I grew up in Germany in the 1960s and 70s. The rubble was still recent enough that my parents and grandparents remembered it. And yet what I experienced as a child was something that was almost miraculous: things getting better. Visibly, measurably, undeniably better. A childhood among kids freely roaming around in the green. Rights […]
… And Nobody Asks the Question The West won the Cold War. Communism was defeated. Capitalism prevailed. That was the story we told ourselves in 1989 — and for a while, it felt true. Open markets, free trade, democracy and prosperity spreading hand in hand. Francis Fukuyama even declared it the end of history – […]
The Nomad is a growing collection of stories, fascinations, encounters, observations, lived moments — and the quiet (and not-so-quiet) joy hidden inside them.They’re all rooted in my life, wandering freely between places, people, questions, and unexpected turns. Many of these stories eventually find their way into my book The Nomad — others insist on staying […]
Based on various interviews Professor Robert Pape, University of Chicago, and Ian Bremmer have given in the last 10 days. Pape founded the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, and Bremmer is the founder of of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading political risk consultancy. The question sounds provocative. But follow the logic and it becomes […]
I came across a number the other day.Even Roger Federer lost 48% of the most important points in his matches.Almost half. It doesn’t sit well. We remember control. Precision. Mastery. We remember the points that worked.But nearly every second decisive moment — didn’t.Lost. Not because he wasn’t good enough. Not because he made a mistake we […]
We were visiting a friend yesterday.She was telling us, slightly stunned, about a group of people nearby who are teaching how to plant trees and plants in a very specific way — in bundles, in a certain order. Only then, they said, each plant could fully unfold. I found myself nodding, but also hesitating. Because, […]
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 — […]