Literature should be a source of wonder, insight, delight, and sublime experience. And yet … the profession is sickly, jaded—and for a generation has repelled aspiring writers, teachers, and scholars. A diagnosis from “When Nothing Is Cool,” by Lisa Ruddick (thanks to Michael Strong for the recommendation). Ruddick quotes writing coach Gina Hiatt on clients

Anti-Liberals in Canada are now controlling home purchases: Foreigners not allowed. Their hope is that this will force demand and thereby prices down. Dwell on that for a moment. The Canadian government is telling Canadian home owners: We want to make your homes less valuable. Or this: Suppose that 1,000 foreigners want to buy million-dollar

Jeffrey van Davis’s documentary on Martin Heidegger’s life and thought, with interviews of leading scholars of Heidegger. See also the episode on Martin Heidegger’s “What Is Metaphysics?”, in the *Philosophers, Explained* series:

When I teach Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, my focus in class is philosophical, but I point out along the way how her fiction-writer’s methods concretize, dramatize, and foreshadow her abstract themes. One of my favorite examples is based on the premise that first meetings matter in life and literature. Here are our first meetings of

My ongoing series on the great philosophers, each episode devoted to a key text with my commentary.