"Somehow Florida, a state that bills itself as the home of the ornery and the resistant, the obstinate and the can’t-be-trodden-on, the libertarian and the government-skeptic, has fallen for the most keenly authoritarian governor in the United States." (The Atlantic)
From productivity hackers to dating coaches, from crypto bros to wellness influencers, when did the internet get taken over by gurus? Helen Lewis investigates. (BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds)
How did a simple offer, over a single painting, lead to such a spectacular destruction of someone’s life and career? (The Atlantic)
What do you believe in? As traditional religions wane in Britain, Helen Lewis asks if political movements are taking their place (BBC Radio 4).
One peculiarity of European aristocrats is that their names pile up, like snowdrifts. It’s lunchtime in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and I am about to meet Leka Anwar Zog Reza Baudouin Msiziwe Zogu, crown prince of the Albanians. (The Atlantic)
Is this the first illness spread by social media? (The Atlantic)
In this Radio 4 series, Helen Lewis explores the hidden advantage enjoyed by many of history's most famous men.
"We can all understand the hoaxers who pretend to be someone else with malign intent: the con artists, the charlatans, the cads. The inexplicable, and haunting, cases are those people who seem to believe their own stories." (The Atlantic)
Peterson "gazed into the culture-war abyss, and the abyss stared right back at him. He is every one of us who couldn’t resist that pointless Facebook argument, who felt the sugar rush of the self-righteous Twitter dunk, who exulted in the defeat of an opposing political tribe, or even an adjacent portion of our own." (The Atlantic)
“Sharing the internet with America is like sharing your living room with a rhinoceros. It’s huge, it’s right there, and whatever it’s doing now, you sure as hell know about it.”