The period November 2016 through January 2019 has been existentially dislocating. A period just over two years long has felt more like two decades, with time slowing in inverse proportion to the speed of events. We, or at least I, have been exhausted and bewildered. What has changed since that fateful election night, and how have I changed?

Anthony Bourdain was — is — one of my heroes. Here’s how his life, and loss, affected me.

Visiting friends this weekend in Shanghai made me ponder the universal problem of culture wars, and their thorny roots in information distribution.

Speaking with my students about their hometowns in a changing China, the benefits, and costs, of building a nation spread out in front of me.

How often do we truly contemplate how history has shaped us individually? And how we individually shape history?

The North Korean nuclear crisis just gave us whiplash again, as Pyongyang threatens to pull out of talks. Why the sudden change in language? And what does it signal about Kim Jong Un’s long-term strategy?

Watching the developments surrounding the North Korean nuclear crisis would be enough to give anyone whiplash. Things seem to be settling down, but for how long? And what would a new North Korea mean for the world?

A serendipitous connection with a stranger made me think of why it is we’re all grasping for something to belong to.

Reconnecting with a local friend here in Wuhan, I had an experience that summed up some of the contradictions in my experience; individuals are so patient and welcoming, but in aggregate, it’s hard not to notice bubbling nationalism under the surface.

  The Brood: Halfway through my experience in China, I arrived at a breaking point. The feeling of being a foreigner in a foreign land transformed from an anthropological experience into … Continue reading The White Monkey Trophy