Dreams of Daoist transcendence go through the online looking glass. It's time to level up. Climbing Mount Emei, Part VI

A story about the assassination of a warlord, with an extended cameo from KPop Demon Hunters. Climbing Mount Emei, Part IV.

Princess Pingyang and the brave politics of steppe nomad cross-fertilization. Part III of Climbing Emei Mountain.

A Mobius strip of Chinese women warriors, from my living room to the Spring and Autumn Annals and back again. Climbing Emei Mountain, Part II.

The distance between a civilization’s peak and its collapse can be as short as a single love affair gone wrong. Climbing Emei Mountain, Part I

At a fraught moment, let us honor those who show us the way

The conclusion of The Universal Commerce of Light

In the age of hypography, AI will be king. Part VI of The Universal Commerce of Light

The current that drew me from Gottfried Leibniz to curiosity about the remarkable history of the Hohenzollern dynasty and the rise (and fall) of Prussia, led, thanks to a recommendation from my sister...

In a post-Babel world of communications chaos, let food do the talking

In which Gottfried Leibniz consults the Book of Changes and invents digital technology. With cameos from Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick, Joseph Needham, and eventually, The Chinese Computer.

A tale of Muslim princesses, wuxia derring do, and Qing colonialism.

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who leads the private Wagner force, claimed the Russian defense minister had orchestrated a deadly attack on his troops. Earlier in the day, he called the war a “racket” to e...

Fermentation. Transformation. Immortality. The Soybean is Everything, Part II