Journalism
The Shadow Royals
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)
Julian Barnes on Elizabeth Finch
Unabashed intellectualism, and the faint British disdain for it, has haunted Barnes’s career. (The Sunday Times)
Start the Week: Welsh Identities
With Richard Wyn Jones, Hanan Issa, Marion Loeffler and Richard King (BBC Radio 4)
The Twitching Generation
Is this the first illness spread by social media? (The Atlantic)
Start the Week: Post War, Post Covid
How can a crisis lead to creativity? Historian Peter Hennessy, anthropologist Farhan Samanani and art curator Jane Alison discuss on BBC Radio 4.
Women of a Certain Age
"In accommodating characters who are mothers, without that being their only identity, television has brought new tensions and texture to established genres." (The Atlantic)
‘In the Name of God, Go’
Britain’s prime minister sees himself as Winston Churchill’s heir. But what if he is remembered as Churchill’s weak, humiliated predecessor instead? (The Atlantic)
Two Years is Long Enough
"I am desperate for a party. So desperate I would attend an enemy’s book launch. So desperate I would attend an improv-comedy night. So desperate I would see an amateur production of Shakespeare." (The Atlantic)
The Spark: Julia Galef on Scout Mindset
Julia Galef discussed "motivated cognition" -- soldier mindset -- and its opposite. (BBC Radio 4)
The Spark: Sam Bowman on YIMBYism
Sam Bowman explains why we need to build more houses--and how to get consent for that. (BBC Radio 4)