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...

The quote attributed to Musk is real, but the one attributed to Arendt is fake. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/b...

Memorable anecdote in this story about Brazil’s online gambling—> crushing personal debt crisis. Lula is trying to ban the unregulated online gambling industry, which he inherited from Bolsonaro.

“You walk down the street, and you assume you’re generally safe because of the law,” he said. “It’s the rule of law. If you don’t have it, you have either anarchy or you have authoritarianism.“ Rare interview with Minnesota federal court chief judge by @schwartzesque.bsky.social

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Joe O’Neill in critical fine form, reviewing “Profiles In Cowardice.” Added bonus: the perfect use of “poltroon,” a word for our times.

Yet another reminder that the fetishization of “authenticity” in political candidates often favors those very candidates who turn out to be full of surprises.

In her new book, the moral philosopher Susan Neiman says “evil” is the apt word for “a country where masked men deport people to wastelands they’ve never seen” and “a military that blows fishermen to bits with the meagerest of justifications.”

Kai Bird’s new bio has a lot about Roy Cohn parasitical relationship with the American establishment. Cohn would rail against it, positioning himself as its ultimate antagonist, while nevertheless feasting on its bounty and blind spots.

www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/b...