Jennifer Szalai

I wrote about something that's contested nowadays: empathy.

WaPo's Ron Charles, in his Book Club newsletter, on Meta's repeated questions about his plans to review Sarah Wynn-Williams's "Careless People": "In my 27 years of reviewing and editing newspaper books sections, no company has ever done this with me."

In the basement of LAX:

Recent book that’s worth reading: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

This thread is great, and I will only add that those of us who have been lucky enough to work with John know that he is the menschiest of mensches (in addition to being a wonderful editor and a terrific writer).

The publication of two new books on "mattering" — one by a philosopher, the other geared toward self-help — is arguably a reaction to the nihilism that threatens to engulf us all.

I spent some time with C. Thi Nguyen, a philosopher of games, whose brilliant new book offers some insights into how to live in our gamified world. 🎁

RIP. Tarr adapted a couple of Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s novels into films, including the 7-hour long Satantango.

The admin’s reflexive assertions of domination as the rationale for everything suggest that Jamelle‘s suspicions — that they’re doing it for gender — is right on the money.

Reminded of Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes's "Unmaking the Presidency," which was published 100 years ago (i.e. in January 2020) www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/b...

Wrote about “Furious Minds,” Laura Field’s excellent new book on how right-wing intellectuals helped the fringe become the rug

Wrote about reading Hannah Arendt 50 years after her death, why we keep invoking her, and what it is we keep wanting her to tell us. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/b...

“They put handcuffs on us, a chain over our waist and our feet, like criminals. They transported us in the kind of van that you put dogs in. We were all sitting in a row facing a white wall.… We boarded the plane and it was full…. A lady in her 70s kept throwing up.“