As Jefferson looked back on the Declaration later in life, he said he had intended the words “to be an expression of the American mind.” The magic is they still are. My latest for @TheFP. Plus, remembering Gordon Wood and @southernphd 's touching tribute. thefp.com/p/this-week-in-ame…

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him. In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over. Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed. When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye. She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession. As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him. Rest in peace, professor.

In 2019, an independent commission comprising "distinguished jurists, Ivy League professors, nonprofit leaders, journalists, and theologians" invited @YAppelbaum to brainstorm concepts that might unite divided Americans. He suggested "patriotism"—and this is what happened: theatlantic.com/magazine/202…

From 1985 to 2023 MIT administrative staff headcount increased 189% while faculty only grew 9%. This trend is everywhere across US universities. The rapid growth of administrative staff (versus faculty or students) is one of the largest underdiscussed problems in academia today.

The backstory of a book contract (link below and in profile).

Between 1985--2023, MIT's faculty grew 9%. Administrative staff grew 189%. 📈 Why? In new @PNASNews paper, we use dynamical system model to show administrative bloat can emerge without empire-building--just from well-intentioned problem-solving gone awry pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.25…

I wrote about the Pope and why Christian tech critics often have a more compelling response to the AI crisis than their secular counterparts. Simply, Christian writers aren't afraid of "human nature" talk, and they understand THE question of the AI Age is: what are people for? 🧵

It's not that home education in the 18th century was the same as it is today; in some ways, it was the same, and in others, different. But have Americans always believed that education = school? No, indeed. And more and more of them reject that equivalence today, as well. Read more in my piece today @thedispatch .

Exclusive: Starbucks terminated an AI program workers used for automating certain inventory counts this week, nine months after deploying it across its North American ‌stores reut.rs/4urtY1O

Good stuff here from @jeff_bilbro

I'm grateful to @DouthatNYT for inviting me on his podcast to discuss the fate of the liberal arts and humanities in the age of AI. I hope that all those who follow higher ed and care about the liberal arts will listen. nytimes.com/video/opinion/10… nytimes.com/video/opinion/10…

The majority view of the Harvard Crimson editorial board: "Harvard instead should take a page out of Yale’s book: we need a comprehensive reflection on our institutional purpose, the extent to which we’ve deviated from it, and how to return." Pretty remarkable. thecrimson.com/article/2026/…

65k-72k is actually plenty of money in New York if you just steal from Whole Foods

And this response to Elizabeth Corey's thoughtful, generous piece in the WSJ basically proves her original point about you, as well. "Self-debunking" indeed.

Are you (or are you connected to) an undergraduate or recent college grad interested in political theory? Are you willing to hang out for a couple of days in Columbia, SC this summer? Then keep reading:

"The..purpose of..humanities education has been to convince students that the humanistic tradition is not what they think it is…They are..rushed...from ignorance to contempt, without any serious effort to familiarize them with their contempt’s object." chronicle.com/article/how-hu…