A window into the mysteries at the end of Rome — Anybody with some baseline knowledge on the Roman Cult of Mithras will know that the central problem in the study of the cult today concerns the identity of Mithras himself. And yet, for several decades from the start of the 20th century, this problem was thought to have been firmly…

A lesson in reforming outdated disciplines for the modern day — When does it become okay to dig up a human grave? Once it reaches a certain age? Once there’s no descendants left to claim it as a heritage site? If there’s reason to believe the cultural knowledge gained from the excavation will outweigh the cultural damage done by its being…

Or, how to downsize a field in a world that values growth over everything — Ever notice how all the greatest achievements of some academic fields tend to have happened a long time ago? Some fields are only maintained nowadays for the purpose of having real and experienced people teach students material which was discovered and settled upon several decades ago. Those students then go…

And what the original environmentalists got wrong — I was thinking lately about that long-fought and ongoing revolution of values in the last several decades across the West, in which the old assumption that nature is to be the extracted victim of a conquering and ever-expanding human ambition has gradually been replaced with a more holistic view where…

And how the obsession with objectivity neuters knowledge — Did you know astronomy was once a required field for all scholars to study? It was; alongside arithmetic, geometry and music, in what was called the quadrivium, which constituted the second half of a seven-headed liberal arts education, preceded by a trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric. None of this…

a short form from sitting in the city waiting for a storm — I live at rock bottom in the Heights. It’s a beautiful mid-April Saturday morning, sitting outside tucked away in my little marble corner amidst the cherry blossoms. I chose the only spot splashed with sunlight not twenty minutes ago, and already it’s been covered up by encroaching clouds. I’ve been…

What the study of past climate catastrophes can teach us about the future — From 10,000 to around 8,000 years ago, a landmass called Doggerland, stretching over most of what is today the North Sea, gradually sank beneath the waves. Estimates tell us that the rate of its sinking averaged 3–6 feet every 100 years. For comparison, in the next century, models are all…

On the obvious need for socio-economic reinvention — So it’s not a really shocking claim to make that overall quality of life has been declining in the United States for some time, right? To my audience — who I have to both apologize and announce my excitement to on account of my recent absence and my current hopes…

A short story about pitying birds — I was walking with a girl at night in the wind in the winter. …