Archive - Pens and Poison

Worried About AI? Study the Humanities

As AI Eats the Tech Industry, It’s Time to Rethink the Value of a Humanities Degree

8 hrs ago •

I Went from Nobody to Substack Bestseller

How a failed college blog, a forgotten novel draft, and a rooftop conversation led to 5,000+ subscribers and a second chance at a writing life

Jul 10 •

George Orwell's Box

How Orwell’s Defense of Writing Led to Its Undoing

Jul 8 •

Don’t Believe That The American Dream Is Dead

Pessimism about America has become fashionable. It’s a dangerous narrative.

Jul 4 •

The Screwtape Letters Changed My Life

I’m a secular humanist who used to sneer at religion. Now I stand up for it.

Jul 3 •

June 2025

The Case for Humanistic Literature

What Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain Teaches Us About Literature’s Moral Function

Jun 30 •

The Dangerous Book That Made Me Human

Rethinking Morality, History, and Empathy Through Gone With the Wind

Jun 26 •

Toni Morrison Sucks

The Case Against Replacing Literary Foundations with Identity-Driven Curricula

Jun 23 •

A History of Literary Criticism

A Century of Literary Theory, from T.S. Eliot to Judith Butler

Jun 20 •

There Is No Formula (And That’s Why You’re Failing)

Why Action Beats Advice

Jun 16 •

Just Fall in Love

What Literature Taught Me About Romantic Love in the Age of Dating Apps and Disbelief

Jun 12 •

The Moral Failure of Columbia University

My Alma Mater Betrayed Both Free Speech and Its Jewish Students

Jun 9 •

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