Category: MUSIC

For the New Era

VOLUME I
Mansion on a Hill (live) :: Bruce Springsteen
The Way It Was :: Mark Snow
A Change Is Gonna Come :: Sam Cooke
I Know :: Fiona Apple
Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor :: Frederic Chopin
Stillness of Heart :: Lenny Kravitz
Ceremony :: Tom Vedvik
Cruisin’ :: Huey Lewis and the News with Gwyneth Paltrow
Cherry Blossoms :: Dominic Lewis
Over My Head :: Fleetwood Mac
Death Letter :: Cassandra Wilson
Don’t Be Cruel :: Billy Swan
I Shall Be Released :: Nina Simone
You Are My Sunshine :: Alan O’Bryant
Melissa (live) :: The Allman Brothers Band
Southern Cross :: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Body and Soul :: Coleman Hawkins
New San Antonio Rose :: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
I’ll Fly Away :: Gillian Welch & Alison Krauss
Stolen Car :: Bruce Springsteen

VOLUME II
Don’t Fence Me In :: Darla Hawn
Los Tiempos Van Cambiando :: Franky Perez
In My Room :: Jakob Dylan & Fiona Apple
The Old Ship of Zion :: The Roberta Martin Singers
Tom Traubert’s Blues (live) :: Rod Stewart
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor :: Ludwig van Beethoven
Hands of Time :: Groove Armada
Spinning :: Zero 7
Holding Back the Years (jazz version) :: Simply Red
Mandolin Rain :: Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Angel Band :: Molly Mason & Russ Barenburg
There’s a River :: Steve Winwood
Dos Gardenias :: Ibrahim Ferrer
Will the Circle Be Unbroken :: June Carter Cash
Running on Faith (Unplugged) :: Eric Clapton
Always On My Mind :: Willie Nelson
Oliver :: Richard Marvin
Preludes, Opus 28-#17 in AB Major :: Frederic Chopin & Roy Eaton
Forbidden Love :: Madonna
Angel :: Rod Stewart

VOLUME III
You Go To My Head :: Billie Holiday
So Was Red :: Thomas Newman
Have You Ever Seen the Rain :: Willie Nelson & Paula Nelson
Serenata de Amor :: Jaime R. Echavarria
Little Wing :: Sting
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E Flat Major II :: Ludwig van Beethoven & Helene Grimaud
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is :: Irma Thomas
Take Me :: Mable John
Goodbye :: Emmylou Harris
Protection :: Massive Attack
I’d Rather Go Blind :: Chicken Shack with Christine McVie
Watermark :: Enya
Save the Last Dance for Me :: The Drifters
Wichita Lineman :: Glen Campbell
Heart of the Heartland :: Peter Ostroushko
Radiation Ruling the Nation :: Massive Attack
River :: Leon Bridges
Sleepwalk :: Santo & Johnny
Balderrama :: Mercedes Sosa
Heaven :: Simply Red

VOLUME IV
Ruler of My Heart :: Irma Thomas (check out a sultrier version here.)
Live to Tell :: Madonna
Farewell Daddy Blues :: Margot Bingham & David Mansfield
I Cover the Waterfront :: John Lee Hooker (for Crosetti)
I Only Have Eyes for You :: The Flamingos
Pretty Ballerina :: The Left Banke
Silencio :: Ibrahim Ferrer & Omara Portuondo
Teardrop :: Massive Attack
Happy :: Bruce Springsteen
And I Love Her :: The Beatles
One More Night :: Phil Collins
La Ultima Copa :: Felipe Rodriguez
Tell It Like It Is :: Aaron Neville
Nearer My God to Thee :: I Salonisti
Danny’s Song :: Neko Case
I’d Rather Go Blind :: Rod Stewart
Straight From the Heart :: Irma Thomas
Sundown :: Gordon Lightfoot
Take a Bow :: Madonna
Songbird :: Fleetwood Mac

VOLUME V
One Step Up :: Bruce Springsteen
That’s All Right :: Mighty Joe Young
These Dreams :: Heart
There Is Something on Your Mind :: Big Jay McNeely
I’m on Fire :: Bruce Springsteen
Morning Has Broken :: Cat Stevens
I’d Rather Go Blind :: Etta James
Linger :: The Cranberries
Suds on the Roof :: Thomas Newman
Time After Time :: Cyndi Lauper
Air :: Johann Sebastian Bach, Cuba Percussion & Klazz Brothers
Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More :: The Allman Brothers Band
The Space Between :: Zero 7
La Sitiera :: Omara Portuondo
Please Come Home for Christmas :: The Eagles
Something (live) :: Norah Jones
These Ain’t Raindrops :: James Carr
Doin’ Time :: Lana Del Rey
Stardust :: Django Reinhardt
Holding Back the Years :: Simply Red

VOLUME VI
Carry Me :: Chris DeBurgh
Don’t Dream It’s Over :: Crowded House
Dream A Little Dream of Me :: The Mamas & The Papas
Can’t Find My Way Way Home :: Blind Faith
Don’t :: Zoe Kravitz
Everywhen :: Massive Attack
It’s Raining :: Irma Thomas
Come Live with Me :: Stacey Kent & The Vile Bodies
Give Me One Reason :: Tracy Chapman
That’s How Strong My Love Is :: Otis Redding
I Shall Believe :: Sheryl Crow
Why Try to Change Me Now :: Fiona Apple
Playground Love :: Air
Nisi Dominus :: Antonio Vivaldi & Andreas Scholl
The Single Petal of a Rose :: Duke Ellington
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys :: Willie Nelson
Gotta Get Away :: Harry Krapsho
Into the Mystic :: Van Morrison
Carefree Highway :: Gordon Lightfoot
Little Bird :: Annie Lennox

Click here to listen to this playlist on Spotify or scan the QR code below.

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

This week: A new history of Robert McNamara / 40 TV shows to watch / The wisdom of a human stain remover / Protest music survives Iran’s theocracy / More women choose to go makeup free / The Booker Prize shortlist unveiled

Most of these items come from my social media networks. Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here and about me here.

1. The War Hawk Who Wasn’t
By Philip Taubman and William Taubman | The Atlantic | September 2025
“Newly discovered documents reveal Robert McNamara’s private doubts about Vietnam.”

2. So You Want a Civil War? Let’s Pause to Remember What One Looks Like.
By David Blight | The New Republic | September 2025
“[Sept. 17] marks the 163rd anniversary of Antietam. Those who say they’re ready for civil war should stop and think about what happened there.”

3. 40 Shows to Watch This Fall
By Mike Hale | The New York Times | September 2025
“A Ken Burns documentary on the birth of the American Republic, the end of ‘Stranger Things,’ a new series from Sterlin Harjo and much more.”

4. After Martha
By Paul Laity | The London Review of Books | September 2025
“It​ was immediately clear when Martha, my 13-year-old daughter, died of septic shock that serious errors had been made.”

5. The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job
By Tom Lamont | The Guardian | September 2025
“From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen it – and cleaned it – all. In their stickiest hours, people rely on him to restore order”

6. The Trump Administration Is Quietly Curbing the Flow of Disaster Dollars
By Jennifer DeCesaro and Sarah Labowitz | Emissary :: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | September 2025
“The current administration is deploying three different strategies to slow-walk the flow of disaster dollars to state and local governments: stalling disbursements, delaying FEMA’s emergency response function, and suspending mitigation funding.”

7. Birding by ear: How to learn the songs of nature’s symphony with some simple techniques
By Chris Lituma | The Conversation | September 2025
“A simple way to start bird-watching is to buy a feeder, a pair of binoculars and a field guide, and begin watching birds from your window. However, one of the most rewarding ways to identify birds is to listen to them and learn to recognize their songs.”

8. The world needs peasants
By Maryam Aslany | Aeon | September 2025
“Far from being a relic of the past, peasants are vital to feeding the world. They need to be supported, not marginalized.”

9. Dr. Strangelove: The Darkest Room
By David Bromwich | The Criterion Collection | June 2016
“Human beings for Kubrick possess something of the quality of mobile dolls or mannequins. … Human actions, in his view, are governed by determinations beyond our grasp.”

10. Protest music thrives in Iran, three years after young woman’s death sparked grassroots uprising
By Joy Hackel | The World :: PRI | September 2025
“The death of Mahsa Amini — a young Kurdish Iranian woman who was arrested and beaten in police custody — sparked widespread protests across Iran in September 2022. Protest songs became a powerful unifying force for the movement.”

11. New evidence proves North Sea asteroid impact
BBC News | September 2025
“Scientists have found proof that an asteroid hit the North Sea more than 43 million years ago causing a huge tsunami and leaving a 1.9 mile (3km) wide crater under the seabed.”

12. RFK Jr’s war on vaccines is about shaming women, not helping kids
By Amanda Marcotte | Salon | September 2025
“The MAHA movement regards all childhood ailments as a sign that moms are failing.”

13. Pamela Anderson leads the way for women who choose to go makeup free
By Leanne Italie | Associated Press | September 2025
“It’s a look, especially for older women, that serves to plague and perplex. Do we chase youth (and relevancy) with a full face, or do we foster radiant skin and march on makeup free?”

14. From looms to laptops, Afghan women lose lifeline in Taliban internet ban
By Mohammad Yunus Yawar | Reuters | September 2025
“Local government officials confirmed a ban on fibre-optic services in five northern provinces — Balkh, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Takhar and Baghlan. Officials said the ban is to prevent ‘immoral activities.’ Residents in other provinces, including Kandahar, Herat and Parwan have reported disruptions, though these have not been formally acknowledged by authorities.”

15. Introducing the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist!
The Booker Prizes | September 2025
“Find out which six books are in the running for the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction.”

16. A look inside the AI strategies at ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The Washington Post’
By Joshua Benton | Nieman Lab | September 2025
“Digiday held the most recent edition of its Digiday Publishing Summit in Miami last week, and it’s been rolling out highlights from many of the sessions.”

17. New Black Hole Measurements Show More Ways Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein Were Right
By Clara Moskowitz | Scientific American | September 2025
“Spacetime ripples from a black hole collision across the cosmos have confirmed weird aspects of black hole physics”

18. Scott Glenn on Gene Hackman, Saving Coppola’s Life and Still Having ‘Gas Left in the Tank’
By Scott Roxborough | The Hollywood Reporter | September 2025
“The character actor’s character actor plays a rare leading role in ‘Eugene the Machine,’ which is opening the 2025 Oldenburg Film Festival.”

19. Lincoln As Commander in Chief
By James M. McPherson | American Heritage | Summer 2025
“Even though he had no military training, Lincoln quickly rose to become one of America’s most talented commanders.”

20. Roman Slavery
By Melvyn Bragg | In Our Time :: BBC 4 | 2015-2018
Also see: Saturn | Josephus | Frederick the Great | Frida Kahlo

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

This week: The resilience of U.S. democracy / Preparing for death out of a love for life / The magic of kokedama / Amanda Shires builds her post-divorce life / ‘Platoon’ was Charlie Sheen’s Vietnam

Most of these items come from my social media networks. Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here and about me here.

1. Six Ways to Start Early and Lift Your Mood
By Arthur C. Brooks | The Atlantic | September 2025
“Try my protocol for a happy start to the day and see what works for your own well-being.”

2. Transform your houseplants into art with this Japanese gardening technique
By Jessica Damiano | Associated Press | September 2025
“The Japanese method of growing plants in a living planter made of a moss-covered ball of soil, is a simple, DIY project that elevates common houseplants into works of art. They make great gifts, too.”

3. Amanda Shires Tells Her Side of the Story After Divorce From Jason Isbell: ‘I’m Not Scared’
By Natalie Weiner | Texas Monthly | September 2025
“The Lubbock-raised singer-songwriter-fiddler’s new album, Nobody’s Girl, is a raw and revealing look at falling out of love and finding resilience.”

4. I Tested How Well AI Tools Work for Journalism
By Hilke Schellmann | Columbia Journalism Review | August 2025
“Some tools were sufficient for summarizing meetings. For research, the results were a disaster.”

5. American Democracy Might Be Stronger Than Donald Trump
By Jonathan Schlefer | Politico Magazine | September 2025
“Yes, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But the country has a few attributes that make it more resilient than you might think.”

6. We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself
By Stephen Greenblatt | The New York Times | September 2025
“We are currently governed by a leader indifferent to scientific consensus if it contradicts his political or economic interests, hostile to immigrants and intent on crippling the research universities that embody our collective hope for the future. The menace now is within. And with very few exceptions, the leaders of American universities have done little more than duck and cover.”

7. ‘I love life:’ The man who has scheduled his death so he can enjoy living
By Amandas Ong | Al Jazeera | September 2025
“Despite Alzheimer’s, Alex Pandolfo leads a full life. But when his health declines, he plans to have an assisted death.”

8. Historian Jill Lepore explores the Constitution and its interpretations in ‘We the People’
By Geoff Bennett | PBS News Hour | September 2025
“Originalism is often countered by the idea that the Constitution is a living, breathing document meant to be interpreted and changed along with the times.”

9. What If the Next Democratic President Governs Like Trump?
By Matt Ford | The New Republic | September 2025
“Between a permissive Supreme Court and his own governing innovations, the president has greatly expanded executive power. Liberals, take note.”

10. Cats and Dogs in History
By Christopher Rose, Joan Neuberger and Henry Wiencek | 15 Minute History :: UT Department of History | 2014-2020
Also see: Indian Ocean Trade and European Dominance | Indian Ocean Trade from its Origins to the Eve of Imperialism | Ukraine and Russia | Urban Slavery in the Antebellum United States

11. Charlie Sheen’s Lifestyle Couldn’t Kill Him. ‘Platoon’ Nearly Did.
By Charlie Sheen | The Hollywood Reporter | September 2025
“In 1986, well before the sex scandals, the crack and the tiger blood, the 20-year-old actor embarked on the most intense shoot of his career. In an excerpt from his explosive new memoir, Sheen reveals how Oliver Stone’s epic Vietnam War film changed him forever.”

12. Theaters bet big on massive screens, booming sound and recliners to lure movie fans
By Harshita Mary Varghese and Dawn Chmielewski | Reuters | September 2025
“Auditoriums with enhanced visual and video formats, such as IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and ScreenX, account for a record 14.9% of all tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada this year, up from 9.8% in 2019, according to data from research firm Comscore exclusively compiled for Reuters.”

13. Orchid Fever
By Susan Orlean | The New Yorker | January 1995
“How seductive are orchids? Connoisseurs spare nothing for a rare bloom — the issue in a battle between Florida, the Seminoles, and a man with a passion.”

14. The South’s Inner Civil War
By Eric Foner | American Heritage | Summer 2025
“The more fiercely the Confederacy fought for its independence, the more bitterly divided it became. To fully understand the vast changes which the war unleashed on the country, you must first understand the plight of the Southerners who didn’t want secession.”

15. 6 More Things E.R. Doctors Wish You’d Avoid
By Jancee Dunn | Well :: The New York Times | September 2025
“Stay out of the emergency room with these tips.”

16. Strawberries in Winter
By Adrienne LaFrance | The Atlantic | September 2025
“Most Americans do not want civil war. Anyone who is declaring it should stop.”

17. Why your nose could be the perfect window into your mental state
By Gillian Forrester | New Scientist | September 2025
“Diagnosing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression can be difficult, but it turns out that your nose could help doctors understand when you are feeling the strain.”

18. ‘We wanted to make it real:’ How ‘Goodfellas’ reinvented the gangster film
By Myles Burke | BBC Culture | September 2025
“Martin Scorsese’s crime epic was released 35 years ago. In 1990, the director and his stars, Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta, revealed its secrets to the BBC.”

19. Laughing in Hell: How We Tell the Stories of Other Peoples’ Suicides
By Sarah Adler | LitHub | September 2025
“I was drawn to memoirs about suicide even before Rebecca’s death, probably because when someone you love travels often against the thin curtain between life and death, these stories can feel like windows.”

20. Echolocation
By Melvyn Bragg | In Our Time :: BBC 4 | 2016-2018
Also see: Animal Farm | Agrippina the Younger | The Sikh Empire | The Gettysburg Address

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: Gayle King’s R Kelly interview / Mental illness as an evolutionary trait / The world built for men / Are you feeling love or lust? / The reign of komodo dragons

    This week: Gayle King’s R Kelly interview / Mental illness as an evolutionary trait / The world built for men / Are you feeling love or lust? / The reign of komodo dragons

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. The AI-Art Gold Rush Is Here
    By Ian Bogost | The Atlantic | March 2019
    “An artificial-intelligence “artist” got a solo show at a Chelsea gallery. Will it reinvent art, or destroy it?”

    2. Susceptibility to Mental Illness May Have Helped Humans Adapt over the Millennia
    By Dana G. Smith | Scientific American | March 2019
    “Psychiatrist Randolph Nesse, one of the founders of evolutionary medicine, explains why natural selection did not rid our species of onerous psychiatric disorders”

    3. Kelly interview becomes a spotlight moment for Gayle King
    By David Bauder | Associated Press | March 2019
    “King proved unflappable as a crying Kelly leaped up in anger. … [S]he didn’t flinch from challenging the singer as he denied multiple allegations that he sexually abused underage girls and was controlling in his relationships. She drew praise for her performance.”

    4. The deadly truth about a world built for men — from stab vests to car crashes
    By Caroline Criado-Perez | The Guardian | February 2019
    “Crash-test dummies based on the ‘average’ male are just one example of design that forgets about women — and puts lives at risk”

    5. A Message in a Bottle Washed Up on Padre Island — 57 Years Later
    By Dan Solomon | Texas Monthly | February 2019
    “The missive was part of a 1962 study that attempted to track the flow of ocean currents.”

    6. How Does Spotify Know You So Well
    By Sophia Ciocca | Medium | October 2017
    “A software engineer explains the science behind personalized music recommendations”

    7. Is it lust or is it love How to tell — and how you can have both at once
    By Terri Orbuch | Ideas: TED Talks | February 2018
    “I’ve studied the romances and relationship patterns of thousands of people for three decades, and I’ve heard many of them talk about that wild, out-of-control feeling at the beginning of a new relationship. …”

    8. Why do zebras have stripes Perhaps to dazzle away flies
    By Danica Kirka | Associated Press | February 2019
    “The researchers found that fewer horseflies landed on the cloaked horses than on the ones without striped coats, suggesting that zebra stripes may offer protection from blood-sucking insects that can spread disease.”

    9. Former deputy chief inspector for NYPD dies at 104 years old
    By Larry Celona and Ben Feuerherd | The New York Post | February 2019
    “Former NYPD Deputy Chief Inspector John Downer, who joined the force in 1941 and served more than 30 years, died …”

    10. Why Komodo Dragons Haven’t Conquered the World
    By Veronique Greenwood | The New York Times | November 2018
    “The razor-toothed predators are fierce, but scientists found that they’re real homebodies. “

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: Final looks at the midterms and the Great War anniversary / Celebrating Wu-Tang Clan / Divided Sexual America / High blood pressure and dementia

    This week: Final looks at the midterms and the Great War anniversary / Celebrating Wu-Tang Clan / Divided Sexual America / High blood pressure and dementia

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. Why electing two Native American women to Congress is about more than making history
    By Sarah Sunshine Manning | The Lily | November 2018
    “It’s about asserting indigenous women’s ancestral right to leadership”
    Also see, from Texas Monthly: ‘Underdog: Beto vs. Cruz’ on 36 Hours in El Paso
    Also see, from Texas Monthly: Beto O’Rourke Lost the Battle But Won the War
    Also see, from The New York Times: Down With the Year of the Woman

    2. Can Europe’s Liberal Order Survive as the Memory of War Fades?
    By Katin Bennhold | The New York Times | November 2018
    “The anniversary comes amid a feeling of gloom and insecurity as the old demons of chauvinism and ethnic division are again spreading across the Continent. And as memory turns into history, one question looms large: Can we learn from history without having lived it ourselves?”
    Also see, from The New York Review of Books: World War I Relived Day by Day
    Also see, from Library of America: Harry S. Truman: Waiting for the Armistice
    Also see, from The Washington Post: On this World War I anniversary, let’s not celebrate Woodrow Wilson

    3. In revealing new memoir, Michelle Obama candidly shares her story
    By Krissah Thompson | The Washington Post | November 2018
    “In the 426-page book, Obama lays out her complicated relationship with the political world that made her famous. But her memoir is not a Washington read full of gossip and political score-settling — though she does lay bare her deep, quaking disdain for Trump, who she believes put her family’s safety at risk with his vehement promotion of the false birther conspiracy theory.”

    4. The New York Times is digitizing more than 5 million photos dating back to the 1800s
    By Laura Hazard Owen | Nieman Lab | November 2018
    “The photos will be used in a series called Past Tense.”

    5. Why Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F*ck Wit
    By Stereo Williams | The Daily Beast | November 2018
    “Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the greatest rap group of all time’s seminal debut, ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).’ ”

    6. Peace Regimes
    By Jesse Kindig | Boston Review | November 2018
    “A regime is imposed from without, which begs the questions: whose peace, in this peace regime, is being insured, and who is subject to its imposition? To insist that such a regime is a kind of peace is to willfully forget the violence you are, in fact, wreaking.”

    7. Republicans and Democrats Don’t Just Disagree About Politics. They Have Different Sexual Fantasies
    By Justin Lehmiller | Politico Magazine | October 2018
    “Republicans were more likely than Democrats to fantasize about a range of activities that involve sex outside of marriage.”

    8. Pregnancy high blood pressure linked to dementia decades later
    By Cheryl Platzman Weinstock | Reuters | November 2018
    “Pregnant women who develop pre-eclampsia, a condition involving dangerously high blood pressure, have more than three times higher risk of dementia later in life than women who don’t have this pregnancy complication, researchers say.”

    9. The Suffocation of Democracy
    By Christopher R. Browning | The New York Review of Books | October 2018
    “As a historian specializing in the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and Europe in the era of the world wars, I have been repeatedly asked about the degree to which the current situation in the United States resembles the interwar period and the rise of fascism in Europe. I would note several troubling similarities and one important but equally troubling difference.”

    10. Franco’s family demands dictator be buried with military honors
    By Natalia Junquera | El Pais | October 2018
    “His seven grandchildren want him to be interred in La Almudena cathedral, in the heart of Madrid”

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: Dealing when a friend has a baby / America beyond Trump / Powerless Puerto Rico / Dancing with Madonna / Loving your library

    This week: Dealing when a friend has a baby / America beyond Trump / Powerless Puerto Rico / Dancing with Madonna / Loving your library

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. A Friend’s Pregnancy
    By Julia Wertz | The New Yorker | October 2016
    “I was happy for her, but I was afraid it would have a negative impact on our relationship. It was certainly not what I wanted, but I knew such an epic life event would change our relationship irrevocably, and I was scared.”

    2. War Without End
    By C.J. Chivers | The New York Times Magazine | August 2018
    “The Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another.”

    3. Planning for the Post-Trump Wreckage
    By Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy | August 2018
    “When the president eventually exits the White House, the rest of us will quickly have to make sense of the world he’s left behind.”

    4. What Happened in the Dark: Puerto Rico’s Year of Fighting for Power
    By Daniel Alarcon | Wired | August 2018
    “More Americans rely on Puerto Rico’s grid than on any other public electric utility. How one renegade plant worker led them through the shadows.”

    5. Nuance: A Love Story
    By Meghan Daum | Medium | August 2018
    “My affair with the intellectual dark web”

    6. 2001 Is Still Teaching Us How to Pay Attention to Movies
    By Colin Fleming | Slate | August 2018
    “Your mind need not be going.”

    7. Step one for befriending a goat: Smile
    By Karin Brulliard | Animalia :: The Washington Post | August 2018
    “Goat subjects … had already shown themselves to be adept at reading subtle human body language. Now, the researchers have found, goats are also able to distinguish happy people faces from sad ones — and they prefer happy.”

    8. Dancing with Madonna Kept Me Alive
    By Salim Gauwloos | Outlook :: BBC World Service | July 2018
    “Salim Gauwloos became famous dancing with Madonna on her iconic Blond Ambition tour. Madonna used the tour to promote freedom of sexuality and sexual health. All of this made a young Salim feel extremely uncomfortable. The reason he was so anxious was that he was harbouring a secret.”

    9. The Dos and Don’ts of Supporting Your Local Library
    By Kristin Arnett | LitHub | August 2018
    “For God’s sake, do not recatalog a book with Sharpie”

    10. My son, Osama: the al-Qaida leader’s mother speaks for the first time
    By Martin Chulov | The Guardian | August 2018
    “Nearly 17 years since 9/11, Osama bin Laden’s family remains an influential part of Saudi society – as well as a reminder of the darkest moment in the kingdom’s history. Can they escape his legacy”

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: Blind people’s sexuality / The end of civilization / Lagos: the future city / Breaking down “The Shining” / Remaking the TLS

    This week: Blind people’s sexuality / The end of civilization / Lagos: the future city / Breaking down The Shining / Remaking the TLS

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. Are Blind People Denied Their Sexuality?
    By M. Leona Godin | Catapult | July 2018
    “The contortions that people will undergo to desexualize me, a blind woman, can be overwhelming.”

    2. Data isn’t the new oil — it’s the new nuclear power
    By James Bridle | Ideas :: TED.com | July 2018
    “Data is a valuable, powerful commodity — but unlike oil, it is unlimited in quantity and in its capacity for harm”

    3. When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job
    By John H. Richardson | Esquire | July 2018
    “Among many climate scientists, gloom has set in. Things are worse than we think, but they can’t really talk about it.”

    4. The Pap test could eventually be replaced by the HPV test, some experts say
    By Laurie McGinley | The Washington Post | July 2018
    “The HPV infection is the most common sexually transmitted infection and is usually eliminated by the immune system within a year or two. But when an infection persists, it can cause cellular changes that develop into precancerous lesions and, eventually, malignancies.”

    5. ‘You can’t just gloss over this history’: The movement to honor Ida B. Wells gains momentum
    By Peter Slevin | The Washington Post | June 2018
    “This stone is the rare marker in Chicago that honors Wells, a hero in an unending battle against racial injustice who died in 1931. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Miss., Wells became a crusading African American journalist who exposed the crime and shame of lynching and fought for women’s suffrage.”

    6. Lagos: Hope and Warning
    By Armin Rosen | City Journal | July 2018
    “Nigeria’s mega-city, bursting with opportunity but strained with disorder, offers a cautionary preview of the future.”

    7. Scientists defy ‘force of nature’ to unlock secrets of Hawaii volcano
    By Terray Sylvester and Jolyn Rosa | Reuters | July 2018
    “Scientists have been in the field measuring the eruptions 24 hours a day, seven days a week since Kilauea first exploded more than two months ago.”

    8. Kubrick’s The Shining in 6 parts: The Obsessively-controlled sequences that unravel Jack’s mind
    By Roger Luckhurst | Salon.com | July 2018
    “At the crucial core of the horror masterpiece, time collapses and Jack Torrance’s madness blooms.”

    9. A Scrappy Makeover for a Tweedy Literary Fixture
    By Dwight Garner | The New York Times | May 2018
    “The Times Literary Supplement was founded in 1902. Its editor, Stig Abell, was hired to usher it into a new era.”

    10. Billie Holiday
    By Elizabeth Hardwick | The New York Review of Books | March 1976
    “Her whole life had taken place in the dark. The spotlight shone down on the black, hushed circle in a café; the moon slowly slid through the clouds.”

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: Rum from India? / Earth’s coldest place / Inventor of Liquid Paper / Madonna and Harry Dean Stanton / Other people’s problems

    This week: Rum from India? / Earth’s coldest place / Inventor of Liquid Paper / Madonna and Harry Dean Stanton / Other people’s problems

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. Forget the Caribbean: Was Rum Invented in India
    By David Wondrich | The Daily Beast | July 2018
    “Newly discovered evidence suggests that rum production predates the Caribbean by at least 1,000 years and may have actually started in South East Asia.”

    2. Coldest Place on Earth Found — Here’s How
    By Alejandra Borunda | National Geographic | June 2018
    “It’s a place where Earth is so close to its limit, it’s almost like another planet.”

    3. How Ancient Mummies Helped This Soccer Player Get to the World Cup
    By Sarah Gibbens | National Geographic | June 2018
    “After Paolo Guerrero tested positive for cocaine, scientists used Inca mummies to argue that the result may have been influenced by something else.”

    4. How Is the Declaration of Independence Preserved
    By Tim Palmieri | Scientific American | July 2018
    “The National Archives and Records Administration uses science and technology to keep one of America’s most important historic documents safe.”

    5. Do You Like ‘Dogs Playing Poker’ Science Would Like to Know Why
    By Tom Mashberg | The New York Times | July 2018
    “The mysteries of the aesthetic response, and the creative impulse, have become a burgeoning area of inquiry for scientific researchers across many disciplines.”

    6. What lies in the lab: The gruesome murder at Harvard that transfixed New England
    By Paul Collins | The Boston Globe Magazine | July 2018
    “Wealthy George Parkman vanished into thin air one day. Then a janitor started snooping around a Harvard lab and made a grisly discovery.”

    7. Ask Yourself This: What Burdens Is That Other Person Carrying
    By Carl Richards | Sketch Guy :: The New York Times | July 2018
    “And how would I treat them differently if I knew”

    8. Bette Nesmith Graham, Who Invented Liquid Paper
    By Andrew R. Chow | Overlooked :: The New York Times | July 2018
    “Graham brought it to market and by the end of her life led an international business out of Dallas that produced 25 million bottles a year at its peak, with factories in Toronto and Brussels. She would sell the company for $47.5 million and donate millions to charity.”

    9. ‘He Pretty Much Gave In to Whatever They Asked For’
    By Michael Kruse | Politico Magazine | June 2018
    “Trump says he’s a master negotiator. Those who’ve actually dealt with him beg to differ.”

    10. Madonna talks to Harry Dean Stanton about her newfound stardom
    By Harry Dean Stanton | Interview | May 2018
    “I laugh at myself, I don’t take myself completely seriously. I think that’s another quality that people have to hold onto, you have to laugh, especially at yourself.”

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: White House chaos / A stolen puppy returns / Cardi B’s success / McMaster’s surrender / Racism in ‘National Geographic’

    This week: White House chaos / A stolen puppy returns / Cardi B’s success / McMaster’s surrender / Racism in National Geographic

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. 32 Weeks: The making of a cop
    By Emilie Eaton | San Antonio Express-News | March 2018
    “A reporter and photographer from the San Antonio Express-News spent a year following a group of cadets to document their training at the San Antonio Police Department’s nationally recognized academy.”

    2. Cabinet chaos: Trump’s team battles scandal, irrelevance
    By Jonathan Lemire | Associated Press | March 2018
    “One Cabinet member was grilled by Congress about alleged misuse of taxpayer funds for private flights. Another faced an extraordinary revolt within his own department amid a swirling ethics scandal. A third has come under scrutiny for her failure to answer basic questions about her job in a nationally televised interview. And none of them was the one Trump fired.”

    3. A pardon expert emailed me his life’s work. Then he killed his two sons and himself.
    By Gregory Korte | USA Today | March 2018
    “A White House correspondent tries to reconcile a professor’s valuable contribution to the study of the presidential mercy with his horrific final acts.”

    4. Does the Adult Brain Really Grow New Neurons?
    By Helen Shen | Scientific American | March 2018
    “The observation that the human brain churns out new neurons throughout life is one of the biggest neuroscience discoveries of the past 20 years. … But new findings in humans, reported online in Nature on Wednesday, pump the brakes on this idea. In a direct challenge to earlier studies, the authors report adults produce no new cells in the hippocampus, a key hub for processing memories.”

    5. A Texas family had their dog stolen. It was returned the next day, injured and with a note.
    By Fernando Ramirez | Houston Chronicle | March 2018
    “Michelle Carnline, an Austin-area resident, said her family’s 6-month-old chocolate Great Dane disappeared from her backyard on a Sunday evening two weeks ago. At first, the family thought their dog, Landon, had somehow managed to escape. But after finding muddy human footprints in the backyard, it didn’t take long to realize what had happened.”

    6. Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks Writing, President Trump, and Quitting Twitter For Good
    By Doyin Oyeniyi | Texas Monthly | March 2018
    “At his SXSW keynote speech, Coates shared the thoughts that he’ll no longer be tweeting.”

    7. For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It
    By By Susan Goldberg | National Geographic | April 2018
    “We asked a preeminent historian to investigate our coverage of people of color in the U.S. and abroad. Here’s what he found.”

    8. Cardi B: The Artist Thriving in a System Not Meant for Her
    By Amy Zimmerman | The Daily Beast | March 2018
    “Cardi B’s remarkable story is one of merit shining through in an industry and a country that’s far from a meritocracy.”

    9. Introduction to Reading Other Women
    By Rafia Zakaria | Boston Review | September 2016
    “Literature can be a primary engine of dialogue and empathy, but it — or rather, the reading public — is often complicit in the silencing of global women of color.”

    10. Dereliction of Duty?
    By Jonathan Stevenson | The New York Review of Books | March 2018
    “His rationale — or at least his rationalization — was likely that the position would best be filled by a warrior-scholar with the spine and rectitude to protect the country against Trump’s rash leadership.”

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    This week: Secrets to San Antonio / Houston’s dolphins / Tarantino’s ‘Star Trek’ / The best Texas playlist / Kirsten Gillibrand in the spotlight / Robert Caro and LBJ

    This week: Secrets to San Antonio / Houston’s dolphins / Tarantino’s ‘Star Trek’ / The best Texas playlist / Kirsten Gillibrand in the spotlight

    Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

    1. Insider’s Guide to San Antonio
    By Lauren Smith Ford | Texas Monthly | December 2017
    “Join the dapper Mike Casey for a bicycle tour of his favorite bars, restaurants and more in the funky, charming King William neighborhood.”

    2. Galveston Bay dolphins struggle to recover from Hurricane Harvey
    By Alex Stuckey | Houston Chronicle | November 2017
    “Researchers observe lesions covering the marine mammals”

    3. Pulp science-fiction? How Quentin Tarantino could save Star Trek
    By Luke Holland | The Guardian | December 2017
    “The tepid recent installment left Kirk and co needing direction, dialogue and a decent baddie. Luckily Hollywood’s grandmaster of profanity has one more film to make.”

    4. Hundreds of dams in Texas could fail in worst-case flood
    By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz | Austin American-Statesman | November 2017
    “Texas applies its strictest safety standards only if a dam’s failure would probably cost seven or more lives.”

    5. Winston Churchill Got a Lot of Things Wrong, But One Big Thing Right
    By Matt Lewis | The Daily Beast | December 2017
    “He contemplated using poison gas on German civilians. He wanted to keep England white. And more. But he had the quality Britain needed most at exactly the moment it was needed.”

    6. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Moment Has Arrived
    By David Freedlander | Politico Magazine | December 2017
    “The New York senator has made sexual assault the focus of her political career. Now, the world has caught up with her.”

    7. Oil and gas industry is causing Texas earthquakes, a ‘landmark’ study suggests
    By Ben Guarino | The Washington Post | November 2017
    “An unnatural number of earthquakes hit Texas in the past decade, and the region’s seismic activity is increasing. In 2008, two earthquakes stronger than magnitude 3 struck the state. Eight years later, 12 did.”

    8. You May Want to Marry My Husband
    By Amy Krouse Rosenthal | Modern Love :: The New York Times | March 2017
    “He is an easy man to fall in love with. I did it in one day.”

    9. Listen to the Ultimate Texas Music Playlist
    By Katy Vine | Texas Monthly | November 2017
    “We set out to hear what our state sounds like. We brought back the latest and best of Texas music — so listen up.”

    10. Robert Caro: Rising Early, With a New Sentence in Mind
    By John Leland | Sunday Routine :: The New York Times | May 2012
    “I always remember Ernest Hemingway’s advice to writers: always quit for the day when you know what the next sentence is.”
    Also see: Robert Caro’s Big Dig | Robert Caro’s Painstaking Process

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    Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.