I have been spending time lately with Iris Brosch, the photographer and artist who worked closely with Shere Hite for more than a decade. Together we are exploring how to bring more of that work — the photographs, the intimacy, the whole charged world of it — back into public view. I knew about Shere […]
I have to admit, I am a huge fan of Michael Pollan. His latest book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, brings together scientific, philosophical, literary, and psychedelic perspectives to ask what consciousness is, who has it, and why. Pollan argues that consciousness is under siege — and ends with the idea that learning […]
This morning I watched a conversation on the war in Iran. What Vali Nasr describes about the countra and its people feels precise and grounded. But what stayed with me was something else — the way his words touched something in me that I hadn’t expected. It connects to much of what I am grappling […]
A lecture hall at the University of Pavia. First-year political science students. Italy. Eastern Europe. Africa. The Middle East. When I started speaking about the United Nations, the room became very quiet. So quiet you could hear a pin drop.I did not celebrate the UN. I reflected on it.Not as a perfect institution. But as a political arena — […]
Yesterday I returned to “my” island, Armona. It welcomed me with its light. Clear. Wide. Quiet. So different from the cities I moved through over the past seventeen days. Milan — a small independent publishing house. Pavia — political science students, thoughtful, restless, searching for orientation. Berlin — conversations about the soul of cities, about meaning beyond data. A […]
Zusammenfassung eines Impulsvortrages, den ich am 2.3 in Berlin auf einem Basecamp zum Thema Stadtwerte halte – lange Version siehe unten: In meinem Talk geht es um eine einfache, aber unbequeme Frage: Reichen gute Kennzahlen, um eine gute Stadt zu machen? Wir messen heute alles. Dichte. Sicherheit. Mobilität. CO₂. Produktivität. Und das ist auch sinnvoll. […]
Next week I will give a talk tailored for students, 1st year bachelor, political science; at the Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali, University of Pavia February 26, 2026 In this talk, I providesa critical analysis of the United Nations, framing it not as a failing technical machine but as a political arena reflecting the […]
There are moments when I catch myself wondering: What if it isn’t ideology that unites people — but disgust? Not left.Not right.Not North.Not South. But a shared realization that those who call themselves “powerful” have been protecting something far smaller than power. The Jeffrey Epstein files sit like a stone in the collective stomach. They […]
To apply for a Schengen visa with an ECR stamp in your passport — a mark used for Indian citizens whose international travel is officially classified as requiring protection and supervision — is not a single act. It is an accumulation.The fact that such a classification is physically stamped into a passport, visible at every […]
I had just landed from Germany.Unusually heavy rains and storms for this region — the kind they say hasn’t happened like this for decades. From Olhão to Armona, the ferry crosses the Ria Formosa Natural Park.There are usually four ferries a day.That day, only one was running — and I arrived just in time for […]