Curated Nerd-Cool
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I promised to intermittently share what I find digging through the crates of life. Here’s the best and most interesting of what I came across the past couple weeks. ✌️
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Democracy Now!
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a great, principled writer. He’s also done a really good job surviving an amount of fame that would crush most authors’ ability to think clearly.
Check out his powerfully emotional and insightful testimony in this interview about experiencing the segregation and dehumanization of Palestinians visiting the Occupied Territories:
Suddenly I was in a region of the world where some people could vote, and some people could not…There’s no way for me, as an African American, to come back and stand before you, to witness segregation and not say anything about it.
violence itself is corrupting…it corrupts the soul.
The video is must-watch. But you can also read Ta-Nehisi’s transcript here.
Even a “Respectable” Red-Brown Coalition Is Just Brown
I have questions…
Reading Politics and Policy
- , “The Sources of American Exhaustion,” What is To Be Done? Newsletter
Paul Heer, “Is Washington Prepared to Negotiate Peaceful Co-Existence with China?” National Interest (shoutout to Frank Aum for letting me know about this piece)
Patrick Iber, “Cold War Liberalism Returns,” Dissent
Serena Adlerstein, “The Ten Components of Good Strategy,” Convergence Magazine (I have quibbles, but it’s far more right than wrong, and has some good resource references for strategy nerds)
Jobs
Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center has a “Global China Fellows” program that’s now accepting applications for pre-doc and post-doc fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year. For the policy oriented but academically qualified, click here.
What You Missed In Substack Notes
Substack has a feature called Notes that’s a very Twitter-like social function. You can follow people, and you can interact with what people post (I think you can post too). I’ve started using it more, and except for a center-right lean of the content being shared around, it seems promising. So I’ll share here any big thing you might’ve missed from not being on Notes, like this:
And in case you needed a refresher about radicalism in left versus right varieties:
Non-Sequitur
The Marvel Comics Universe is the most profitable movie franchise in history…but it might be on its way down.
Time for Marvel to start buying some good scripts for a change.
Entertainment
The horror-comedy Shining Vale has been a hoot to watch. Great acting, great plotting, and pretty funny while still keeping a spooky edge.