Alex Michael

T he best third places are rec centers and libraries. Modern third places need to offer transformation, not just transaction. While cafes have become laptop farms, gyms and libraries remain sacred spaces for the body and the mind.

The more I interact with people as an adult, the more I notice a binary of curious and non-curious, interested and disinterested, creative and consumptive, which all feel like the same difference.

When the enclosure of the psyche is complete, we lose the right to wander and roam and loaf about in thought, just as the enclosure of the commons restricted freedom of movement and disdained economically unproductive but life-affirming forms of leisure.

The real thing people should be actively looking for is strong emotional connection, as in: to what degree can I share who I am with this person, do they get it , how interested are they in who I am, my feelings and thoughts, can we accommodate each other’s preferences, are we good at talking. Once I asked a very happy couple how they knew they wer... See more

She notes that rejection of religion has not reigned in the utopia of reason as the New Atheists hoped. All that happened was that the religious instinct was unconsciously transferred to the political realms. Having zealot-level convictions for your political aims without the accompanying humility (believing in a higher power), things tend to get n... See more