Essay Communication In the Panthéon By Philipp Blom History is written by the victors. So, too, in the world of ideas. Phillipp Blom on a group of thinkers far more daring than those enshrined in the Panthéon. More
Essay Communication Tape Delay By Madeline Miller How we misread Virgil for two thousand years, and what made it possible for a small group of scholars to figure it out. More
Essay Foreigners The Foreign Spell By Pico Iyer To be a foreigner is to be perpetually detached, but it is also to be continually surprised. More
Essay Politics Working the Room By Michael Phillips-Anderson Presidential humor from Lincoln to Kennedy to Reagan. More
Essay Celebrity Gilgamesh to Gaga By John Tresch Fame machines have always found ways to conjure up and emanate glory, to magnify the power of kings and gods. More
Essay Lines of Work Lost Tools By Donovan Hohn A tour of the antique tool trade confirms that they just don’t make things like they used to. More
Essay Technology Prometheus’ Toolbox By Adrienne Mayor Human life as technology from Greek mythology to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. More
Essay Sports & Games Blossom and Fade By John Crowley Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game is an experience with the pathos and wonder of all games—the game that is the universe. More
