Podcast 138: Literary Critic Leon Wieseltier on His New Magazine, the Meaning of Forgiveness, and His Favorite Car-Chase Movies
Quillette‘s Jonathan Kay talks to long-time New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier about Liberties, the ambitious literary journal...
Read MoreThe Podcaster Who (Single-handledly) Made Me Love History
This is an instalment of Simple Pleasures, an occasional Quillette series about some of the new joys that our writers have discovered as a...
Read MoreMy Generation Isn’t Suffering Enough
An age of happiness is quite impossible, because men want only to desire it but not to have it, and every individual who experiences good...
Read MoreThe Evolutionary Advantages of Playing Victim
Victimhood is defined in negative terms: “the condition of having been hurt, damaged, or made to suffer.” Yet humans have evolved to...
Read MoreTo Skate—Perchance to Soar
Nairobi, January 2021. Saturday morning. I whizz joyfully around the multi-coloured skatepark. Beneath my feet, the board responds with...
Read MoreThe Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Conor McGregor
Thou knowest this man’s fall, but thou knowest not his wrassling. ~James Baldwin One of the truest tests of a person’s character is how...
Read MoreThe Problem With ‘Indigenizing the University’
The idea that academics need to “Indigenize” the Canadian education system has become popular in recent years. The Congress of the...
Read MoreRemembering Karl Popper
It’s the end of the wartime workday at 14a Westenra Terrace in the Port Hills of Christchurch, New Zealand, high above the southern...
Read MorePodcast 137: Sociologist Nathalie Heinich on French Academics’ Opposition to America’s Race-Based Ideologies
Jonathan Kay speaks to eminent French sociologist Nathalie Heinich, founder of a new organization that opposes the spread of America’s...
Read MoreCan Governments Stop Bitcoin?
Since its creation more than 12 years ago, Bitcoin is undefeated. Its price has leaped from $5 to $50 to $500 to $5,000 to now past...
Read MoreThinking Critically About Critical Thinking
Michael J. Fox, the third president of the United States, was responsible for establishing Presbyterianism as the state religion of the...
Read MoreEnvironmentalism, Trumpism, and the Working Class
The inauguration of President Biden as the 46th US President hasn’t produced quite the catharsis that Democrats (and others) had hoped...
Read MoreTowards Practical Empowerment
The following critique of anti-racism is intended to empower people of color and stave off the modes of disempowerment I see in my field...
Read MoreAccommodating Trans Athletes Without Rejecting the Reality of Human Biology
“As a social psychologist, I understand why using women’s sports to argue against transgender rights works,” tweeted behavioral scientist...
Read MoreThe Narrative and Its Discontents
Human history in two sentences: in pre-modern times, material goods were hard to come by, but small communities offered kinship and their...
Read MoreDo Lockdowns Work? Only If You Lock the Borders Down, Too
For almost a year, the central policy debate in most Western countries has been whether—and for how long—to impose lockdowns. Advocates of...
Read MorePODCAST 136: Social Media Network Creator Brian Amerige: If You Could Create a New Network from Scratch, What Would It Look Like?
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay talks to Brian Amerige—a former team leader at Facebook, and now the CEO of Thoughtful—about the...
Read MoreScott Alexander, Philosopher King of the Weird People
If you (like me) spend an unhealthy amount of time reading about morality and politics online, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Scott...
Read MoreCOVID-19 and the Ongoing Global Workplace Revolution
For most of the recent past, economic geography has shifted to ever-larger cities across the globe. By the end of the last decade, many...
Read MoreStruggling with Pixar’s ‘Soul’
In the COVID era, my wife and I are homeschooling our small children. Their endless questions often send me to Google. Why do clouds...
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