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Nov 9, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Mathis Bitton |Mary Trimble |Elayne Allen |Stephanie Murray
The 20th-century American philosopher Robert Nozick once coined a thought experiment that has since become a classic in “Introduction to Ethics” classes: the “experience machine.” Imagine, he proposed, that a machine could grant you any experience you wanted. You could travel the world, taste the finest foods, experience intense love—the machine would know no bounds but those of your imagination.
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Melissa S. Kearney |Elayne Allen |Patrick Brown |Luis Parrales
The Monday Essay Caring about the falling birth rate can be both pro-natalist and pro-woman. Published September 30, 2024 In early August, economist Michael A. Clemens published a paper highlighting the consequences of and potential policy responses to South Korea’s birth dearth.
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Sep 1, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Michael Reneau |Hannah Anderson |Elayne Allen |Patrick Brown
Happy Sunday, happy September, and happy Labor Day weekend.Pronatalist arguments—that in order to be a well functioning society we need to be having more babies—are nothing new. But the resurfacing of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s 2021 “childless cat lady” remarks has added a new, overtly partisan dynamic to the conversation.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Chris Stirewalt |John Gustavsson |Christian Gonzalez |Christian González |Elayne Allen
Polls show voters prefer Harris over Trump on the economy, and the former president is flailing. Published August 13, 2024 Let us start with a truth unfortunate to both Republicans and those in my vocation: Persuadable voters couldn’t care less when, within reason, Vice President Kamala Harris sits down for a “serious” interview or holds a full-dress press conference.
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Aug 10, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Rachael Larimore |Christian Gonzalez |Christian González |Elayne Allen |Alex Demas
Plus: Thoughts on Project 2025, the evangelical movement, and how Democrats abandoned rural America. Published August 10, 2024 Hello and happy Saturday. Barring anything crazy happening (well, anything else crazy), the major party presidential tickets are set. Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.
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Aug 10, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Jonah Goldberg |Christian Gonzalez |Christian González |Elayne Allen |Alex Demas
Is this an R.E.M. song? Published August 10, 2024 • Updated August 9, 2024 There’s a lot on Jonah’s mind this morning. He’s gaslighting himself about being gaslit, lamenting the diminishing standards of acceptable presidential candidate behavior, and waltzing back some of his initial reactions to VP candidate Tim Walz. Critiques of Wednesday’s G-File are addressed (shame on you, Willem Dafoe), noting the death of true cultural criticism in the age of identity politics.
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Aug 10, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Elayne Allen |Elizabeth Matthew |Patrick Brown |Stephanie Murray
Culture Natalism debates are about far more than finances and climate change. Published August 10, 2024 • Updated August 9, 2024 A resurfaced comment made by Sen. J.D. Vance about the “childless cat ladies” who supposedly run the Democratic Party could be understood as just the latest entry in an increasingly tense culture war over parenthood and natalism.
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Aug 18, 2023 | 
mercatornet.com | Elayne Allen |Miriam Grossman |James Bradshaw |Gabriel A. Andrade
Not often does a movie earn fascination from the entire country and leave viewers with such conflicting interpretations. But Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has done exactly this: some see the movie as a celebration of millennial motherhood, while others see it as an outlet for female angst, and still others think it’s an anti-man rallying cry. Yet even amid these wildly conflicting interpretations, what’s clear is that the movie is far more than a kitschy story about a plastic doll.
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Aug 10, 2023 | 
thepublicdiscourse.com | Elayne Allen
Elayne Allen, Public Discourse’s outgoing managing editor, is filling in for Matthew J. Franck’s August Bookshelf. The column will return to its rightful author in September. Last month in The Atlantic, Sam Apple wrote an essay, “Tolstoy and Chill,” about audiobooks’ recent uptick in popularity. He considers how listening to a book changes the way we experience it: audiobooks are more passive and relaxed than reading a physical book.
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Aug 6, 2023 | 
thepublicdiscourse.com | Elayne Allen
Not often does a movie earn fascination from the entire country and leave viewers with such conflicting interpretations. But Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has done exactly this: some see the movie as a celebration of millennial motherhood, while others see it as an outlet for female angst, and still others think it’s an anti-man rallying cry. Yet even amid these wildly conflicting interpretations, what’s clear is that the movie is far more than a kitschy story about a plastic doll.
