Writings / Interviews

1. “The Book Banners and I Have One Thing in Common”

   The New York Times (August 2023)

2. “The Third Force: On Stupidity and Transcendence”

   Harper’s Magazine (September 2021)

3. “Labor’s Last Stand”

   Harper’s Magazine (September 2018), with thanks to the many people who assisted me.

4. “Public or Private, It’s Work”

   New York Times (25 June 2011)

5. “When the Snake Became a Man”

   The New Yorker (30 March 2009)

6. “Labor’s Schoolhouse”

   Harper’s Magazine (July 2017)

7. “No Smoke for Camilo”

   Lapham’s Quarterly (Spring 2014)

8. Interview with Diane Rehm

   WAMU (30 June 2010)

9. Interview with Stephen Colbert

   The Colbert Report (6 July 2010)

10. Interview with Violet Lucca

    Harpers.org (6 September 2018)

11. Interview with June Thomas

    Slate Magazine (30 August 2012)

12. Interview with Krys Boyd

    KERA (28 August 2018)

Recent News

1. A new essay, “On the Tyranny of Opinion,” can be found in the summer 2024 issue of Raritan and a new short story, “Raymond Loses His Bishop,” in the summer 2024 issue of The Hudson Review.
2. I have an essay in the Spring-Summer issue of Salmagundi, a poem in the Spring issue of Image, and poems in the Summer issue of Brilliant Corners (all in 2024 print editions only).
3. “The Neighbors” from The World Pushes Back is Best American Poetry’s “Pick of the Week” (18 February 2024).
4. My friend Ethan Marcotte has published a groundbreaking book on labor organizing in the tech sector called You Deserve a Tech Union. Here’s a review by veteran union organizer Peter Olney.
5. My poem “O Gracious Light” appears in Spiritus.
6. Hear the VPR interview Erica Heilman did with me on class inequality. A fuller version is posted on Rumblestrip.
7. My essay on gratitude, “Pretty Much a Gift,” appears in the Winter 2023 Virginia Quarterly Review.
8. My short story “Spiritual” appears in the Winter 2023 issue of The Hudson Review.

Talks

Over the years I’ve given a variety of public talks, most of them based on the subject matter of my books. A few examples of past topics and venues appear below. (A fuller list of talks is also available.)

1. Vermont American Civil Liberties Union, Annual Meeting, 2012. On privacy rights. The so-called “death of privacy” is cant in the service of powerful interests.

2. Institute of Noise Control Engineering, “Inter-Noise 2012” (New York). On noise and social justice. The lower you are in the social hierarchy, the more noise you suffer.

3. Colgate University, 2007. On “organized religion.” Flawed as it is, “organized religion” is a stronger agent for social change than bourgeois “spirituality.”

4. Dartmouth Medical School, 2006. On midwifery and metaphor. The profession of midwife offers profound insights into the true meaning of “help.”

5. Smith College, 2005. On the universal moral dilemmas revealed in teaching. One day in a typical classroom amounts to an introductory course in philosophy.