I changed my mind about euthanasia in June 2015. The world has been rushing in the other direction. For The Dispatch I explain why MAiD makes an idol of autonomy …
Who Loves You, Baby?
Daniel K. Williams is a can't miss historian for me. I was delighted to get an early copy of his Abortion and America's Churches, a history of how denominations chose sides around Roe v. Wade. I drew on one thread of his history for an essay for Word on Fire. In Williams’s telling, in the… Read More
Diagnosis and Disease
I was pleased to get to respond to Suzanne O'Sullivan's The Age of Diagnosis for Fairer Disputations. She wrote a compassionate, curious book on a highly charged issue: O’Sullivan isn’t against inclusion tout court, but she’s very attentive to who gains and who loses. When a diagnosis expands, people with milder versions of the disorder can… Read More
Bad News in Divorce Data
The divorce rate is declining, but for the worst reasons. Fewer and fewer people are getting married. I explain the problem for the Institute for Family Studies. The decline in marriage has also not been uniform. Wealthier and better-educated singles are more likely to get married than those who are poorer and less educated. Marriage… Read More
Don’t Write Your Own Vows
At The Dispatch, I'm making a case against customized wedding vows. Promising marriage is entering an pre-existing institution, not an act of expressive individualism. Classically, the marriage vows are not about the particular couple standing at the altar—they’re about the institution the couple is choosing to enter. Classical vows (for better, for worse, etc) have… Read More
Andor’s Galaxy of Greebles
I've got an appreciation of Andor that goes hard on greebles (the small, irregular pieces of plastic that give Star Wars ships their detailed texture). It’s the greebles that gave the Empire’s ships their sense of enormity, even though they were really miniatures. A smooth-textured ship has trouble communicating its scale, especially against a field… Read More
A Tenderly Superfluous Miracle
It was my pleasure to write about Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati's second miracle for Word on Fire. His canonization hinges on the healing of a seminarian's Achilles tendon tear—not the kind of injury that seems to call for a miracle. Some ailments—a terminal cancer, a limb slated for amputation—offer no worldly source of hope. The… Read More
MAiD Makes an Idol of Autonomy
I changed my mind about euthanasia in June 2015. The world has been rushing in the other direction. For The Dispatch I explain why MAiD makes an idol of autonomy and endangers our sense of what it means to be human. Moving past the desire for “death with dignity” requires admitting that autonomy is not… Read More
Books I Hope to Read in 2025
Pictured above are three of my big projects of 2024. I read The Power Broker over my maternity leave, I read Sr. Prudence Allen in the waning months of the year, and my baby I grew all year (in and ex utero). Not pictured, but also gestating last year is my own book The Dignity… Read More
My Favorite Books of 2024
A year very full of babies and book writing! I'm making a lot less progress through my planned reading than I hoped, but I think this might be the longest list of "favorite" reads to date. So not too bad a year. And my oldest is reading BOB books on her own, so one day… Read More
The Power Broker’s Retreat from Reality
I spent my summer maternity leave reading The Power Broker (and taking care of the baby!). I was glad to get to write about Caro's masterpiece for Word on Fire. As Moses makes himself sovereign over parks, power plants, bridges, and housing, he unmakes his ability to steward what he has seized. He becomes both… Read More
A Breast Pump Designed for Your Boss
In "Designing Women," I'm writing at Comment on how the tools intended for women often serve the interests of someone else. I'm very much indebted to Designing Motherhood, which I …
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