@Wendy
In the 1990’s Czech Republic, Wendy Riker Purnell was teaching media literacy and writing about the reemergence of civil society in a nation recovering from decades of authoritarianism. Little did she know that 30 years later, Americans would *desperately* need info literacy to stave off something that is difficult to distinguish from fascism. She has published on the topics of rights-based environmental conservation and renewing indigenous economies. Currently, she writes grants and supports a wide range of programs for an academic library. Wendy believes the secrets to the universe are woven into Paul’s Boutique, but she reads across an array of disciplines and will share random bits of nerdiness accordingly.
FreeMovement.proNate Wooley on Sonny Rollins, “the last embodiment of jazz’s restless need to evolve,” is a brilliant read.
Let Everything Change | Nate Wooley
I became a Sonny Rollins fan on my 13th birthday, when my dad took me for the first time to his favorite record store in Portland, Oregon. He gave me $50, which in 1987, netted me twelve LPs. One was a European bootleg of Moving Out.
nplusonemag.com
If the members of our congressional delegation can't do their part to restore the rule of law, I hope they respect their office (and us) enough to resign and make room for people who do take the oath, our founding ideals, and our charter documents seriously.
Letter to the editor: Our delegation must start holding executive branch accountable
This past year, as an American, I have been dismayed by the dismantling of our institutions. As a free marketeer, I have been appalled at the galling displays of economic illiteracy with tariffs and other heavy-handed attempts to exercise more and more state control over private businesses and corporations.
bozemandailychronicle.com
“There is no reality in which these strikes are legal, moral, or remotely consistent with a nation that claims to adhere to democratic principles. The strikes are lawless, reckless, and barbaric, and the administration’s shifting justifications are a morass of misdirection and legal shell games.”
104 murders in 107 days
The Trump administration's drug boat campaign has assassinated about one person each day since early September. These are murders, and our basic humanity demands that we not get complacent about them.
open.substack.com
A conservative perspective includes the traditional values of a community. In the Rocky Mountain West, that means the “live and let live” and “love thy neighbor” principles the rainbow flag represents.
Letter to the editor: For Montana girl, rainbow Pride flag represents core American value
Recently, at a Bozeman City Commission meeting, I was reminded that there are still folks who fail to comprehend the rainbow flag as a symbol of the full spectrum of the human experience.
bozemandailychronicle.com
I missed this Esquire piece last year. This movie is not for everyone, but it is the best love story on celluloid and an absolutely prescient take on the social distortions of the 24 hour “news” cycle.
A Misunderstood Masterpiece: Inside the Making of "Natural Born Killers"
30 years after its release, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, and more recall the set of Oliver Stone's explosive film.
esquire.com
“Defining oneself by one's adversaries rather than by one's principles is a recipe for intellectual decay and political aimlessness. Such a mindset breeds short-term thinking and risks engendering a culture of resentment rather than one of renewal.” Mike Pence & Ed Feulner (founder of the Heritage Foundation) offer a reminder of what a respectable and respectful conservatism looks like.
Rediscovering Order in an Age of Populism
An existential identity crisis now grips the American right. Long rooted in the principles of limited constitutional government, moral order, and tradition, it now too often defines itself simply by opposition to the excesses of the left. This has dr...
nationalaffairs.com
On the many similarities between The Fugitive and Homer’s great epic the Odyssey.
Harrison Ford and the Origin of Western Civilization
We cover lots of ground at The Honest Broker
open.substack.com
Even — perhaps especially — in the year of our decline 2025, Chloe Valdary wants you to love your life. “If you do this, you will discover a gift: The ability to give thanks in turbulent times. Those who know how to give thanks in moments of terror and chaos are the owners of a peace of mind that money cannot buy.”
From the Vault: Mindfulness in a time of Suffering
I originally wrote this piece during Donald Trump’s first term when the Corona virus was beginning to stalk the land and before the lightening flash of identity politics took America by storm in the summer of 2020.
chloevaldary.substack.com
“An elegant trickster, he bent journalism toward the rhythms of literature.” Love this piece on wishing we had a (or the!) Tom Wolfe for this moment and also reflecting on how he probably helped get us here.
Who’s Afraid of Tom Wolfe?
The progenitor of “New Journalism” gets his long-due publishing retrospective, and reappraisal.
commonreader.wustl.edu
“Those who are actually liberal, in the broadest sense of the word, whether left liberal, right liberal, classical liberal, conservative democratic or uncategorizable, are committed to a shared set of minimal basic norms: pluralism, democracy, and an effective state that doesn’t exceed its bounds… “Professional friendships, funding relationships etc are fungible. Basic philosophical commitments are not.”
There is an exit
Last week, I finished reading an advance copy of Cory Doctorow’s Picks and Shovels. No spoilers about plot specifics, but the novel has a lot to say about two things. First, how Silicon Valle…
crookedtimber.org
Every. Single. Word. of Jonathan Blanks’ advice on responsible media consumption (and more): “If you are strapped for cash and can’t afford to pay for news, check your local library… free reliable information is an undervalued and underused resource available in this country.” And “if you’re doom-scrolling social media, having the time isn’t really the issue; it’s how you use it.”
Now comes the hard part
Making the country a better place starts with being a better American
theblanksslate.substack.com
Trumpette Noem's ignorance of Indian Law and U.S. treaties with sovereign Nation nations, not to mention her "antagonistic relationship with tribal nations could be a harbinger of what’s to come with her oversight of Homeland Security, where she will have broad authority to waive federal laws meant to protect tribal sites, and where a lack of adequate policies, interpretation and understanding of international Indigenous rights has already brought harm and even death to Indigenous immigrants and families.”
hcn.org
Linguistic dereliction? Like pretending adjectives = nouns? I’m as pedantic as they come, but we pedants lose the moral high ground when we make ill-informed arguments.
Starbucks Just Introduced An 8-Ounce Cortado | Sprudge Coffee
Ceci n'est pas un cortado.
sprudge.com
“Maybe America doesn’t need to commercialize every Boomer memory.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Should Not Exist
A bad idea gets worse every year.
theatlantic.com
Stories from folks thriving for years after successfully battling metastatic cancer.
Still kicking: Metastatic cancer ‘thrivers’ give patients like me hope
These survivors, or “cancer thrivers” as some of us prefer to say, helped show me that metastatic cancer is no longer a death sentence.
washingtonpost.com
PBS Newshour's Judy Woodruff says "it’s actively harmful for our fiber, our strength as a country when we don’t have local journalism." In the Texas panhandle, Woodruff talked to a rancher about their local paper going under: “I didn’t always agree with Laurie Brown” — she’s the editor — “with her editorials. She leans a little bit more to the left than we do, than I do.” But, he said, “This newspaper has been the glue that has helped hold our community together.”
PBS Journalist Judy Woodruff on What Ails America, and How to Fix Things
In a Chronicle interview, the veteran reporter talks about her two years exploring what is tearing Americans apart — and the nonprofits working to bring people together.
philanthropy.com
Reflecting on the Hungarian experience and Viktor Orbán’s devolution, Kati Marton recalls Voltaire’s warning, “He who can persuade you to believe absurdities can persuade you to commit atrocities.” “Neither individuals nor nations escape history for long,” Marton continues, “and with Mr. Trump’s election, history threatens to barge into our American democratic sanctuary with a vengeance.”
Opinion | Why I’m Not Giving Up on American Democracy
The free and decent country that saved my family from Soviet-dominated Hungary is now under threat.
nytimes.com
Our ideas — private property, skepticism of authority, free markets, individualism, spontaneous order, and individual liberty — “are worth preserving and fighting for, but I’m not sure that those of us who advocate them should short-hand to the term ‘libertarian’ outside of an academic or specialized context for a while if we want to be accurately understood. For practical purposes we’re just liberals now.”
23 mostly dismal thoughts about the election
1. Well, this sucks.2. Going for an evening bike ride last night on eerily empty streets as the ominous Portland crows flocked into my neighborhood, the feeling it most reminded me of was the las
jacobgrier.com
“Humility is the best filter,” I often say. Philosopher Rachel Fraser challenges intellectual humility as a virtue. “There are traits that are sometimes conducive to knowledge, and traits that are sometimes not.” Folks who aren’t collegial in workshops may contribute a great deal to the literature, so I cede the point about traits. I also cling to the idea that intellectual curiosity, courage, honesty & humility are virtues becaue they advance knowledge & help us respect & understand others.
Why intellectual humility isn’t always a virtue | Aeon Essays
Intellectual humility has recently been hailed as the key to thinking well. The story of Barbara McClintock proves otherwise
aeon.co
At first glance, one might write this off as a privileged person (Harvard prof & president emerita) waxing nostalgic for a more charming, less digital time. Consider reading it for the anecdote that yells — from what is likely an unmarked grave — I will not be erased from history!
Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive
How will they interpret the past?
theatlantic.com
“We’ve shifted focus from the politics of redistribution to the politics of recognition… The person practicing the politics of recognition is not trying to get resources for himself or his constituency; he is trying to admire himself. He’s trying to use politics to fill the hole in his soul. It doesn’t work."
How America Got Mean
In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.
theatlantic.com
"No Human is Illegal" is an ideal we can appeal to, however imperfectly it is put into practice. 👆what Jacob said
In Defense of “Yard-Sign Libertarianism”
"No Human is Illegal" is an ideal we can appeal to, however imperfectly it is put into practice.
liberalcurrents.com
“Although Nazis were more famous for burning books, they also sold them. Destroying books and establishing bookstores were both a tacit acknowledgment of the same truth: books have power.” A brief history of the early 20th-century’s radical bookstores that provided refuge to America’s communists, fascists, and socialists.
Bigoted Bookselling: When the Nazis Opened a Propaganda Bookstore in Los Angeles
In the first half of the twentieth century, radical bookstores took many forms and often served as part of larger, multichannel campaigns. Nazis, as well as Communists and Socialists, organized fes…
lithub.com
“In no presidential election in my lifetime has the question of whom to vote for been so easily decided.” What Jacob said.
To My Fellow Libertarians: It's Time to Embrace the Harris-Walz Ticket
Libertarians, long used to holding their noses to pick the lesser evil or abstaining entirely, now have plenty of reasons for enthusiasm.
liberalcurrents.com
While I drink the cans at home, I haven’t deigned to request Athletic’s NA beer on tap. My conscious motivators were my appreciation for an excuse in to drink real beer & my adopted reverence for beer after time spent in the CZR. Maybe it was just straight up self preservation, influenced by my positiveexperience consuming whatever lukewarm food and bev I was generously offered from outdoor kitchens and wells next to pigsties because I knew they’d be followed by an offering of homemade rum.
Draft Non-Alcoholic Beer Is Growing. So Are Questions About Its Safety.
As non-alcoholic beer becomes more common, questions are surfacing about its safety on draft. Find out more here.
vinepair.com
There are three principles: The first is that we should have everything that Congress needs to do its work. The second is that we should possess the materials that cover the life and achievement of the United States. And the third is that we’re not in a vacuum, and we need stuff from the rest of the world.
How Does the World’s Largest Library Decide What Becomes History?
From ancient clay tablets to TV shows to video games, the U.S. Library of Congress preserves far more than just books
scientificamerican.com
“Far too complex to capture & far too dynamic to die.” When people talk about perceived differences between Native America & “the rest of America,” I often say “maybe mainstream America but you could be describing Appalachia.” I only lived there for 3 years but growing up, I spent summers & holidays there. When I did my time on the Hill, I was there nearly every weekend to see my grandmothers. My Appalachian roots run DEEP. My folk may be clannish but we’re duty driven, diverse & resilient AF.
Hillbillies Need No Elegy — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
In the new book “Appalachian Reckoning,” dozens of mountain voices combine to talk back to J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” arguments. Today, an exclusive story from its co-editor and a powerful essay excerpted from the book.
bittersoutherner.com
“Like vengeance, blame is a natural response to traumatic violence, but time and information can provide a different perspective. “ As always, Jonathan Blanks provides a thoughtful exploration of the legality and morality of a police encounter gone wrong.
A hard conversation about police violence and gun control
A robust Second Amendment right comes with deadly serious responsibilities
open.substack.com
I'm in love with this project, a fabulous way to help restore meaningful sovereignty for the Saginaw Chippewa! The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries are indigenizing library science with a new clan-based cataloging system called Maawn Doobiigeng (Gather Together). The new classification system also doubles as a teaching tool, helping library users gain more knowledge of the clans and Anishinaabemowin – the Anishinaabe language. Kudos Anne Heidemann and colleagues!
Maawn Doobiigeng (Gather Together) — Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Gindaaso-gamik Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries
The new classification system of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries
saginaw.ploud.net
“After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.” Faith Ringgold Tar Beach, the one that hangs in the Guggenheim and the children's book version, is stunning. And eight-year-old Cassie Louise Lightfoot has some powerful things to say about freedom and confidence. Go read it. Rest in Power #AnyoneCanFly
FAITH RINGGOLD (1930–2024)
Trailblazing artist, activist, illustrator, and author Faith Ringgold, who was widely renowned for her elaborate pictorial quilts documenting Black life, died April 13 at her home in Englewood, New Jersey.
artforum.com
“As stewards of information literacy and democratic institutions, librarians are right to be concerned with misinformation and its effects on public trust… Rather than incubate an atmosphere of paranoia in our information environment, we also need to become comfortable saying which guardrails are insufficient and which are still necessary to install. Public trust is easy to break and hard to rebuild.”
Five Growing Concerns about Generative AI for Librarians and Information Professionals - Choice 360
Generative AI has a lot of promise for librarians and information workers, but still has a long ways to go before it should become a mainstay.
choice360.org
I needed this reminder that there is hope for “us” as in we and our fellow “democrats (with a little “d”), liberals (with a little “l”), and conservatives (with a little “c’)… who believe in freedom and democracy and the American experiment.”
We Happy Few
Plus: Why are Trump staffers still beating up on Ron DeSantis?
plus.thebulwark.com
Happy Douglass Day! Because we stand on the shoulders of GIANTS. And because there is still so much work to do.
Douglass Day
douglassday.org
#internationalclashday @kexp because if it’s not about liberation, then what’s the point?
International Clash Day
http://KEXP.ORG presents International Clash Day: A Mini Documentary, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into KEXP’s broadcast in London celebrating the 7th annual International Clash Day, on February 7, 2019. Producer and Editor: Alaia D'Alessandro Audio Mixer: Lorenzo Rossi Session Engineer: Kevin Suggs Interview Audio: Matt Ogaz, Lorenzo Rossi & Nikhil Sarma Cameras: Jim Beckmann, Alaia D'Alessandro, Scott Holpainen & Justin Wilmore Additional Video: Peter Hilgendorf Special thanks to Studio 9294, in Hackney Wick, London, and all the artists who performed during KEXP's broadcast Learn more at http://internationalclashday.com
kexp.org
“Libraries have never been just about books. These are community hubs, places to connect and discover.”
Books and looks: gen Z is ‘rediscovering’ the public library
Young people are using the hallowed institutions at higher rates than older generations. And they’re not just there to read
theguardian.com
What Happens *as* it Happens Here? “The civic space – the space in which we air differences of opinion, voice our dissent, and in which we negotiate the compromises that define self-government – is closing… Fortunately, America has a uniquely robust civil society and philanthropic sector that can do what no other sector does to protect democracy.”
An Update: What Happens as it Happens Here? U.S. Philanthropy, Civil Society, and the Authoritarian Threat — Democracy Funders Network
In this brief update of the January 2023 report, we summarize how the trends we observed have become even more worrying. With implications for every funder's work, authoritarian populists have strengthened their hold on government power and are using it to restrict freedoms across a wide swathe of American life. Regardless of the programs or issue areas you fund, whether you're socially conservative or progressive, we hope the report and update will act as a guide to the challenges ahead and encourage greater collaboration across programmatic and institutional lines in defense of liberal democracy.Rising authoritarianism in the U.S. has the potential to profoundly damage civil society and the philanthropy that supports it, damage that itself has the potential to further accelerate autocratic rule. READ THE UPDATE> READ THE ORIGINAL REPORT>
democracyfundersnetwork.org
“The Creator of all things has given us a mind. We are told to utilize it to the fullest, as far as we can, using all of our senses… The mind has capabilities beyond anyone’s imagination of what it could and can do.”
Ho-Chunk Ethnobotany Project | Native Medicinal Plant Research Program
nativeplants.ku.edu
14 months ago, sick in bed with COVID, I checked my home institution’s Twitter account to find 3 photos of Secretary Rice normalizing a Trumpette (governor of SD) by taking her seriously as someone who belonged on stage at Hoover. In that moment, I basically lost my faith in the future of our democracy. If a century-old institution that exists to oppose threats to liberalism is caving to the demands of an authoritarian cult, we could be doomed. I choose to believe we are not.
Americans Are Sleepwalking Through a National Emergency
Serious times require serious citizens.
theatlantic.com
“Music is a core part of human experience… Understanding how the brain processes music can really tell us about human nature. You can go to a country and not understand the language, but be able to enjoy the music.”
Neuroscientists decoded a Pink Floyd song using people’s brain activity
The technique could be used to improve devices that allow communication from people unable to speak.
sciencenews.org
As Jonathan says, “unless and until libertarians—as individuals and as institutions—prioritize separating themselves from racists, they will continue to find themselves in bed with and greatly diminished by them.”
This week in implausible deniability
The power of denial and how we continue to reap the whirlwind of GOP capitulation to Trump
open.substack.com
"Republicans now, more than ever, face a moment of truth. They must decide if they are partisans or patriots. They can no longer claim to be both." This piece tells me I can finally start transitioning from “I’m deeply concerned about the ascendancy of something that is difficult to distinguish from fascism,” to terms that are more sincere and unfiltered without worrying so much about being deemed “alarmist.”
This the Trump Indictment That Really Matters
Special Counsel Jack Smith has sounded the call, but voters must answer it if they wish to preserve American democracy.
theatlantic.com
Literary editor Will Blythe ponders the digital universe, “a black hole, swallowing everything around it,” and the evolution of writing and reading in recent decades.
The Life, Death
In the golden age of magazines, short stories reigned supreme. Has the digital revolution killed their cultural relevance?
esquire.com
"While the popular history of the internet valorises Silicon Valley coders – or, sometimes, the former US vice president Al Gore – many of the original concepts for search emerged from library scientists focused on the accessibility of documents in time and space."
The 1970s librarians who revolutionised the challenge of search | Aeon Essays
A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it
aeon.co
Known in "Persia as qanat, among the Uyghurs as karez, in Bali as subak, or aflaj in the Arab world," systems of "self-organizing, local water governance, where no one person is in charge," have endured for centuries, through political turmoil and extreme weather.
The Rebirth of “Decentralized Water”
Asia can slow and reverse rising water scarcity back into abundance by adapting its own ancient endemic governance systems for today’s modern urban networks
asiaglobalonline.hku.hk
New England maple syrup may be the gold standard for waffles and sundaes, but the Pacific Northwest's native Bigleaf Maple may emerge as the favorite syrup source for cooking and cocktails. So on brand for a PNW native.
Sugaring the Pacific Northwest
How climate and cost cramp bigleaf maple syrup production.
hcn.org
"To compare the coffeehouse tradition to the social media networks of today may seem far-fetched. But consider the parallels. Across its various manifestations, the coffeehouse typically fused news and debate in one space. People would go there to find out what was going on, discuss and take a view on it."
The restoration of the coffeehouse
How a centuries-old institution can save today’s faltering social media culture.
newstatesman.com
The Catawba Indian Nation has just set up "a special economic zone with regulatory certainty for web3, crypto, blockchain, and fintech companies that they might not find anywhere else in the U.S."
This Indian Nation Is Setting Up A Special Economic Zone For Crypto, Fintech, Blockchain On Native Land
25 miles south of Charlotte, Rock Hill county is home to just over 100,000 people, including the Catawba Indian Nation. That nation has just sent up a special economic zone with regulatory certainty for web3, crypto, blockchain, and fintech companies ...
forbes.com
"Washington may have demonstrated the power of the federal government over the hinterlands, but in doing so he helped forge a regional identity, with whiskey at its core. By the early 19th century, hundreds of commercial distilleries operated in Western Pennsylvania, almost all of them making Old Monongahela."
On the Historic Trail of Pennsylvania’s One-of-a-Kind Whiskey
Old Monongahela rye is having a comeback. A distillery road trip tells the story of its fall and rise, with Alexander Hamilton playing the villain.
nytimes.com
I have yet to source a PDF of his paper "Tippling Toward Freedom: Alcohol and Emancipation," but I did find this recording of Luther Adams - Free Man of Color discussing the research on how tippling laws were used to incarcerate and disenfranchise free black people in the waning days of slavery.
2017 Civil War Governors of Kentucky Symposium | CivilWarGovernors.org
On June 8-9, 2017, KHS and guest convener Amy Murrell Taylorhosted ten acclaimed U.S. historians and Organization of American Historians PresidentEdward L. Ayers for a symposium celebrating the initial publication of the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition.
civilwargovernors.org
Jacob probably already knew this, but I did not. "Tippling laws were a common feature of slave societies in the U.S. According to the legal historian Judge Leon Higginbotham, at least since 1698 blacks, enslaved and free, were prohibited from buying and selling liquor."
Project MUSE - Tipling Toward Freedom: Alcohol and Emancipation
In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, tippling laws outlawed the sale, gift, or loan of "spirituous or vinous liquors" to enslaved Negroes or free blacks without written permission. By law it was illegal for any black person to enter a tavern or coffee-house where liquor was sold. The law limited the mobility of black people and their ability to buy, sell, or trade. The act was intended to prevent insurrection, to maintain tranquility by nipping "riots, breaches of the peace, disorderly and indecent conduct, and vagrancy" in the bud.1 Tippling was about more than feeling fine and mellow, it was about a world teeming with outrages. Blacks were out drinking, some had their own money, they gathered in groups on street corners, and behind closed doors. They violated laws meant to hold them captive by choosing where to go, when, or what to do with their own bodies. Blacks were out...
muse.jhu.edu
