Brain Food

Your brain is hungry. Here are some recommendations that I've enjoyed which you *might* enjoy, too!

I suspect that you, like me, have a hungry brain—always looking for your next intellectual snack. Here are a variety of recommendations from stuff I’ve enjoyed—and I hope you enjoy some of them, too.

Newsletters

Open Letters by

Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum, the journalist and historian who won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, Gulag, just joined Substack. She previously wrote about communism in the Soviet Union and has extensively chronicled the history of totalitarian political systems. Then, as she puts it, “something strange happened,” as Russia drifted closer and closer to its old ways of Soviet-style autocracy and the lure of authoritarianism began to seduce more of the world, including a resurgence in the democratic West. She therefore has a unique perspective on two of the major areas of global concern: Russia’s behavior and the rise of autocracy. Here’s one of her dazzling Atlantic pieces if you want a feel for her writing. You can sign-up for her newsletter here.

The Villager by

Tom Cox

Tom Cox is a bit of a self-proclaimed 21st century yokel, who writes about strange, wonderful aspects of nature, folk tales, the human experience, and what it’s like to live in a rural English village. Here is one of his recent notes on Substack, which tells a bit about the whimsical way he observes the world:

If you like vibrant, playful—but thoughtful—fiction with insightful reflections, do sign-up. I recommend starting with this recent entry, in which he describes life from the fantastical perspective of a “domesticated Moorland Pixie” that, as he tells it, is employed in his village household. Here is how the pixie describes the experience when “The Master” puts on a Salt-N-Pepa tune on the record player:

Innumerable now are the times when I have danced to these 43 minutes of sonic genius while performing my daily chores, and the experience never gets old. In fact, my moves to ‘Hyped On The Mic’ and ‘Shake Your Thang (It’s Your Thing)’ are so honed that I have reached the point where I can perform them effortlessly while balancing an adolescent cat on my shoulders.

Semafor Flagship

Semafor Flagship gives you a quick, but well-researched way to keep up with major developments in world events, but often beyond the usual headlines. The Flagship provides ten global stories that will get you up to speed but also highlight trends and longer-running shifts. What I particularly appreciate is that it actually means global—it’s not dominated by news exclusively from the US and Western Europe. For example, a recent edition highlighted the role of K-Pop stars in South Korea’s elections, alongside an explanation of how emerging markets, such as Brazil, India, and Indonesia are flexing their economic muscles, with a piece about AI in Japan thrown in for good measure. It’s also completely free.

Others:

I’ll write more in-depth about others soon, but here are several that I enjoy reading, as they’re always thought-provoking:

• Superb Owl
  : An anonymous writer reflects on science and spirituality, often with carefully considered philosophy for added intellectual provocation.

• The Hundred
  : A hundred words each, from three experts on important questions. Quick insights, alongside some informative in-depth interviews.

• The Bluestocking
  : An always interesting round-up, with Helen’s astute observations peppered in, by one of Britain’s most talented writers on politics and culture.

• Experimental History
  : Consistently fascinating, excellent insights, fun and vibrant writing about important topics in social research.

• Odds and Ends of History
  : Esoteric, well-researched, delightful—with laudable dedication to getting the UK government to “liberate” the Postcode Address File.

• Ordering the Disorder
  : Deep dives into global political disorder from India and Iran to the Caribbean.

Articles

“Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever,” The Atlantic

I laughed out loud several times reading this, as the author, Gary Shteyngart, punishes himself for your amusement by traveling solo on the largest cruise ship ever made. A few excerpts to tickle your interest:

In preparation for sailing, I have “priced in,” as they say on Wall Street, the possibility that I may come from a somewhat different monde than many of the other cruisers. Without falling into stereotypes or preconceptions, I prepare myself for a friendly outspokenness on the part of my fellow seafarers that may not comply with modern DEI standards. I believe in meeting people halfway, and so the day before flying down to Miami, I visited what remains of Little Italy to purchase a popular T-shirt that reads DADDY’S LITTLE MEATBALL across the breast in the colors of the Italian flag. My wife recommended that I bring one of my many T-shirts featuring Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, as all Americans love the beagle and his friends. But I naively thought that my meatball T-shirt would be more suitable for conversation-starting. “Oh, and who is your ‘daddy’?” some might ask upon seeing it. “And how long have you been his ‘little meatball’?” And so on.

…

Another hot-tub denizen suggests that he should have asked for fentanyl. After a few more drinks, Duck Necklace begins to muse about what it would be like to fall off the ship. “I’m 62 and I’m ready to go,” he says. “I just don’t want a shark to eat me. I’m a huge God guy. I’m a Bible guy. There’s some Mayan theory squaring science stuff with religion. There is so much more to life on Earth.” We all nod into our Red Stripes.

“How deep does life go?” The MIT Press Reader

A fascinating look at the history of exploring the deep oceans—an area that we still know so little about. It’s all very, very weird.

The creatures of the vent ecosystems ultimately depend on the sulfur-reducing bacteria — which we could almost say “breathe” sulfur — and include many strange denizens never before seen. None were stranger than the tube worms, which measure up to 3 meters long but are only 4 centimeters wide and live in clusters of thousands of individuals per square meter. They depend on the bacteria for energy and have no need for a digestive system. Their existence in such inhospitable conditions once again raised questions about what other life forms could exist at and below the seafloor.

“Why America Fell for Guns,” Aeon.

I’ve written a lot about America’s bizarre, maddening, terrible relationship with guns, including this piece on The Garden of Forking Paths. But this article really surprised me; it showcases how and why the gun-crazed culture is a far more recent phenomenon than we might have imagined.

…in 1945, there were somewhere around 45 million guns in the US at a time when the country had 140 million people. A quarter-century later, by 1970, the number of guns doubled, whereas the population increased by a little less than 50 per cent. By 2020, the number of guns had skyrocketed to nearly tenfold of its 1945 rate, while the population grew less than 2.5 times the 1945 number.

“Mom who pushed kids from moving car was astrology influencer disturbed by eclipse,” Los Angeles Times

This is an incredibly disturbing story, but it’s important. I’ve highlighted here and here how the seductive allure of conspiracy theories manifests in destructive cognition that often leads to real-world consequences. This story is a particularly dystopian illustration of how dangerous it can be when social media influencing, conspiracy theories, mental health, and solar eclipses all coalesce into a deadly mix.

Danielle Johnson, who had 100,000 followers on Twitter, posted all sorts of horoscope stuff, retweeted the delusional grifter Naomi Wolf, and amplified the most deranged, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Then, it became clear she believed that the eclipse was evidence of a conspiracy to usher in the apocalypse.

Johnson proceeded to murder her partner, kill most of her children (even chucking her infant onto a highway out of a moving car) and then drove her car into a tree at 100mph, killing herself a few hours before the eclipse. (Her 9 year old survived). I looked at the Twitter comments, which I do not recommend if you want to feel reassured about humanity. One of the top comments was about how this offers a clear lesson to learn from: not that pseudoscience is dangerous, but that the killing was inevitable because the influencer "had never mentioned using a protective spell" while dealing with energies.

Books

Malice by Keigo Higashino

Since I read murder mysteries to relax, I must admit I’m prone to reading the so-called “Golden Age” genre that mimics the style of Agatha Christie. As a result, I hadn’t ventured into the world of Japanese murder mystery writing, but I’m glad I’ve now changed that. This book has a distinct style: short, punchy, declarative sentences, which makes it a quick read. There are some excellent twists in this book—and I was sufficiently gripped that I read it in one day.

Then…I bought and read his more famous book, The Devotion of Suspect X, which I also highly recommend (I finished it today). It is definitely not your standard murder mystery, but I loved it. Really compelling, fascinating character development, and extraordinarily gripping…even though you know who committed the murder in the first few pages.

Do Not Disturb by Michela Wrong

The UK government is trying—and failing miserably—to enact a hare-brained, amoral scheme to deport migrants to Rwanda, a dictatorship that looks like a well-run developmental state from the outside, but that also happens to hunt down and murders its opponents. This book chronicles Rwanda’s assassination program and makes for harrowing reading. (If you’re interested in a shorter taste of the book, I produced an episode about Do Not Disturb for my podcast series, Power Corrupts).

Thank you for reading The Garden of Forking Paths. I hope you enjoy some of these recommendations. Have a wonderful day—I’ll be back with a full essay soon.