The Tide in the Glass
Why beer trends come and go, and why the old styles keep judging us.
Essays
All Essays
Every published essay on The Shelf. Shelves organize the collection; seeds show how each piece began.
The Valley of Gnashing Teeth
Shame, Envy, and the Monster We Make Together
The Rules Beneath the Rules
What Seinfeld Taught Us About Work, Friendship, Sex, and the Hidden Price of Everything
Portals We Walk Through
The ordinary rituals that summon old selves—and perhaps something older
The Marriage of Strangers
How Barley Met Hops—and Beer Became Beer
The Map Inside the Pint
How hop varieties carried beer from Saaz to Citra—and how the home brewer can learn to taste the difference
When Time Became Strange
Einstein, Jung, and the Search for Meaning in a Universe Without a Master Clock
The Room Before the Question
Heidegger, Plato, and the Strange Nearness of Being
The Lens Before the World
Kant as the Bridge from Plato to Heidegger
The Shape Behind the World
Plato and the Long Argument Over Idealism
The Invisible Gravity of Things
The object that has followed you the longest
The Night Shift: Dreams, Pride, and the Strange Theater of the Soul
We spend all day trying to appear reasonable and in control. Then we fall asleep and carry a fish tank through an airport while our childhood dentist explains the stock market.
Was George Costanza the First Millennial Worker?
George Costanza was not a millennial, but he may have understood millennial work before millennials arrived: the theater of competence, the terror of being found out, and the strange dignity of turning employment into a bit.
The Beauty of Bad Interfaces
Against the seamless world
Beer With a Thousand Faces
A light heroic history of civilization's oldest companion