Saturday, August 7, 2021

Saturday Good Reads - Aug. 7, 2021


It’s a study circulating among journalists right now. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois looked at how people perceive science and communications about science. And they discovered that when people are told to blindly “follow the science” and not be allowed to question or express skepticism, they become more susceptible to fake claims and pseudoscience.  

What do you do when you want to write the truth about what is happening in your country, but the government will quash your reports and you? Journalist Moisés Naím in Venezuela has a solution: write the news as fictional thriller.

 

One thing we can all agree upon: trust appears to be an increasingly scarce commodity in contemporary America. It’s a problem with tragic consequences; consider what has happened with COVID-19 vaccinations. This loss of trust didn’t happen overnight. Rod Dreher takes a conservative look at the last five years and how the national news media took itself – and trust in what it reports – off the cliff.

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

In Memory of My Parents, the Late Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha – Rodrigo Garcia at Literary Hub.

 

Flannery O’Connor on Sin and Politics – Darrell Falconburg at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

On the Literary Side of Agatha Christie – Sophie Hannah at CrimeReads.

 

The Novelist Mona Awad Pushes Shakespeare off the Stage – Christopher Bollen at Interview Magazine.

 

Summer, Glorious Summer! Rethinking the Friendship Plot – B.D. McClay at Lapham’s Quarterly.

 

Poetry

 

The Lord is Always Liminal – Rowan Williams at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

The Bridge of Sighs – David Irby at Society of Classical Poets.

 

‘The English Cantos: Volume 2: StairWell. Canto 3 Ex-Wife’ – James Sale at Society of Classical Poets.

 

News Media

 

Did the New York Times stifle lab leak debate? – Ashley Rindsberg at UnHerd. 

 

Life and Culture

 

In defense of proselytizing – Stephen Wigmore at The Critic.

 

Hard times are coming – Ursula LeGuin via The Passive Voice.

 

Big Mac and fries matter – Michael Collins at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Incoherence of Gender Ideology – Michael Robillard at Quillette.

 

Faith

 

How to Embrace a Life of Plain Things – Kendra Dahl at Core Christianity.

 

Live Where You Live: Practicing a Lifestyle of Presence – Scott Hubbard at Desiring God.

 

How to Inhabit an Unraveling Culture – Jonathan Dodson at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Dogma Drives the Christian Life – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine.

 

American Stuff

 

The Battle of Fort Sumter Begins – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Over the Rainbow – Lucy Thomas



Painting: Evening at Home, oil on canvas by Edward John Poynter (1836-1919).

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