Spring Break Reading Recommendations

A few essays to brood on.

I’m off this week on a spring break, and I hope you are too.

In lieu of a long post, here are friend links to two recent pieces of mine on Medium:

“Did the Internet Break Democracy?” — a critical response to Jonathan Haidt’s over-reaching new essay in The Atlantic about what social media is doing to politics and civic life.

“Can Tech Strengthen Civil Society Now?” — an examination of why Wikipedia would fail if it were launched today, who stole the “cognitive surplus” and why some antitrust bills aimed at Big Tech are just the beginning of the changes we need to foster.

Also, if you’re looking for another book to add to your night-table, let me recommend Another End of the World is Possible: Living the Collapse (and Not Merely Surviving It), by Pablor Servigne, Raphael Stevens and Gauthier Chapelle. It’s a sequel to their How Everything Can Collapse book, and a provocative meditation on ways we can prepare ourselves to make the best of the worst.

Finally, don’t miss “Sex, Death and Empire: The Roots of Violence Against Asian Women,” a powerful cover story in The Nation by my friend Panthea Lee, along with a companion interview she did with public defender Jason Wu on cross-race solidarity and restorative justice.

See you next week!