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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- The Oven
- Table Six
- For Money
- Live Questions in Torah
- Another Exciting Scold About AI From A University Professor!
- Sociologist Philip N. Cohen
- Herb K – Recovery Teacher
- Live Questions in Philosophy
- The List Problem
- Fred Luskin: Forgive for Good
- James C. Weidmann and the Making of Chateau Heartiste
- If the Populists Gain Power, Who Will be Their Favorite Economists?
- Live Questions in Psychology
- Live Questions in Jewish Studies
- The Gap
- The Second Apprenticeship: What the Public Record Shows About Middle East Studies, and What it Would Take to Know More
- Live Questions in Middle East Studies
- The Live Questions in Anthropology
- Turner v Turner
- The Live Questions in Sociology
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Author Archives: Luke Ford
James C. Weidmann and the Making of Chateau Heartiste
On April 9, 2007, an anonymous man in Washington published a post called “Endless Dating.” He argued that prolonged serial dating and late marriage could not last, and that one of two things would follow. Either humans would evolve into … Continue reading
If the Populists Gain Power, Who Will be Their Favorite Economists?
I’m not going to lie, bro. The bench of populist economists is thin. The star is Oren Cass, who does not have a doctorate. If nationalist populism becomes the governing philosophy of the Republican Party rather than a temporary Trump … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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Live Questions in Psychology
Psychology in 2026 has no sovereign question. It has a fight over what counts as a finding, and underneath that fight, a change in what it costs to produce one. The cost change explains most of the status movement, so … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology
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Live Questions in Jewish Studies
Jewish Studies in America runs on two currencies now, and they no longer trade at par. The first is scholarly credit. It goes to the researcher who takes an inherited category, shows it does not hold, and then does the … Continue reading
Posted in Anti-Semitism, Jews
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The Gap
FICTION WITH HELP FROM AI: 1. Dale Pruitt, 56, preaches twenty-two minutes at the eleven o’clock service, and the elders tell him this is the best year of preaching in his twenty-nine. Saturday at nine he sits in the study … Continue reading
Posted in AI
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The Second Apprenticeship: What the Public Record Shows About Middle East Studies, and What it Would Take to Know More
AI helped me with this post. Middle East Studies gets described constantly and counted rarely. Critics say the field trains students to work on Gaza, empire, and American power. Defenders say outside pressure is making honest scholarship harder. Both sides … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East
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Live Questions in Middle East Studies
AI helped me with this post. For Middle East Studies the Iran War tests whether its collective judgment beats Washington’s. The Middle East Scholar Barometer happened to be in the field from February 19 to March 11, so a third … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Middle East
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The Live Questions in Anthropology
AI helped me with this post. A question is live when knowing the asker’s politics does not let you predict his answer. That test disqualifies a great deal of what anthropology currently treats as its cutting edge, and it clarifies … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology
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Turner v Turner
AI helped me with this post. In mid-December 2023 the senior editors of Theory and Society learned that Springer Nature had decided on a different view of the journal going forward. The notice appointed two new editors effective January 1, … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Sociology, Stephen Turner
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The Live Questions in Sociology
AI helped me with this post. The live questions, sorted on two axes that come apart: consequence outside the discipline, and reward inside it. First, whether sociology is a science or a movement. It ranks first on consequence and last … Continue reading
Posted in Sociology
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