Vermeer in Delft
There are no paintings by Johannes Vermeer in Delft, but the artist can still be found in his home city.
Gary Smith
The Great Wave
As waves of change wash over the tech industry, will there be anything left to salvage? Could the creative workers being swept aside build something better?
Sleepwalking
Patrick Leigh Fermor's experiences in 1930s Germany remind us how quickly a nation can normalize dangerous ideas.
A Tale of Rethymno
In 1938, writer Pandelis Prevelakis published a nostalgic book about his childhood in Rethymno, a small city in Crete where the past still feels very close.
An American Nightmare
Fascism is on the rise. There is war in Europe. Americans are politically divided and culturally bereft. The year is 1940, and Henry Miller is going on a road trip.
What I Read in 2024
As my first semi-productive year on Substack winds down, I'm taking the opportunity to look back at some of the books I read in 2024.
We Tried That Already
Horrors once presumed safely in the past are returning to haunt us. Are we choking on our collective amnesia?
Looking Back on Lower Shankill
21 years later, I'm still making sense of a confusing visit to Belfast in 2003. If the Troubles were over, why was everyone still so tense? And when does the past finally become history?
Down by the Henry Moore
It's been 50 years since songwriter Murray McLauchlan perfectly captured the spirit of bohemian Toronto in a 1974 song. What has changed, and what remains?
In the Footprints of Patrick Leigh Fermor
Patrick Leigh Fermor’s 2,600 km walk across pre-war Europe was an immersion in time and place that would be impossible to emulate today.
A Mind at Work
The productive chaos of the human creative process will never be replicated by the algorithms of Generative AI.
Here, There, Anywhere
What, if anything, qualifies as an authentic travel experience?
Escape to Astypalea
In the southeastern Aegean, on the tiny Greek island of Astypalea, we found just the right amount of isolation.