Davy discovers nitrous

“Finally, he arrived at the most propitious of the gases: nitrous oxide. He arrived at it by chance, while experimenting with nitrogen—“ perfectly respirable when pure”—which induced strange effects as soon as it bonded with oxygen. “I made a discovery yesterday which proves how necessary it is to repeat experiments,” he wrote to his closest friend back home on April 10, 1799, then added: This gas raised my pulse upwards of twenty strokes, made me dance about the laboratory as a madman, and has kept my spirits in a glow ever since. The discovery would soon confer upon nitrous oxide the nickname “laughing gas” and upon Davy the status of international celebrity.” — Traversal by Maria Popova https://a.co/09ytBSfg

Teacher Appreciation day

Charles Schulz evidently appreciated his teachers.

Win a victory

It’s the birthday of Horace Mann, born in Franklin, Massachusetts (1796). He was the first great American advocate of public education. He believed that, in a democratic society, education should be free and universal. He was fiercely opposed to slavery, and toward the end of his life, he was the president of Antioch College, a new institution committed to coeducation and equal opportunity for all students, black and white. Two months before he died, he said in a speech to the graduating class: “I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/the-writers-almanac-for-monday-may-4-2026/

A real influencer

and her best friend

Walk

Walk: Rediscover the Most Natural Way to Boost Your Health and Longevity―One Step at a Time https://a.co/d/08o3aTF4

every day

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Vitalism

"...The celebration of animal spirits can descend into triviality or worse — a fascist cult of violence. But it has more serious and valuable meanings as a reverence for life itself, as well as a broader connection with the recognition that the universe is alive. As a way of being in the world, vitalism has inspired thinkers from Walt Whitman to William James to Aldo Leopold. Not to mention Ludwig Wittgenstein, who sought to cultivate “the experience of seeing the world as a miracle.”
...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/opinion/donald-trump-animal-spirits.html?smid=em-share

Stewart Brand, Maintenance: Of Everything - The Ezra Klein Show

At 87, Stewart says, self-maintenance is nearly a full-time job. 

Stewart Brand might be the most influential philosopher of the internet – at least in its more idealistic era. In the 1960s, Brand was the central bridge figure between the San Francisco counterculture and the emerging technology scene. He created the legendary Trips Festival with Ken Kesey in 1966, and was there at “the mother of all demos” in 1968. And he created and edited the Whole Earth Catalog, which Steve Jobs called “one of the bibles of my generation” and “Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along.” 

Brand has seen Silicon Valley evolve in the decades since. And along the way, he has written many brilliant books about our relationship to technology, the built environment and the natural world. His latest book is “Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One.” 

In this conversation, we discuss everything from dropping acid to the genesis of the Whole Earth Catalog, what he thinks A.I. will reveal about humanity, the 40 years he’s spent living on a tugboat and the importance of maintenance in a culture that prizes novelty and disposability.

Mentioned:

Ezra is moderating a forum on housing and affordability with some of the top California gubernatorial candidates. The event is on Friday, May 8, in Oakland, CA. You can buy tickets here. Use the code EKSHOWfor 20 percent off your order.

Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One by Stewart Brand

“We Didn’t Ask for This Internet” with Cory Doctorow and Tim Wu, The Ezra Klein Show

I And Thou by Martin Buber

Book Recommendations:

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch

The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester

The Scottish Enlightenment by Arthur Herman

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447

Annie Dillard

Today is the birthday of Annie Dillard (books by this author), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1945). She began writing poetry in high school, and then studied English in college. After writing a master's thesis on Thoreau's Walden, she moved to a cabin in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. There she wrote poetry and also kept a daily journal of her observations of nature and her thoughts about God and religion. She wrote in old notebooks and on four-by-six-inch index cards, and when she was ready to transform the journal into a book, she had 1,100 entries. "By the time I finished the book, I weighed about 98 pounds," Dillard said. "I never went to bed. I would write all night until the sun was almost coming up."

The result, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, was published in 1974, and Annie Dillard received her first literary award the following year: the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. She was only 29 years old. She has published collections of essays and of poetry, as well as an autobiography… When it comes to writing, she says: "Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark."

https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/the-writers-almanac-for-thursday-april-30-2026/

Feynman on walking

The Only Exercise Your Body Was Actually Designed For https://youtu.be/Uo8qxQY2T0U?si=HRvHWqMBFS7yWoHi