James Pogue

2 months ago | harpers.org | Matt Black |James Pogue

The Great Basin is a vast interior watershed cut off from the sea and spanning some two hundred thousand square miles of the American West. Settlers traveling on emigrant trails largely raced through the region’s desert playas on their way to more productive lands in California and Oregon.

Jan 21, 2025 | vanityfair.com | James Pogue

It was the “hottest ticket” in Chicago, designed to spawn a thousand pieces about what the party meant. Two thousand people RSVP’d. “I am not kidding when I say this is the best political party I’ve ever been to,” the anti-gun youth activist David Hogg told a reporter. “This is where Gen Z is.”He was speaking at the “Hotties for Harris” event, held at a polished warehouse space midway through the Democratic National Convention last August.

Oct 13, 2024 | archive.ph | Jonathan Alter |Erin Vanderhoof |Deanna Kizis |James Pogue

While the idea of an open nomination process was always a bit of a pipe dream, it proved to be an effective fantasy. Democrats began to see the debate fiasco as a blessing in disguise, offering them the chance to nominate a fresh young candidate who had not been dented in fractious Democratic primaries. By making the idea of a “blitz primary” seem real, the Times gave Democrats uncomfortable with Kamala Harris permission to speculate about other possible nominees.

Oct 8, 2024 | vanityfair.com | James Pogue

There are times when Washington still feels like what it used to be—a sleepy little Southern city. Generations of some of the most powerful people on earth have spent their days in DC griping that the city is a backwater. But Washington’s modest position in our constellation of great cities was always part of its charm, well-suited to our sprawling continental republic.

Oct 1, 2024 | vanityfair.com | James Pogue

Tonight’s 2024 vice presidential debate will pit Minnesota governor Tim Walz against Ohio senator JD Vance. Walz, a former high school football coach who has passed a progressive agenda in the Midwest state, emerged victorious in the Kamala Harris veepstakes by, in part, calling out the weirdness of Donald Trump, Vance, and Republicans who seem hell-bent on controlling Americans in their doctors offices, libraries, and bedrooms.