Substack Library

Glossary

Detonating Illusions

Human beings easily create illusions that, like Santa Claus, we later grudgingly reassess. This phenomena is particularly obvious in financial markets but shows up in less measurable forms in every sphere of human endeavor. Today’s essay is about a few contemporary illustrations of this timeless theme.

Post Destructive Leaders

Countries get off track. It happens. While there are many things that lead a country to get off track—economic crises, extreme income inequality, simmering ethnic hatred—at the end of the day countries are people and people, us, are prone to avarice, xenophobia, delusion and rage and sometimes as a species we select leaders that reflect these unproductive ways of behaving.

A Conversation with Neuroscientist David Linden

We are wired a bit funny, according to Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David Linden. Our brains send us contradictory thoughts and emotions. We also want to predict the future even when some things, like imagining a world we are no longer a part of, is impossible. You can hear the full conversation here.

The Barbell As Medicine

Happy New Year!

A Father’s Role in Thwarting Crime

Many winters ago, New England sunk under snow, passing a Russian speaking family up a hill, all of us on cross-country skis, them perhaps not realizing I understood them. I’d put their boy at 5 or 6.

The Artist’s Life and the Money Life

Last week I shared my interview with American sculptor Pete Beeman. You can hear the full conversation here.