My Best Stories
My favorite and best stories
On playing the Shostakovich 5th symphony
Evanston RoundTable, Jan. 15, 2025 Riveting and profound music that meant life or death I’ve written about the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony before. It’s one of the
Life’s big questions
Evanston RoundTable, July 31, 2025 I used to think that as one got older, the fog that obscures life’s Big Complexities would lift, life’s Big
How to lose the news blues (and make the world a better place)
Evanston RoundTable, June 28, 2025 If you’re feeling seriously glum about the current tidal wave of bad news, little wonder. Daily headlines overwhelm us about
The lesson of the soap dispenser
Evanston RoundTable, March 19, 2025 “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards,” said the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and we
The world turned upside down
Evanston RoundTable, Feb. 20, 2024 People didn’t notice at first. The steady tug of gravity has been with us so long — since the beginning
Rx for health care access: Some initiatives that may help
Evanston RoundTable, Nov. 21, 2024 Editor’s note: The first part of this series explored the supply-and-demand dynamics that help explain difficulty accessing doctors nationwide, and
The doctor can’t see you now: Is access to health care in crisis?
Evanston RoundTable, Nov. 20, 2024 Editor’s note: This is the first article in a two-part series. When health care consultant Michael Millenson phoned Endeavor Health
Driving with George
Evanston RoundTable, Oct. 4, 2024 It wasn’t a dream or a fantasy so much as a thought experiment: What if, sitting alongside me, inexplicably riding
The Now of Now: In which we consider the common fire hydrant
Evanston RoundTable, July 30, 2024 Many decades ago I volunteered at an Evanston hospice organization. Volunteers had to undergo a day of training, and one