Read for empathy, imagination, resistance

And pleasure.

"I am currently in Spain. In the news today here I saw there is a massive growth in reading for pleasure.

This is good. Because in the UK reading for pleasure is currently in decline.

Literate societies make the best societies. Which is why when fascists take over they ban books and destroy libraries.

A good novel is the best invention humans have ever created for imagining other lives. Reading has been scientifically proven to increase empathy.

Resist fascism. Read more."

Matt Haig
https://www.threads.com/@mattzhaig/post/DKHNGh5MYI0?xmt=AQF0tTodm39qtBxPWDRSDiWJxds-JsPrmwY6YfqMu6YwKw

Home sweet cosmos

"Einstein very rarely made markings in his books, but Solovine’s Democritus is graced with many of Einstein’s own handwritten highlights. One of the passages that caught Einstein’s eye explained how the higher kind of human being should feel at home in the whole universe. “To the wise man every land is open,” Democritus declared, “for the homeland of an elevated soul is the whole cosmos.”"

"I Am a Part of Infinity: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein" by Kieran Fox: https://a.co/cTlH8y2

Look up for wonder & awe

"In emphasizing awe, Einstein was parting ways with most past religious teachers, but he still had plenty of predecessors. Socrates said some twenty-five hundred years ago that “wonder is the mark of the philosopher.”6 Schopenhauer saw “the sense of the sublime” as a sure sign of a higher mind.7 And one of Lao Tzu’s last lessons in the Tao Te Ching is “Let not your consciousness of life become shallow, and never allow yourself to become weary of existence.”8

Aligning himself with all these first-rate philosophers, Einstein maintained that mere existence was marvelous. “Every thinking person,” he felt, “must be filled with wonder and awe just by looking up at the stars.”"

"I Am a Part of Infinity: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein" by Kieran Fox : https://a.co/6Tqi73c

Moral ambition

Another name for meliorism…

Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives

NYTimes: Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/magazine/rutger-bregman-interview.html?context=audio&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Revisiting the Classics with AI

John Kaag on Rebind, at the Concord Museum. May 13, 2025

https://youtube.com/live/sYmi8Bv05dE?si=S2xv2NpK6LdOmeeF

Yogi!

100 years ago today, Yogi Berra was born in St. Louis.

A 10-time World Series champ, WWII vet, and Hall of Famer, he once said, "Ninety percent of hitting is mental. The other half is physical."

Learn more about the accidental poet laureate of American baseball in our clip from BASEBALL.

https://www.threads.com/@kenburnspbs/post/DJjripNIV-y?xmt=AQF06sEKIrWbCbKH7h6_m1XBAMCmePZ7MkNfXo7ERc4Yvg

VE Day-the lesson

On this day 80 years ago the Nazis were beaten in Europe.

I can always remember my Nan talking about the collective euphoria felt throughout the country when they heard the news.

A sense of unity that led to a belief that we should look out each other. Hence the NHS and the welfare state arriving in the years after.

85 million died on all sides in World War Two.

Very few people saw it coming until too late.

Never normalise Nazis. Never ignore fascism.

That's the lesson.

Matt Haig
https://www.threads.com/@mattzhaig/post/DJZwMqrMD0s?xmt=AQF0zi3axZ_WqreSEREyA4Upz0gxwemV9528BdG74aQGFw

Off the rails

Hey look, the GOP and its leaders are lunatics! As I published a book about months into Trump's first presidency. Chapter 40 is called "When the GOP Went Off the Rails." And here are a couple of passages from Chapter 46, "As Fantasyland Goes So Goes the Nation."

Kurt Andersen https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/business/media/trump-conspiracy-theories.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Refuse to stay silent

So many of you wrote to me about my appearance on 60 Minutes and offered such kind words of support. Thank you.🙏

I hope you read this, consider how you can speak out as well, and share with others. https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/my-time-on-60-minutes-and-why-i-refuse-to-stay-silent/

Trust & openness

"To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control."

Martha Nussbaum (who may well be my favorite living philosopher and who turns 78 today) on how to live with our human fragility: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/03/14/martha-nussbaum-bill-moyers-world-of-ideas/