Had on the podcast Elise Ann Allen, the Rome correspondent for Crux, about her new book, Pope Leo XIV: The Biography (Penguin Random House). Talked a fair bit about Prevost’s time in Peru: www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/cove...

Dawn of the Electric World Order: Global shockwaves from the war on Iran are accelerating the energy transition “What makes this shock different from the 1970s? As analysts at Ember put it: “this is the first energy shock with a superior alternative.” www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw...

Was a real pleasure to have my old professor, Kambiz GhaneaBassiri—a leading scholar on the history of Islam in the US—on the podcast to discuss religion and Mamdani, the Muslim community’s response to ICE raids in Minnesota, and the war in Iran.” www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/worl...

In our age of authoritarian certainty, divinity schools have an important role to play in constructing a liberal vision of human flourishing. Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins writes in defense of divinity schools:

'Magyar’s landslide victory in Hungary has triggered a global outpouring of commentary that sometimes reads like a trashy banner ad: “This one secret technique will make your far-right populism problem disappear!” [But] lessons are more subtle...and some may not be applicable to larger countries.'

Wrote a small piece inspired by my visit to the University of Chicago’s famous Department of Economics : www.commonwealmagazine.org/divinity-sch...

This is very good. www.thenation.com/article/cult...

A pleasure to talk with Gavin Jacobson about Equator Magazine, and in particular the motivations behind its recent founding as well as the magazine’s vision: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

A pleasure to have Branko Milanovic/@BrankoMilan on the podcast to discuss his important new book: “The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World”: www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/worl...

Vincent Garton has written an excellent review for Modern Intellectual History of two new books on Alexandre Kojève by Marco Filoni, (The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève) and Boris Groys, (Alexandre Kojève: An Intellectual Biography). Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

‘As Europe’s leading self-declared “illiberal” statesman, Orbán has built a whole intellectual infrastructure, from glossy magazines to think tanks and international conferences, to spread his philosophy.’ New: @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on Hungary’s upcoming elections www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

"A hallmark of Lerner’s fiction is the very particular way that politics encroaches, or rather doesn’t, on the life of the protagonist: It is there as a backdrop, a marker of time and place but not much else." Tara Menon in @thenation.com's Spring Books www.thenation.com/article/cult...

'As the president reassured anyone suspecting that he might fill a glitzy edifice with boring papers and books: “I don’t believe in building libraries or museums.” These are clear signals about wanting to avoid accountability.'

Checkout MIH’s first issue of 2026: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A great moment tonight at Wesleyan University as we were joined by Cornel West and Robert P. George for a conversation about the need to bridge differences to find our common humanity in this age of such unrest.

Open Access @universitypress.cambridge.org!

It was a pleasure to organize this engrossing H-Diplo round table devoted to Grey Anderson’s collection: “Natopolitanism: The Atlantic Alliance since the Cold War.” Participants include Rajan Menon, Jonathan Hunt, Olena Lennon and Peter Rutland: issforum.org/roundtables/...

A pleasure to interview Sophia Rosenfeld for The Nation about her book: “The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life”: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

In light of his passing, Le Grand Continent has published en français the full version of my recent interview with Jürgen Habermas: legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/03/1...

RIP to Jürgen Habermas. I had the privilege of interviewing him around this time last year for The Nation: thenation.com/article/cult...

An epic book

Here is the new episode of the podcast I cohost with Nick Tabor called, "Of This World." Our guest is the intellectual historian Jonathan Sheehan. We discuss his important new book "On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular": www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/worl...

Here is the new episode of the podcast I cohost with the Nick Tabor called, "Of This World." Our guest is the intellectual historian Jonathan Sheehan. We discuss his important new book "On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular": www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/worl...

Ulrich Plass with an excellent MIH review essay re new books on Marxism: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A pleasure to have the reporter Daniel Silliman on the podcast to discuss his tenure at Christianity Today, the current state of Evangelicalism and more: www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/worl...

“Vincent Descombes looks back, after another 45 years, on his history of French philosophy from 1933 to 1978, published in English as Modern French Philosophy (1980) and in French as Le Même et l’Autre (1979).”: philosophersmag.com/45-years-of-...

My first interview for The Nation this year is with Kwame Anthony Appiah and concerns his new book on the religious origins of sociology titled: “Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science”: thenation.com/article/cult...

My first interview for The Nation this year is with Kwame Anthony Appiah and concerns his new book on the religious origins of sociology titled: “Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science”: thenation.com/article/cult...

A forthcoming edited collection from Princeton University Press: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Call for Applications for the Moynihan Public Scholars Fellowship based out of City College in NYC. Highly recommend applying: moynihancenter.ccny.cuny.edu/programs/pub...

Excellent LRB review of two new books on the life and thought of Alexandre Kojève : “Kojève ‘adored’ international negotiations, but did not take them too seriously: for him they were essentially a ‘superior game’, which he played ‘like the devil in holy water’.” www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

On Justine Lacroix: "Popular sovereignty and the rule of law are inseparable: the idea that there could be “illiberal democracies” is groundless and plays into the hands of populists.": booksandideas.net/A-Return-to-...

The intellectual historian Camilla Boisen has written an extensive review article of my and Lauren Benton‘s books on war and genocide, bringing different fields into conversation. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The latest episode of the podcast I cohost with Nick Tabor is now available. We interviewed Molly Worthen, a leading historian of American religion, about her new book: Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump": www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/amer...

Thanks to Nathan Guez—a very sharp student at Sciences Po—for interviewing me: paulloussot4.wixsite.com/le-monde-d/p... Image

The Donroe Doctrine: Extortion, Extraction, Exploitation (and Extradition, if needed).

Thrilled to have Alden Young join Modern Intellectual History as an editor: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Wen Stephenson, Thea Riofrancos, and Andreas Malm discuss the "deadly silence and denial" creating a veil around the climate crisis. https://bit.ly/4seE6dE

Hope to commission about a dozen reviews/essays for Modern Intellectual History in 2026–especially interested in new books/essay ideas focusing on Asia, Africa and South America but open to all ideas. Do reach out if you have one: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

My last Nation interview for this year is with Alyssa Battistoni and concerns her important new book, “Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature”: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Here's the table of contents of The Story of Capital:

"You can't own part of the moon, but you can own the stuff that the moon contains." — Wesleyan University's @mjrubenstein.bsky.social joins @marketplace.org to discuss who has a right to the moon economy #space

Issue 47.22 is now online, featuring: @jamesmeek.bsky.social on the green energy transition and North-East England Clare Bucknell on Robert Frost @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on American post-liberalism and Maureen N. McLane on Claire-Louise Bennett’s new novel. Read online at www.lrb.co.uk

New piece by me which makes the case for a domestic version of the Fulbright program: www.commonwealmagazine.org/fulbright-sc...

Extraction by Thea Riofrancos is really good—and beautifully written. It’s refreshing to see a warning about the risks of mining for decarbonization that is neither bad-faith fossil propaganda nor a call for fatalism and hard degrowth. @triofrancos.bsky.social

This is fucking interesting www.commonwealmagazine.org/conscription...

"What kind of people do we have to become in order to achieve peaceful cities, societies, and states?" Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins revisits William James's prescription for national conscription www.commonwealmagazine.org/conscription...

"a compulsory..conscription program in which the children of both the rich &poor would spend part of their youth serving the community—would be a thoroughly democratic way to address inequality & rechannel the energies that feed the war machine" Ihttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/conscription-peace

I wrote a piece for Commonweal Mag on William James’s ‘moral equivalent of war’ a hundred years later. www.commonwealmagazine.org/conscription...