Ideas

What happens when political conversation becomes a performance? I keep wondering what we lose when winning an argument becomes more important than understanding the person across from us.

What does it mean to be honest about what we believe, what we doubt, and what we don't know? I keep returning to the idea of probity—and what it might mean for how we listen to one another.

When a Stranger Stops Being a Stranger There is a moment that sometimes happens when I am talking with a stranger, although I am never quite sure when it happens or what causes it. At first I am simply looking at someone I don't know. I notice their clothes, their expression, their age, perhaps something about the way they are standing or moving, and without really intending to I begin constructing a picture of who I think they might be. I make assumptions almost immediately,