The Archive

Every essay.

Jake Meador

How Air Conditioning Created the Modern City - Commonplaces

From The Guardian: Once, when I was staying in Houston, Texas, my host was showing me round her house. It included a mighty fireplace. “How often does it get cold enough to light a fire?” I asked, as what little I […]

Matthew LoftusHistoryEconomicsHealth & Medicine

Alma Ata at 40 - Doctors Without Boredom

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration (PDF) — the landmark 1978 World Health Organization statement by 134 countries affirming the vital role of primary health care. This article explains why it’s so important to still focus on […]

Jake Meador

The New Reading Environment - Commonplaces

The new reading environment built around the social stream corrodes the minds of writer and reader alike.

Matthew LoftusCulture

i don't think i'm ever gonna figure it ou-ou-out - Doctors Without Boredom

Lyz Lenz digs into the history of Tucker Carlson to try to figure out what happened to America: I am trying to listen. I am trying to understand. I want to understand. If I can figure out what happened to […]

Jake Meador

In Praise of Owning Stuff - Commonplaces

Tyler Cowen thinks it is #actually good to own things instead of pay monthly subscription fees. He's almost certainly right.

Matthew Lee AndersonMere Fidelity

Mere Fidelity: Trust and Trustworthiness in a Fallen World

Mere Fidelity: Trust and Trustworthiness in a Fallen World

Matthew LoftusCulture

shame and the Bible - Doctors Without Boredom

I’ve longed followed Jackson Wu and his writings about honor and shame in the Bible and missions, so I’m pleased to see he’s published a longer article with a more comprehensive look at the subject: Everyone agrees shame is a pervasive […]

Jake Meador

The Ever-Present Audience - Commonplaces

Sacasas: It is not just the technological tools available to us that deform us; it is also the desire for attention we have which these tools encourage.

Susannah Black and Jake MeadorMere O Toast

The Twitter Alts of Internet Famous Christians

If different internet famous Christians decided to pull a Bryan Colangelo, what would their alt handles be? What would they use their accounts to do?

Matthew Loftus

religious leaders should have been first to hear the call - Doctors Without Boredom

Eve Tushnet digs into the complicated witness of the saints who have suffered abuse — and how they proclaim Christ, the abused: The saints bear witness to what the Church really is. This is not an uncomplicated witness. St. Mary […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCulture

"a joy that is never void of heartache" - Doctors Without Boredom

This is a painful and necessary post from Jason Johnson about foster care and adoption: The new reality of our family, having now adopted that little girl that was once a file on top of a stack, is that we […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyHistoryEducation

black homeschooling in America - Doctors Without Boredom

This piece about black families in America choosing to homeschool captures many of the elements that families struggle with over the public school system: Yet Fields-Smith made a point of noting the respect black families had for the people running […]