Category: Read All About It
Do You Know How to Make Glass?
Glass wasn’t always ordinary. In ancient Egypt, it was as precious as gems. Making it required the right mix of rare materials, extreme heat, and years of apprenticeship. Everyone knew it was hard, and that is why it had value. Today, you flip a factory switch and glass appears. Cheap. Uniform. Abundant. So abundant that…
History Think Blog is on YouTube
The History Think Blog is on YouTube. For the first History Think video essay, I tried to take a different approach to conspiracy debunking by looking at the death of Stalin. No leader has arguably been more effective at maintaining control than Stalin. He was the uncontested and unquestioned leader of the USSR—the largest country…
Celebrating Hank Aaron. For Real This Time.
This year’s MLB All-Star festivities are giving Hank Aaron the kind of recognition he always deserved. During the Home Run Derby, National League players will wear number 44, Aaron’s iconic number, while the American League will wear number 3 in honor of Babe Ruth. The tribute isn’t just symbolic—it’s poetic. The Derby falls on July…
“On the One Hand…”
The Perils and Possibilities of AI President Truman used to joke about how his economic advisors were always telling him, “on the one hand this… but on the other hand that.” What I need, he said, “is a one-handed economist.” It’s a good line. But he knew some issues are too complex, too uncertain, and…
Extremism, Not the Left or Right, Is The Problem
Why democracy depends on staying out of the gutter On June 14, 2025, elected officials in Minnesota were shot in their homes as they slept. The facts were unclear but that didn’t stop the certainty. Within hours, a familiar pattern emerged: prominent voices on the political right rushed to blame the political left and attack…
First They Came for the Transgender
On May 6, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 to allow President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service to go into effect. Legal challenges are still working their way through the courts, and the Court may revisit the case, but for now, the ruling stands. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon…