Better Thinkers,
Like everyone else, my eyes are glued to CNN and the images coming out of Ukraine. A land war in Europe for the first time in 80 years is an event that deserves the globe’s fullest attention, and its repercussions will be felt far beyond Kharkiv and Kyiv, to every corner of the free and unfree world. What happens in Europe’s bloodlands will matter everywhere.
But we also live in the macro and micro simultaneously, and since it’s been a little while, I wanted to let everyone know a little bit about what I’ve been up to. This newsletter was fueled by the conviction that we are all of us together living through wild and uncertain times that have surfaced new perils and also minted novel opportunities. It has been my effort to step into the moment by taking a half-step back from the headlines to write about the big ideas and telling details.
As I wrote in my first post, I aspired to both hot takes and long views. In who knows how many essays and over many thousands of words, I hope I provoked and persuaded in equal measure, and that when the letters commuted from taps on my keyboard to an email in your inbox they added to your day and your perspective.
If this sounds like a goodbye, it definitely is not. I have big plans for Better Thinking, and I plan on each one of you being a part of those. This has always been a conversation, and like any good one, who would ever want it to end? Fortunately, it won’t. I write this as Russian rockets fly over Ukraine, the price to live in this country is spiraling, and we seem (hopefully) to be moving towards the end of Covid as the defining feature of global life. There is plenty to consider.
But I did want to share some exciting news with you, and explain a little bit about why I am so excited to join the New York Sun full-time as a staff writer and assistant editor.
The Sun is one of the flagship American newspapers. It was an anti-slavery stalwart before the Civil War, and a pioneer in the golden age of American journalism. It covered Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, Reconstruction and World War I. It pioneered crucial innovations like a fashion section, was a leader in hiring women journalists, and in many ways set the template for what a (New York) newspaper could and should be.
That was just the Sun’s first chapter. In 2002, it came under the leadership of legendary journalist Seth Lipsky, and reemerged as a print paper, punching far above its weight and accumulating a loyal and devoted readership who appreciated its prose and its perspective. The 2008 financial crisis made print an anachronism for all but the largest papers, and so the Sun went into brief eclipse.
The good news is that it’s back. A dynamic new team headed by Seth as Editor in Chief and Dovid Efune, who also helms the Alegemeiner Journal as Publisher, has relaunched the Sun as a daily, digital newspaper. And I’ve joined them.
For all of us, the Sun is a bet on the proposition that there will always be readers for a paper that respects its readers and approaches its task with both seriousness and joy. We aim to be engaging, trustworthy, unique. We want to challenge the New York Times, and bring you news thats shows you New York and the world with fresh eyes.
At a time of volatility in both politics and culture, I wanted to be in the arena, and not just on the sidelines. It’s an altneu- an old/new- a 21st century startup of a 19th century penny broadsheet, a move from the cheap seats to the 50 yard line.
I’ll be driving much of our legal, arts, and culture coverage, and we are always open for opinion submissions.
Please check us out, and if you are so moved, subscribe. We have a newsletter that goes out in the morning and afternoon with sharply reported news story and deep dive opinions, as well as a slate of live and virtual events. You can find us here:
Here are some of my favorite pieces I’ve worked on thus far- I hope you find them enjoyable to read as I did to write….
Reporting on Russia and cryptocurrency in the wake of Western sanctions
A review of Jacques-Louis David’s drawings at the Met
A review of a Faith Ringgold retrospective at the New Museum
Analysis of an unlikely alliance between Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton
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I recently subscribed to the New York Sun. I find it better than the Wall Street Journal to be honest. I did find it difficult to comment. I read the guidelines but still could not comment after the red advisement appeared that I was editing the author's article. After that first comment was rejected, it seemed to appear on any comment made in separate articles. Just curious.