Longreads

“Low-information voter” used to be something of a term of art for political scientists: a person who picks a candidate because of something superficial and flighty. Now, however,…

There is a Clock ringing deep inside a mountain. It is a huge Clock, hundreds of feet tall, designed to tick for 10,000 years. Every once in a while the bells of this buried Clock play a melody. Each time the chimes ring, it’s a melody the Clock has never played before. The Clock’s chimes have been programmed to not repeat themselves for 10,000 years. Most times the Clock rings when a visitor has wound it, but the Clock hoards energy from a different source and occasionally it will ring itself when no one is around to hear it. It’s anyone’s guess how many beautiful songs will never be heard over the Clock’s 10 millennial lifespan.

A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor, with an introduction by Karen Armstrong

When the U.S. confronted Pakistan after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there were no discussions of common goals and shared…

Bob Marley at his house in Kingston, Jamaica, March 1976; photographs by David Burnett from his book Soul Rebel: An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley 1.Bob