Russia’s Freaky History with the Cult of Mother Earth

The Russian digs Mother Earth. This has been the case from Russia’s earliest years when dark and brutal paganism soaked her culture in blood.[1] The Russian venerates Mother Earth for her black depths, for the crops of life she provides, and for the resting home she gives at

Listening to Podcasts at Oxford in 1374 and Kansas in 1974

Why do we love those conversational podcasts? If you were a student at a medieval university, you listened to lectures. And listened and listened and listened to lectures, often more than ten hours a day. But they weren’t like lectures at today’s universities, where hundreds of students sit

Protect Your Children from Moloch

The evidence is in: Social media kills children. Well, it at least seriously wounds them. Or at least many of them. And no matter what, there ain't no adult with an ounce of sense who claims it's good for them. You know who else thinks it&

Lady, You Have One Ugly Kid

If you haven't heard, you haven't been listening: Europe is grossly under-birthed, and the United States isn't far behind. For a society to replace its population, demographers say each woman needs to average 2.1 children. The last time I looked, Germany was at

Parliament Created the 18th-Century’s Great Gin Craze

“[N]oe sort of Brandy Aqua vite or other Spirits or distilled Waters of any Kingdome Country or place whatsoever shall after the said foure and twentyeth day of August be imported into the Kingdoms of England or Ireland . . .”. If you read the Wikipedia entries about England’s Great Gin

How to be a Holy Drunk

A few notes on Sebastian Flyte The early pages of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited describe the drunken antics of students Lord Sebastian Flyte and Charles Ryder (the narrator). Ryder makes the later observation that he “got drunk often, but through an excess of high spirits, in the love

Taoing Around in the Garden

There's a great gardening book called “The Tao of Vegetable Gardening.” The author, Carol Deppe, applies Taoist principles (especially that of wu-wei, “not doing”) to the soil, but the book isn't about Taoism. It's all about gardening. The Taoism is rarely explicit, but rather

Assault on Huberman

Kerry Howley at New York Mag

No Cell Phones in This Room

The room: A room in his house that he has dedicated strictly to deep work. I think it's a den: a study or small library. He never takes his cell phone into it. Dr. Cal Newport: How to Enhance Focus and Improve ProductivityIn this episode, my guest is

Hypocrite, Me: Netflixing My Own Aesthetic Prison

Aaron Timms at The New Republic