Spent January researching the Virgin Mary's mountain appearances. Started with one book, ended up three hours deep in a database of Nahuatl hieroglyphs wondering where my afternoon went. This is the creative K-hole. The bad books might lead you somewhere you never expected to go. Read more:

Are the humanities the only disciplines whose classes begin with modules speaking to the importance of studying the humanities? "Why study the humanities?" and "Why the humanities are important" must be cliches.

This administration is only happy when it has someone by the throat… and other body parts.

Anyone tuning in to watch Alex Honnold free solo Taipei 101? It is called Skyscraper Live and will be streamed on Netflix in a few hours. I don’t think I have the stomach to watch…

My son turns two in a few weeks and his favorite song? Verdi’s La Traviata (Act II: Noi Siamo). Mommy and daddy don’t listen to Verdi, at least not before. 🤷‍♂️

Join us for our first podcast! We talk with the amazing Alexandra Cotofana about landscape sentience in the Romanian Carpathians and the concept of xenophobic mountains. shorturl.at/DfOrj @jeremybassetti.com @julianhoffman.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @edithmayhall.bsky.social

What a beautiful and important work the 16th-century Florentine Codex is, available for transcribed from the Spanish and Nahuatl and translated into English. florentinecodex.getty.edu

I chair the acquisitions meeting of @reaktionbooks.bsky.social, an independent publisher. We're open to unsolicited book proposals: history, art, music, film, food, animal studies and any great indefinable non-fiction book ideas you might have. Check out the list and get in touch.

Fare thee well, Bobby Weir.

⚠️ Gross Platforming Chatter ⚠️ My newsletter lost subscribers at a 3:1 ratio last year. Not great. The main culprit was twofold: not showing up online and removing my "email magnet" — a free PDF I gave people in exchange for signing up. 🧵1/3

Spent 2025 building roots underground while everything looked dead from the surface. Launched On Mountains. Made it to Bolivia. Published 38 posts. The exhaustion is real, but so is the foundation I'm laying. End-of-year review: jeremybassetti.com/fieldnotes/2...

The Carpathian Mountains punish invaders and shelter defenders in Romanian national memory. This 'mountains as protectors' idea appears from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Afghanistan.

Maybe not “crazy,” but when I opened a folio from the early 18th century, pounce or sand fell out… suggesting not many people had opened it between its writing and me.

Have you listened to the new mountains podcast yet? Put on by @mountainsofgreece.bsky.social @jonwestaway.bsky.social and @profpitches.bsky.social, the "Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures" podcast has published its first episode. Also, follow the podcast on Bluesky: @futuremountain.bsky.social .

Hope you can join us for the launch of the Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures podcast in 2026. Stay tuned.... IMAGE: Signal and heliotrope station, Monte Rosa, Switzerland, 1914. SOURCE: Swiss Topo, Memoriav Memobase shorturl.at/oqEEa

Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it

Filed under the enshittification of Substack.

Friends: I published some thoughts on the idea of the notebook as a life interface. I do take digital notes, but I never feel like quitting on pen and paper. Don't worry... my post is not prescriptive; I offer no "tips" or methods on how to take notes.

re: The Tonearm I'd like to bring on another writer to our online mag who specializes in experimental music, be it freak-out jazz, post-classical, sound art, outsider noise, or delicious combinations of those … must have writing experience (this can be your blog/newsletter) + into doing interviews

🚨PRE-ORDER Mountains Magazine #2 for delivery in early Dec. Prices from just £2.99! 🏷️WINTER SALE Subscribe & save. 4 issues delivered for just £24.95 BUY HERE > www.mountains-magazine.com/Shop/#wbs1 ⛰️Saint-Gervais ⛰️Shiga Kogen ⛰️Méribel ⛰️Copper Canyon ⛰️Bavaria ⛰️+ much MUCH more! #Sale #Mountains

I wrote about Mountains in Kalidasa's 5th-century poem "The Birth of Kumara."

Finished reading and started unpacking my notes on David Smith's English translation of Kalidasa's Sanskrit "The Birth of Kumara."

Servitude as a Service: Artificial Intelligence Software from the Perspective of Kant.

i kno rite? chat, u gotta 💥 💎 rizz up that riting. www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...

The deadliest mountain in the world in 2025... #Mountains #Mining #Extractivism #Indigenous #HighAltWork

The confluence of indigenous cosmology, Catholic devotion, and political authority in one of Bolivia's festival honoring the Virgin of Urkupiña: jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains...

🔔 Event reminder! 🗻 Conference | Mountains of Greece: Heritage narratives from the past for a sustainable future 📆 22-24 October 2025 ❗ fully booked in-person 🌐 online registration still available: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @mountainsofgreece.bsky.social

This is tonight! NYPL in Manhattan.

I spoke with Lance Richardson about his massive biography of Peter Matthiessen, "True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen." Listen to the pod on your favorite app or on the web using the link below. @lancerichardson.bsky.social

At over 2,600 words, my new article on the evolution of sacred space in the first five books of the Bible is a long read... but I promise it comes with fewer commandments. Follow the link to read more.

I wrote about mountains and materialism during the Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña in Bolivia, which I've attended a few times. jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains...

Book launch next Tuesday at the New York Public Library. Going to be a tremendous event. Tickets are free!

I read this line thought of @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social — "All this tilts dangerously toward that old familiar strain of fascism in nature writing, the strain that despises cities as breeding grounds for the foreign and impoverished while promising to restore to a purer people glory and lands."

Some notes on mountains in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Some notes on how our reaction to the Arc-teryx fireworks controversy in Tibet reveals our society's cultural ignorance.

The parallel exchange rate in Bolivia is wild. Take money out of the atm and you’ll get around 7 bolivianos per dollar. Take dollars to the money exchangers on the street and you’ll get double. Meaning, bring cash and your trip instantly gets 50% cheaper. And you’ll help the black market! Win-win.

I’m off to South America. But I leave you with August’s Genius Loci newsletter. jeremybassetti.com/genius-loci/...

I just finished Byung-Chul Han's book "Vita Contemplativa." My least favorite of his books so far, partly because it offers takes that are familiar to those who have read his other books. It discusses the anxiety that arises when we're not "productive" or "optimizing."

Some notes on mountains in the Book of Numbers. jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains...

I've had absolutely zero uses of Marry Shelly in student papers this year, which means 100% of students are paying attention or....

I'm pretty sure most of my students don't know the markdown language, so seeing markdown syntax so often in papers raises my eyebrows and suspicions...

Thesiger is a dreadful writer, no clear ethical lines between truth and lie, and much more in this weeks episode of Kids Say the Darndest Things. www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...

Some notes on mountains in the Book of Leviticus.

Listen to my conversation with Aatish Taseer about his excellent new book "A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile." Podcast links in the reply.

New podcast episode with Edwin Bernbaum about his book "Sacred Mountains of the World." Listen on your favorite podcasting app or on the web here: jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains...

I just published the second part of my notes on mountains in the Book of Exodus. You can also listen to my voice clone read them on the On Mountains podcast (linked in the article below). jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains...

Blown away by how far AI voice clones have come.

Here is the first half of my notes on mountains in the Book of Exodus. jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains...

Is this what nature writing has come to?