Writing
44 essays
The Prometheus Dispatch
A Substack on civil society, leadership, and liberal democracy.
Read on Substack →Feedback Loops
We’ve had good days where one thing happens after another. Good or bad, things are happening. By the end of the day, you...
Guidance Systems
We are constantly in search of what to do and how to do it. We want answers. We’d even like the steps provided. A detail...
I Suspend Judgement
As we walked into our apartment in Osaka and got unpacked, Shell sat down and muttered “Oh no…” I began to fret just a b...
A Love Letter
Everything I read on how to write better blog posts has similar advice for the opening paragraph, it seems I’m supposed ...
Travel Is No Cure
Something else is. “You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.” – Seneca “Why do you wonder that globe-t...
Hello, Western Hemisphere
I’ve just added a new page full of reading suggestions and podcasts to listen to. You might have already noticed the new...
India Went Deep
This isn’t about meditation I sat next to a man for ten days and never said hi, learned his name, or communicated in any...
Waiting For The Right Time Is a Prime Example of Wasting Time
First, a quick aside: I wrote the majority of this during the MLK Day weekend. It seems more imperative this year than o...
New Photography Page is Up!
I’m excited to tell you the galleries are mostly updated on the Photography page. Nepal and India are the most recent on...
2017 in Review
In 2015 I posted a picture to Instagram taken at my old apartment on West 3rd Street in the village, affectionately know...
Fooling Yourself
Mike Dariano’s The Waiter’s Pad should be more widely read. I’m sure his readership has been growing heaps lately, but w...
Advice to my Younger Self
Staying silent for ten days and focusing on one single thing for 12-14 hours of each of those ten days would, one would ...
Happy Thanksgiving – Update // Reading & Podcast List
While everyone back home takes time out for Thanksgiving and shows gratitude towards one another, Shell and I are in Dha...
Wiesbaden // Köln // Ibbenbüren
Wiesbaden: July 23-27 | Ibbenbüren: July 27-29 With our home base in Wiesbaden, a small distance west of Frankfurt, we t...
Goals and changing beds every 2.26 nights
Greetings from Morocco! Couscous the turtle says hi from our riad in Marrakech. He’s a bit peevish and likes to stick hi...
Bruges and Damme // Cycling the Belgian Countryside
July 18-21 Bruges Bruges is a beautiful town, many of you reading will likely already be familiar with it or have been. ...
Rafting the Drina River and Hiking Sutjeska in Bosnia and Montenegro
August 15-18 After Belgrade and spending a lot of time in cities Shell was aching to get out into the countryside, and n...
Diving into Bosnia // A Day in Mostar // A Week in Sarajevo
Aug 26-27: Mostar | Aug 27-Sep1: Sarajevo Strap in, this one’s long, and I hope worth your while. The TL;DR is: go to Sa...
Theroux’s Road Trip // Our Balkan Road Trip // Dubrovnik
Zaton and Dubrovnik: August 23-26 Yesterday, September 1st, we arrived in Trogir, Croatia. Not far from Split. It has a ...
Exploring and Eating in Prague
August 7-9 It is a fairy tale type place. Visually, some mix of Disney, Hogwarts, and something one’s own imagination ca...
Belgrade, Where We Met Banksy
August 11-12 Ljubljana | August 12-15 Belgrade We spent Friday evening, August 11th, in Ljubljana with Anya, Jaka, and t...
Amsterdam // Schiedam & Nolet
July 14-18 You should try watching Tom & Jerry in German sometime, I think it’s funnier. We arrived in Berlin yesterday,...
Onward from Wiesbaden, with a stop in Ibbenbüren
I write this, sitting on a small balcony overlooking a courtyard at our AirBnB in Wiesbaden (Veez-bahdin). The sun’s dry...
Impermanence and Your Fear of Death // Catacombs and Crypts
July 11-14 As part of our experience in Rome, we took a tour of catacombs and crypts. I think it may be a popular tour d...
Bologna // Rome
July 7-11 We are flying over the Alps today, July 14th, to spend two weeks with Shell’s family. We’ll be in Amsterdam, G...
Aziz Ansari // Enzo Ferrari // Massimo Bottura // Modena
July 10 The cicadas were already in full orchestra near the train station outside of town. Our train was late to arrive ...
It wasn’t until the string quartet
July 9 Florence is a beautiful city, just look up some pictures. It wasn’t singing to me though. I really had trouble co...
Population: < 1000 | Novello, Barolo, Grinzane Cavour
July 6-7 It’s 4 PM on Thursday while I write this and we’ve already turned in for naps. Blame the truffles and the wine,...
At the roundabout ahead – mostly Milano
July 4-6 After a quick few hours in Milano, we headed southwest via car. We used Waze to navigate our way around and wer...
Leaving New York City
I certainly haven’t fully processed what’s about to happen. Or, I’m so distracted by all that we’ve had to do over the p...
South East Asia 2013 – First Thoughts & Index of Links
“Indo-China is a great bay-window bulging from the southeastern corner of Asia, its casements opening on the China Sea a...
South East Asia 2013 – Introduction
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ” ― L...
Cambodia – Day One – Siem Reap
We arrived on time in Siem Reap. It was wet and dark, sometime after 10:30 PM. I had flown from JFK to Seoul, I wandered...
Cambodia – Day Two – Angkor & Temples
It was a wet morning, drenched actually. We find Sohm and three other tuk-tuk drivers awaiting people to rise in the lob...
Cambodia – Day Three – Let’s Play Chicken
“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.” -George Bernard Shaw This is the day we had to say goodbye to Siem Reap, a...
Cambodia – Day Four – Phnom Penh & Khmer Rouge
“Cities were always like people, showing their varying personalities to the traveler. Depending on the city and on the t...
Cambodia – Day Five – Phnom Penh Palaces
Our last day in Phnom Penh we decided to make it over to the Royal Palace. Built in the 1860s, it has served as the seat...
Vietnam – Day Six – Saigon & Cu Chi Tunnels
We woke in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. I had read many of the locals still prefer Saigon, and after spending a day wit...
Vietnam – Day Seven – Saigon & History
We took in more history today by going to the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace, otherwise known as Indep...
Vietnam – Day Eight – Hoi An
We stir early for an AM flight from Saigon to Da Nang. From Da Nang we hire a taxi to take us slightly south to Hội An. ...
Vietnam – Day Nine – Beach Day
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ― Marthe Troly-Curtin Beach day! We trek over by bike to An Bang Beach. It ...
Vietnam – Day Ten – Leaving Hoi An for Hong Kong
Of course, before we left we had to finish up our tailoring arrangements and we also ate! Minh and Paul had found this g...
Hong Kong – Day Eleven – Spicy Crab
Hong Kong, being one of the finance capitals of the world, is a proper and modern metropolis. It also has the prices to ...
Hong Kong – Day Twelve – Snapping the City
“Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decr...