Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
The Brazilian playbook for defending democracy
Brazil’s former president was sentenced to 27 years in prison late last year for plotting a coup. The details may sound familiar: Jair Bolsonaro lost an election. He claimed it was stolen from him and rallied supporters to storm the nation’s capital, Brasilia. The insurrection even took place in early January (2023). However, the parallels […]
America After Trump
American democracy is not in a good place. Institutional breakdown and mistrust define our political moment. Polarization has broken our politics, and President Donald Trump has elevated fealty to him — as opposed to the Constitution — as the core principle of governance. And the American story is part of a global story. If the […]
The Trump threat looming over late-night TV, briefly explained
This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is mucking about with late-night TV again. What happened? On Monday night, comedian Stephen Colbert, who hosts CBS’s late-night talk show The […]
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a million times edgier than Emerald Fennell’s
You come into a movie based on Wuthering Heights with certain expectations. Emerald Fennell has been clear that she considers her “Wuthering Heights” — pointed quote marks and all — to be a fantasia, not a straight adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. “It could only ever be an attempt to take a tiny piece […]
What American democracy can learn from 1930s Finland
In the 1930s, a radical conservative faction almost pushed Finland into full authoritarianism. Called the Lapua movement, it was a far-right group of Finns who sought to overthrow the republic, marginalize communists, and install an authoritarian government. They managed to disrupt Finland’s political order through threats of violence and symbolic kidnappings, in which they would […]