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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:
- Forty Thousand
- Vox Day
- Page 261
- 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
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
Christian Smith: A Career Against Reduction
AI helped me with this post. On February 13, 2026, First Things published an essay by Christian Smith (b. October 23, 1960) called “Why I’m Done with Notre Dame.” Its first sentence said he retired at the end of 2025. … Continue reading
Posted in Sociology
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Can’t We All Get Along?
I ask Gemini: “Do you find various sub-species living in harmony in the same place in nature or does one tend to drive out the others?” Gemini says: In nature, distinct subspecies of the same animal rarely live in the … Continue reading
Posted in Biology
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I Threw A Rising Curve With A Tennis Ball
Around 1983, I was playing backyard baseball with my friend Kevin. We used a tennis ball and an aluminum bat and a backstop. I threw a pitch with spin and the ball started out looking low and outside. My friend … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball
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Scenes from a Documented Life: Mickey Kaus
A proviso. I admire Mickey Kaus. I think he’s a genius. The scenes are built only from the documented record, staged as moments rather than summarized. No dialogue is invented. Where the record goes quiet, I say so. That discipline … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Mickey Kaus
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Scenes from a Documented Life: Eugene Volokh
A proviso. I admire Eugene Volokh. The scenes below are built only from the documented record, from what Volokh and the public sources have established, staged as moments rather than summarized. No dialogue is invented. Where the record goes quiet, … Continue reading
Posted in Eugene Volokh, IQ
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Scenes from the 155 IQ Life
FICTION: 1. Second grade, worksheet time, twenty subtraction problems. Adam Wexler finishes in ninety seconds and looks up into thirty-eight remaining minutes. He taught himself to read at three off cereal boxes and street signs, an event his parents describe … Continue reading
Posted in IQ
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Scenes from the 105 IQ Life
FICTION: 1. Parent-teacher conferences, November, fifteen minutes per family. Greg Malone’s folder is thin. “Greg’s doing fine,” the teacher says, and means it, and reaches for the next folder. B’s, a B-plus in history, reads at grade level, no trouble, … Continue reading
Posted in IQ
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Scenes from the 75 IQ Life
FICTION: 1. Fourth grade, October, the reading circle. Wendell Price, 9, holds the book and knows the trap is coming, because the circle moves left to right and he is fourth. The other kids read the way water runs. When … Continue reading
Posted in IQ
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Scenes from the 85 IQ Life
FICTION: 1. Bobby Hutchins, 26, sits at the library computer with a paper resume his sister typed and no way to hand it to anyone. The distribution center hires through a portal. The portal wants an account, an email confirmation, … Continue reading
Posted in IQ
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Scenes from the Passport Question
FICTION: 1. Vienna, March 1938. Ruth Steiner’s grandmother, then nineteen, stands in a queue outside a consulate with her father, who holds a folder of documents against his chest under his coat. The family business is gone as of Tuesday. … Continue reading
Posted in Nationalism
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