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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Ben Domenech |Marc Oestreich |Alexander Larman |J.S. Barnes
On my favorite Hollywood-focused podcast The Town, host Matt Belloni and his producer and guests offer predictions all the time on television ratings, relying on the Nielsen numbers for reference for what’s anticipated versus what it turns out to be.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Matthew Lynn |Mark Galeotti |Ross Anderson |Marc Oestreich
One of the main trading platforms collapsed, and its founder ended up being sent to jail. Two years ago, in the wake of the failure of the FTX, it looked as if Bitcoin had finally been exposed as a flimsy bubble, with the price plunging to just $16,000 in the middle of November 2022. And yet, it turns out that the critics of the digital currency, as so often, had celebrated its demise too soon. This week, Bitcoin hit $97,000 per unit, a fresh all time high.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Peter Jones |Marc Oestreich |Drea de Matteo |Boris Johnson
Former British PM Boris Johnson’s memoir Unleashed imagines him, like Cincinnatus, leaving his plow, saving Rome, and returning to it. But given that Boris is among the international elite, perhaps Alcibiades (c. 451-404 BC) would fit him better. Athenian elites had long had connections with the other powerbrokers of the classical Greek world, Sparta and Persia.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Marc Oestreich |Richard Dawkins |Lara Prendergast |Ed Zotti
It starts with the promise of skipping school — always an illicit thrill at nine years old. My son and I, seasoned truants, hop the early train to downtown Chicago for what I’ve convinced him is a real education. The day’s agenda: two of the city’s iconic museums — grand, intimidating and, up until recently, somewhat sacred. These sprawling neoclassical behemoths, both originally constructed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, dot the waterfront like ancient ruins.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Marc Oestreich |Drea de Matteo |Charles Lipson |Ben Domenech
I’ll be upfront: I’m skeptical of the trans movement. Not the individuals within it, but the broader cultural shift that prioritizes feelings over facts and subjectivity over objective reality. Yet, despite my reservations, I have deep empathy for those grappling with identity confusion — an experience that must be profoundly disorienting. My concern is that we’re accelerating this confusion by feeding a culture obsessed with validation.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Marc Oestreich
It starts with the promise of skipping school — always an illicit thrill at nine years old. My son and I, seasoned truants, hop the early train to downtown Chicago for what I’ve convinced him is a real education. The day’s agenda: two of the city’s iconic museums — grand, intimidating and, up until recently, somewhat sacred.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amy Everett |Europe Joining NATO |Owen Matthews |Marc Oestreich
Asked how best to get to know new cultures, travel luminary Anthony Bourdain once said: “Drink heavily with locals whenever possible.”This series is about getting pickled with people far cooler than I am, wherever I’ve washed up. Fast-paced, cacophonous, always surprising; if Mumbai is the hub of India’s creative scene, Soho House Mumbai is the home of its creative set.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Marc Oestreich |Tom Goodenough |Toby Young |Alexander Larman
It’s 1951 and the Hotel Monteleone burns bright, a gilded island of light and liquor adrift in the New Orleans dark. Inside, the air is thick with the sweet tang of cigar smoke and the murmurs of polished conversation. Over in the Swan Room, the trumpets blare, their brassy notes cutting through the gentle chatter, their absence filled with the lively, gravelly voice of Louis Prima. The crowd sways in rhythm, caught between the pulse of jazz and the flicker of chandelier light.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Roger Kimball |Marc Oestreich |Henry Jeffreys |Kathleen Willcox
The October 15 issue of the Wine Spectator carries two intriguing features. The first is a series of reports, with lavish photographs, on “The World’s Greatest Vineyards.” This list of ten superstars is followed by a cast of twenty supporting actors, wineries the editors regard as “world class” but relegate to slightly lower rungs on the scale of vinous celebrity. You might think that any such listing would be powerfully subjective.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amber Duke |Ben Domenech |Roger Kimball |Marc Oestreich
As much of the media is consumed with reactions to the presidential debate — who won? what does the polling say now? will there be a second debate? a third? what does Taylor Swift’s post-debate endorsement of Kamala Harris mean? — there is another debate that’s embroiling the House as a partial government shutdown breathes down its neck.
