Essays
Making the modern world look strange.
Many of the things we treat as natural, permanent, and inevitable are surprisingly new.
I write about how modern life got this way, what it's doing to us, and what else might be possible.
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New to my work? These essays explain the lens.
Michelangelo Never Tasted Tomato Sauce
Most famous Italians from history never tasted tomato sauce. That matters more than you think — especially if you've ever felt guilty for changing careers. In this week's newsletter, I unpack why so much of what feels permanent is actually just... inherited.
The Ouija Board Called Civilization
A childhood Ouija board taught me something about how the world works. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
The Eskimo Village That Lost Its Eyesight
After World War II, something strange began happening to the Inuit people of Barrow, Alaska. Their children were becoming nearsighted — at an alarming rate. That’s around the time an optometry researcher named Francis A. Young decided to find out why.
Latest Essays
The Cruel Fantasy of Staying Young Forever
Most of us say we want to stay young. But what are we really asking for? What if the real tragedy is not that we age. What if the real tragedy is spending your life trying to preserve a version of yourself you were meant to outgrow?
Hunter-Gatherers Worked 2-4 Hours a Day. Why Don't We?
For most of human history, people met their needs on a few hours of work a day. The 40-hour week isn't human nature. It's a recent invention. This is where it came from, and where it might be going.
The Stranded Middle
AI is exposing the bargain millions of white-collar workers made with work they never truly loved.
I Found This at the Bottom of a Doom Scroll
I went down a doom scroll this week and what I found at the bottom was not what I expected.
What is the Meaning of Life?
We've all asked it. Sometimes in different words. Why am I here? What's the point of all this? Three thinkers helped me find my answer.
Are You the Side Project of Your Own Life?
Most of us are living as secondary characters in our own lives. Here's how it happened.
You're Not Watching the Movie. You're Watching 1987.
Every era has an operating system the people in it can't see. 1987 thought American suburbia was the center of the universe. What does 2025 think? Here's what I learned watching He-Man fight rubber monsters in a New Jersey high school parking lot.
Do A Students Really Work for C Students?
"A students end up working for C students." It hit close to home. But the more I sat with it, the more I realized it's pointing at something way more interesting than grades.
The Healer and the Warrior
Are you the healer or the warrior? The optimist or the critic? What if the answer is both — and the real trap is thinking you have to choose?
The world wasn't always like this.
The 40-hour workweek. Childhood spent indoors. Nations with fixed borders. Careers that define who we are. Infinite feeds in our pockets.
We arrive in the middle of history and mistake whatever we find here for the natural order of things.
I'm interested in what happens when we stop.
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Modern Life
The systems, habits, and assumptions we have come to accept as normal.
Work & Economy
Jobs, money, status, ambition, AI, and the machinery of economic life.
Technology & Attention
How our tools reshape our behavior, minds, relationships, and environment.
Culture & Identity
The stories, nations, norms, and identities we inherit.
Meaning & Being Human
Mortality, purpose, spirituality, psychology, and what makes a life worth living.
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One story at a time about the strange world we've inherited.