Maybe Men Like Being Lonely

Conor Fitzgerald | Fitzstack | 13th July 2026

“The conversation about male loneliness is often driven by women and their concerns for men; that perspective colours the conversation in ways that can obscure the men’s feelings about the problem. I can’t help but wonder if men’s problem with loneliness is that they need it, like it and that it suits them a little too much — and like all psychological and spiritually fulfilling things, it can become a crutch” (2,400 words)

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The Greatest Norwegian

Ed West | Wrong Side Of History | 11th July 2026

The year 1066 saw three men fight for the English throne. The most colourful of them all was Harald Sigurdsson or Hardrada, the “Thunderbolt of the North”, 6’6” tall and described as “the strongest living man under the sun”. He was obsessed with violence and verse, often in tandem. Felled by an arrow to the windpipe in the Battle of Stamford Bridge, his death signalled the end of the Viking Age (3,500 words)

The Hydration-Break World Cup

Jonathan Wilson | Paris Review | 10th July 2026

Veteran of watching 16 World Cups reviews the 2026 tournament. Dynamic ticket pricing, draconian visa rules and compulsory advertising-friendly hydration breaks have irritated and appalled viewers, but the lustre of football's biggest global gathering remains. Much of this is down to the upsets, in which "the minnows have been shocking the sharks", and the irrepressible fan enthusiasm (1,900 words)

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Strategic Amnesia

Bathsheba Demuth | n+1 | 23rd June 2026

The American public has mastered the art of "calculated forgetting" about how the US acquired its territory. Imperial ambition, fuelled by money, is a big part of this history — by the end of WW2, 40 per cent of US territory had been acquired with cash — but America does not self-identify as an empire. With Greenland, Donald Trump is continuing a long tradition of trying to buy land that is not for sale (3,100 words)

Podcast: Collapsology | Oologies. On the study of the collapse of complex societies (1h 27m)

Video: "Everything In Its Right Place" | YouTube | Medici.TV | 3m 36s

The jazz pianist Robert Glasper delivers an emotional performance of a classic Radiohead song.

'Are Most People Liars and Fakes?'

Heather Havrilesky | Ask Polly | 9th July 2026

Agony aunt defends the desire to remain earnest and kind in the face of cynicism and cruelty, using the musical evolution of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page as her case study. "Don’t shrink away from where you are, even when it disappoints you. Sway under the golden spotlights and believe for a moment that someone out there understands exactly what you’re trying to say. Show yourself in spite of the pain" (2,100 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

Is Life Just Different?

Philip Ball | Quanta | 8th July 2026

We can scan the cosmos for light and radio waves that indicate the presence of life, but cannot agree on what makes something "alive". One possible definition to pursue is that of biological agency: "living organisms are different because they do stuff for reasons". This, too, is a hotly contested topic among scientists, but a more philosophical approach could unlock new understanding about existence (3,000 words)

The Metamorphoses Of The Dollar

Adam Tooze | Chartbook | 8th July 2026

It can be useful to think of currencies as we do of technologies: there are distinct eras, of course, but steam engines, petrol cars and electric vehicles did overlap for substantial periods. Since the gold standard, the dollar has had five incarnations, Tooze argues, "each with its own, particular political economy". Today's dollar is the "profit dollar" and exists for capital accumulation (2,700 words)

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What It's Like To Suddenly Believe In God

Lydia Laurenson | Solar Light | 3rd August 2022

At a "normal networking meeting" in 2016, the writer had a blinding spiritual awakening, engendered by a stranger who seemed to have "a cheat code" for her brain. Was it hypnosis, or mind control, or a true brush with the divine? Does it matter, if the experience itself was enlightening? There aren't any definitive answers here, rather an honest and earnest exploration of these and other questions (6,200 words)

Bad Behaviour Is Correlated

Jerusalem Demsas | Argument | 7th July 2026

On Graham Platner, the would-be Democratic candidate for senator from Maine. “People sometimes treat moral failures as separable from errors of cognition. This is wrong. Moral failures sprout directly from bad practical reasoning. Virtue is not a decorative, prissy quality that hinders you from being savvy. Virtue is what comes from reasoning well and having the will to follow through on that reasoning” (2,100 words)

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New Sweden: The US’s ‘secret’ colony

Eliot Stein | BBC | 29th June 2026

From 1638-1655, there was a little-known Swedish settlement in the Delaware Valley. The secrecy was by design; the Swedes didn’t want to be discovered by the Dutch. Though the smallest, least populous and shortest-lived colony, New Sweden left behind three legacies: they created the log cabin, brought Lutheran Christianity to the New World, and led one of the earliest civilian uprisings in the US (3,500 words)

The Terrorist In The Brain

William Meller | Skeptic | 30th June 2026

Dementia is an umbrella term that covers several distinct diseases. “Saying a person ‘has dementia’ is like saying they ‘have a fever’: it tells you something is wrong, not what.” What is ordinary ageing and what isn’t? “A shift in personality or conduct, a reserved person turning crude, a warm person turning indifferent, is a genuine warning sign, too often dismissed as someone merely getting cranky with age” (3,800 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

A History Of Canada In 24 Objects

Lynne Rennie | Maclean’s | 2nd July 2026

Idiosyncratic list of iconic Canadian artefacts. Includes bagged milk, poutine, a replica of the Starship Enterprise in Vulcan, Alberta and Ogopogo, Canada’s Loch Ness Monster. Children can mail letters to Santa at the postal code H0H 0H0 and Canada Post ensures that they receive a reply from the North Pole. Also features Canadian inventions such as insulin, the BlackBerry, and Cirque du Soleil (2,200 words)

The Perpetual Present-Tense

Rayne Risher-Quann | Internet Princess | 1st July 2026

On the cycle of moral panic about young people's relationship habits. Specifically, the supposed reluctance of women to partner men. The latest manifestation is "hetero-optimism", a reincarnation of an old gender war. Different pundits have different culprits — phones, "woke", feminism — but all are united in using the "urgent-tense" to describe the problem without any reference to its complex history (5,600 words)

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Our Amish Language

Eythana Miller | Dial | 23rd June 2026

Love letter to Pennsylvania Dutch. "It’s hard to ask for a soft favour. Difficult to communicate affection, impossible to say the word love. One must use the standard German liebe, obtuse and antiquated, or succumb to English, a concession. It is a tongue of commands and directives, probing questions about family relations, occupation in the most literal sense, and of following rules" (4,600 words)

Podcast: Mary Keen On A Lifetime Of Gardening | Why Women Grow. Prolific professional garden designer, now in her eighties, gives a tour of her personal outdoor space (26m 02s)

Video: The Most Famous Tuna Melt in New York | YouTube | NYT Cooking | 12m 33s

Behind the scenes at S & P Lunch, a Depression-era luncheonette that has served customers across from the Flatiron Building in NYC since 1928.

The Anti-Amazon

Benjamin Y. Fong | Phenomenal World | 1st July 2026

Costco is the opposite of Amazon in many ways: it relies on brick and mortar stores rather than e-commerce, offers a restricted number of products, requires a membership, and expects customers to transport their own purchases. And yet its revenue is growing substantially. Perhaps the appeal of the Costco experience is the constraint. No need to scroll through endless reviews and options (2,600 words)

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How Smartphones Broke British Politics

Charlie Cooper | Politico | 11th June 2026

The UK is going through prime ministers at a record rate, six in the past ten years. Why? The chaos in No 10 Downing Street is partly a result of post-Brexit turbulence, but smartphones are an under-appreciated factor. Political opposition and rebellion is now organised on WhatsApp, not in the corridors and lobbies of Westminster. Insiders are addicted to their broadcast lists and groupchats (1,600 words)