What is this place?
This is the latest iteration of my blog, which started as a solo website called Gideon’s Blog in 2002, then migrated to The American Scene in 2007, and finally to The American Conservative, where I happily made my home until, in 2017, I no longer could, and stopped.
Why are you here?
Because I missed blogging. I still have plenty of spaces to write for. I write on theater and film for Modern Age. I write on politics and policy for The Week. I write about Shakespeare and the Hebrew Bible for the Jewish Review of Books. I hope to do a lot more writing for an array of different outlets over the years to come — not to mention finally making a feature film of my own.
But I also want a place where I can think out loud in the the kind of ruminative way that a publication can’t ever really afford to indulge in, and engage in deliberative debate of a kind that Twitter is practically engineered to undermine. I want to discover, once again, what interests me, and share it with the world to discover, once again, whether it interests you.
But what are you going to do here?
I’m going to write about domestic politics and foreign affairs, about books and art, and theater and film, about religion and philosophy, and about life. I hope I have things to say that interest you about at least some of that.
Ok, but why a Substack?
Because it was really simple to do. I’m an inveterate technophobe, so them making it easy made a big difference. Plus it seems like all the cool kids have already done it, so it’s probably time for a late-adopter like myself to finally jump on the train.
Why should I subscribe?
Well, if you subscribe, every new edition of the newsletter will go directly to your inbox. You won’t even have to remember where this website is. If you find yourself never reading what I have to say, it’s easy to unsubscribe — and if you forget to do so, it’s not like copies of my newsletter will start to clutter up your coffee table. Meanwhile, if it turns out what interests me also interests you, then subscribing will assure you won’t ever missing a single missive.
