The MANIAC

Ed Simon is the editor of Belt Magazine and an emeritus staff writer at The Millions. He is a frequent contributor at several different sites including The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, Aeon, Jacobin, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Killing the Buddha, Salon, The Public Domain Review, Atlas Obscura, JSTOR Daily, and Newsweek. The author of several books, he most recently wrote Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost (2023). He holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University and an MA in literary and cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon University.

Ed Simon

Nightmares of Reason: On Benjamín Labatut’s “The MANIAC”

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain

Fiction

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." — Lorraine Hansberry

Philosophy &amp; Religion

"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history." — George Bernard Shaw

History

The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603–1689

Why the 17th Century (Still) Matters: On Jonathan Healey’s “The Blazing World”

"You always admire what you really don't understand."
— Blaise Pascal

Religion

Monica’s Garden: Notes Towards “A People’s History of Theology”

Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern

Are We Still Postmodern?: On Stuart Jeffries’s “Everything, All the Time, Everywhere”

"Writing only leads to more writing." — Colette

Literary Criticism

City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism

When Perry Miller Invented America: On Abram C. Van Engen’s “City on a Hill”

"There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them." — Federico García Lorca

Nonfiction

The Jefferson Bible: A Biography

Doubting Thomas: On Peter Manseau’s “The Jefferson Bible”

"You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." — Molly Ivins

Politics

Roland in Moonlight

All Dogs Go to Heaven: David Bentley Hart’s Canine Panpsychism

The Penguin Book of Exorcisms

On Exorcizing Demons

Through a Computer Screen Darkly: A Conversation with Meghan O’Gieblyn

Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature

Keith P. Mankin is a creative and educational consultant service in Dallas, Texas, and co-producer of the PeerSpectrum Medical Podcast. Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Boston, he earned an AB degree in Classics from Harvard University, and then an MD from University of Pittsburgh. He worked for 30 years as a developmental orthopaedist until retirement from medical practice in 2016. He has authored 11 novels, four children’s books, and four nonfiction works. He has been a staff writer at Theater Jones Arts Journal in Dallas. When not writing or teaching, he is a singer, a Rotarian, and spends time rooting for Boston sports teams in absentia along with his wife, Julia.

Keith P. Mankin

Erik J. Larson is a computer scientist and tech entrepreneur. The founder of two DARPA-funded AI startups, he is currently working on core issues in natural language processing and machine learning. He has written for&nbsp;The Atlantic&nbsp;and for professional journals and has tested the technical boundaries of artificial intelligence through his work with the IC2 tech incubator at the University of Texas at Austin.

Erik J. Larson

Angus Fletcher trained in neurophysiology at Edward Stuenkel’s lab at the University of Michigan Medical School, received his PhD in Literature from Yale, and taught at Teach for America, USC, and Stanford before being recruited to join Ohio State’s Project Narrative, where he is now professor of Story Science. He is currently collaborating with the Ohio State College of Medicine on using literature to reduce burnout in medical students; with Gregory Bunch and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business on increasing innovation; with the US Army and Nurse Corps on training emotional and intellectual resilience; and with the special operations community on antifragile human-AI hybrids. His recent media and publications can be found at angusfletcher.co.

Angus Fletcher

What Is Literature For?: A Symposium on Angus Fletcher’s “Wonderworks”

Pulling The Chair Out

"Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television." —Woody Allen

Television

Cynicism

Not to Be Cynical, But …

Ed Simon is the editor of Belt Magazine and an emeritus staff writer at The Millions. He is a frequent contributor at several different sites including The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, Aeon, Jacobin, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Killing the Buddha, Salon, The Public Domain Review, Atlas Obscura, JSTOR Daily, and Newsweek. The author of several books, he most recently wrote Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost (2023). He holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University and an MA in literary and cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon University.

Ed Simon

Articles