They Better Behave
When did we start talking this way?
THE SEVENTH EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 21, 2026
On Sunday, a president described three options for Iran: wiping the country out, letting it collapse economically, or making a deal. Then came the sentence I cannot get out of my head — "if and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave."
Iran's government is not innocent, and a nation is allowed to defend itself. What stopped me was not the policy. It was how ordinary that sentence sounded, and how quickly we all moved on.
I didn't know. So I went looking.
When Politics Finds Religion
What happens when politics begins shaping our faith?
THE SIXTH EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
I've never been completely convinced they can be separated. If you genuinely believe something about right and wrong, about the value of human life, about our obligations to one another, those beliefs are going to follow you into the voting booth.
But lately I've been wondering about something else. What happens when the traffic starts moving in the other direction? What happens when politics begins shaping our faith?
I didn't know. So I went looking.
When Did Anger Become a Business Model?
Who gets paid when we hate each other?
THE FIFTH EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 17, 2026
I happened to walk past a television playing Fox News the other day, and something stopped me. I wasn't really listening to the story. I was listening to the emotion.
Anger. Fear. Outrage. Another enemy. Another reason to be furious.
And I found myself wondering: Is this simply what partisan news sounds like — or is anger itself part of the product?
Who Actually Pays a Tariff?
I thought I knew. Then I followed the money.
THE FOURTH EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 16, 2026
I thought I understood tariffs. A country puts a tariff on goods coming from another country. The other country pays the tariff.
Then I tried to answer one ridiculously simple question: Who actually writes the check?
If the United States puts a tariff on something made in China, does the Chinese manufacturer send money to Washington? Does the customer? I realized I didn't actually know. So I followed the money.
Can Anyone Put Their Thumb on an American Election?
Who controls the rules — and who can say no?
THE THIRD EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 15, 2026
I saw the Supreme Court decision Monday night and initially had a pretty simple reaction: Good. That's settled.
But then I started thinking about the larger question. What exactly prevents a president — or either political party — from putting its thumb on the machinery surrounding an American election?
Who decides who stays on the voter rolls? Who draws congressional districts? Who certifies the results? I realized I didn't really know. So I went looking.
What Does the Fed Actually Do?
And why would making borrowing more expensive help when everything already costs too much?
THE SECOND EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 14, 2026
I have heard some version of this sentence hundreds of times: “The Federal Reserve raised interest rates.” I understood the general idea. Higher rates are supposed to slow inflation. Lower rates are supposed to stimulate the economy. Simple enough.
Except I realized recently that if somebody had stopped me and asked a few obvious follow-up questions, my explanation would have fallen apart pretty quickly. What interest rate does the Federal Reserve actually raise? Does it set my mortgage rate? My credit-card rate?
And perhaps most importantly: how does making it more expensive for me to borrow money make the things I already can’t afford become less expensive?
When Both Doors Close
I knew Hormuz mattered. Then I learned about the other door.
THE FIRST EXPLORATION • SEPTEMBER 2026
I knew the Strait of Hormuz was important. I couldn’t have pointed to it on an unlabeled map with complete confidence, but I understood the basics: a narrow stretch of water at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, a tremendous amount of the world’s oil moving through it, Iran sitting alongside.
Then a second name kept turning up in the headlines — Bab el-Mandeb — and I had to look it up. My reaction wasn’t “that’s an interesting bit of geography.” It was: oh, that’s not good.
Think of the Arabian Peninsula as a house with two important doors. This is what happens when both of them start closing at once.
