I promise to take this great responsibility seriously — Do you know what it’s like to go to a party where everyone is talking about their podcast and you have no podcast to talk about? Of course, you don’t. Because you have a podcast. Until now, I’ve suffered with the burden of thoughts that weren’t expressed publicly. Sure, I…

The Iranian-American’s new book, An American Martyr in Persia, is a tribute to his hero, a Christian missionary who died 113 years ago. Could I save the world in 2022 without it hating me for it? — When we read Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” in high school, everyone talked about how racist it was. I, too, thought imperialism was not for me. But mostly because it sounded like a lot of work.

No Hebrew school. No temple. No rabbi. Can it really be so easy? It was. And it might be destroying Judaism. — Of all the wonders I could not have imagined when I was 13 — streaming music, streaming movies, streams (I grew up in the suburbs) — the most amazing would have been the home bar-mitzvah. As my son Laszlo delivered his torah portion in our living room in August, I…

Music experts review the Space Force and QAnon anthems — Sure, nationalism leads to war. And economic contraction. And the loss of human rights. But it’s also supposed to give us stirring anthems we will one day use to score violent movies. Where’s our Wagner, our Smetana, our Trey Parker? Last week, two American anthems finally arrived. I sent them…

The Great Curse Shift™ Has Changed Which Words We Can’t Say — Ask anyone under 15 what the “f-word” is. Then slap them for saying it. This is not only a fun game, but an instructive one. Because if you’re over 50, you’ll expect them to say that the “f-word” is “fuck.” They will not. They will say, “fag.” Which is a…

Elites Plan to Replace Our Meat with Bugs So They Can Control the World. I Want in. — I’ve always found the novelist and essayist Walter Kirn to be a thought-provoking writer, interesting conversationalist, and, most importantly, willing blurber of my book. So, I wasn’t surprised when the author of Up in the Air had something to say in a response to a tweet from PBS’ Nova series…

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell’s New Book, Skirts, Points Out the Folly of Wearing Jeans — I have very few opinions about fashion, and almost all of them only pertain to strippers. So, I was pretty excited when my fashion historian friend, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, agreed with my boldest style pronouncement: Jeans are a plague upon humanity. Kimberly’s new book, Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth…

Follow This Rule and You’ll Never Lose Money… —

Self-Driving Delivery Carts Have Invaded L.A. Sidewalks — My 13-year-old son yelped. Laszlo is not normally a yelper, so I asked him what he was yelping about. He silently jabbed his finger at the car window. “What?” I asked. “Robot!” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until we reached the next corner. Four robot carts with…