The ‘MoonSwatch’ Made Me Rethink My Relationship with Wristwatches I spent a lot of time discussing the Oscars online last week. But my friends and I didn’t waste time on Will Smith and Chris Rock, or even on the awards themselves. Instead, we focused on what the celebrities were wearing on their wrists. DJ Khaled sported a magnificently Jonathan Kay 6 Apr 2022 · 8 min read
I Didn’t Care About Crypto—Until a Fake Canadian ‘Emergency’ Showed Me Why We Need It A few weeks ago, I visited my new favourite financial institution. It’s a Toronto corner store with a big rusted out air conditioner over the front door, and windows plastered with ads for drumstick ice-cream cones and lottery tickets. Near the back door, nestled under old cardboard boxes full Jonathan Kay 18 Mar 2022 · 14 min read
Quillette Podcast #182: Jacob Mchangama on His New Book, ’Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media’ Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Copenhagen-based think-tank scholar and podcaster Jacob Mchangama about why so many human societies have such a difficult time tolerating dissent and heresy. [https://www.amazon.com/Free-Speech-History-Socrates-Social/dp/1541600495] Jonathan Kay / Quillette 7 Mar 2022 · 1 min read
Vladimir Putin’s Medieval Mindset In 1338, the story has it, a notorious French exile named Robert of Artois strutted into the London palace of King Edward III, bearing a stuffed heron on a silver platter. “Clear the way, you miserable failures,” he said to the assembled lords. “I have a heron … the most cowardly Jonathan Kay 3 Mar 2022 · 4 min read
The Ottawa Trucker Protest Was Disruptive. The Hysterical Reaction to It Was Worse In some cases, drawing the line between permissible and impermissible forms of public protest can be difficult. But the Canadian “Freedom Convoy [https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/meet-the-truckers]” that occupied downtown Ottawa until Sunday wasn’t one of those cases. Thousands of anti-vaccine-mandate protesters, many of them driving trucks, took Jonathan Kay 21 Feb 2022 · 11 min read
We’re All Going to Get Omicron My friend Fred (not his real name) is one of the most conscientiously COVID-avoidant people I know. In the pandemic’s early days, he was the guy at my health club who investigated mechanisms we could use to sterilize tennis balls in real time, during play, lest virus particles make Jonathan Kay 11 Jan 2022 · 8 min read
Quillette Podcast #177: New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat on His Hellish Experience with Lyme Disease Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat about how his new book—which explores both his own fight against chronic Lyme disease, and the controversy surrounding the condition within the medical community. Quillette / Jonathan Kay 4 Jan 2022 · 1 min read
Podcast #176: Jonathan Kay on Middle Age, Watch Collecting, Sports Cars, Board Games, and Disc Golf Quillette / Jonathan Kay 23 Dec 2021 ·
Podcast #175: Paul Lockhart on How Guns Transformed Western Civilization Quillette / Jonathan Kay / Paul Lockhart 20 Dec 2021 · 1 min read
Podcast #174: Trent Colbert Turns the Tables on Yale Law School’s Kafkaesque Diversity Department Quillette / Jonathan Kay 10 Dec 2021 ·
Podcast #173: Batya Ungar-Sargon on the Growing Gulf Between Ordinary Americans and the Progressive Journalists Who Cover Them The culture war and the fight over liberal media bias. Quillette / Jonathan Kay 28 Nov 2021 · 20 min read
Confession and Conspiracism in the Church of Social Justice A true and sincere confession of one’s actual sins and cruelties is a courageous act that leaves one vulnerable and exposed. Jonathan Kay 22 Nov 2021 · 16 min read
Anti-Racism as Office-Politics Power Play: a Canadian Academic Case Study Last week, 53 top Canadian academic administrators convened in Ottawa for a biannual membership meeting of Universities Canada [https://www.univcan.ca/], a group dedicated to “providing university presidents with a unified voice for higher education.” The 89-page meeting agenda, which was leaked to me after the event, makes for Jonathan Kay 7 Nov 2021 · 8 min read
Podcast #170: Will Storr on Our Insatiable Appetite for Status Quillette / Jonathan Kay 26 Oct 2021 ·
Studying the True Face of Gender Ideology While many of us are lazy and gullible in our ideological commitments, pledging allegiance to faddish notions so that we may be seen as enlightened, such vanities tend to fall away once we see evidence that proves we’ve been duped. Jonathan Kay 20 Oct 2021 · 15 min read