rust would soon learn that "Ryuhei" and four other employees – more than a third of his entire team – were North Korean. Unwittingly, Rust had fallen prey to a coordinated scheme by North Korea to secure remote overseas jobs for its people and funnel the earnings back to Pyongyang.

The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms

Vox • 1 Oct 2024 • ~4050 words • Archive Link

This article examines how the rise of private equity firms in the emergency medical care industry has led to a decline in the quality of care and a surge in patient costs. It explores the various tactics used by private equity firms to maximize profits, the impact on physician morale and patient outcomes, as well as steps patients can take to protect themselves when seeking emergency care in this new landscape. The article also questions the broader dysfunction within the U.S. healthcare system that has enabled private equity to thrive in this sector.

“What they were buying was the ability to charge patients who were consuming a non-shoppable service,” Adelman says — one for which patients are unable to compare prices. If you’re having a heart attack, you’re not going to call around to hospitals to find out who is going to give you the best deal.

The Italian Art of Violence

The Criterion Collection • 20 Sep 2024 • ~2250 words

Dive into the world of giallo films, where lavish visuals meet unflinching violence. This piece from Criterion explores how Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace laid the groundwork for a genre that not only thrilled audiences but also reflected the social and political upheaval of the time period in Italy.

This air of paranoia and conspiracy would intensify in unison with Italian cultural and political conflicts. The giallo boom of the early 1970s coincided with the onset of the Years of Lead, a roughly two-decade period of political violence marked by explosive battles between right- and left-wing factions, including kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations. Director Lucio Fulci, who helmed some of the most confrontational gialli, claimed that “violence is Italian art,” but throughout the seventies, violence was also a condition of daily life in Italy.