Erase Your Blackboard
John Locke's blank slate, applied to reading Chaucer honestly — why understanding a 700-year-old prejudice starts with setting your own blackboard aside first.
Fear
Nothing Happens to You That You’re Not Formed to Bear
Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditation V.18 that nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear. Jimmy’s analysis of…
Don’t Let Future Things Disturb You
Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditation VII.8 on a battlefield where he might die the next morning. Don’t be disturbed by future things — you’ll have…
Faust Almost Killed Himself. What Stopped Him Is the Key to the Whole Play.
There's a moment in Act One that most readers rush past because the devil is coming and the pact is coming and the action…
Four Things. Until Your Time Comes.
Marcus Aurelius asked himself what is sufficient until death comes. He answered in four things: venerate, do good, bear, abstain. Jimmy’s analysis of Meditation…
Short Story
First Confession
Listen to Frank O'Connor's First Confession with a free audiobook-style reading, analysis, summary, and insights into childhood, family, and forgiveness.
Nine Rules for When Someone Offends You
Most people have one rule when someone offends them. Marcus Aurelius had nine. Jimmy's analysis of Meditation XI.18 — the most practically useful passage…
Kiss Your Child Like It’s the Last Time
Epictetus wrote: when you kiss your child, remind yourself they are mortal. A BBC professor called it stupid. She missed the point. Jimmy’s analysis…
Marcus Aurelius Figured Out What Einstein Proved
In Meditation V.13, Marcus Aurelius wrote that matter cannot perish into non-existence. Einstein proved it eighteen centuries later. Jimmy's analysis of atoms, change, death,…
The Monk in the Margins
Odin. Thor. Freyr. Freyja. Loki. A rich, complex mythology full of competing powers, supernatural drama, and very specific ideas about how a warrior should…
Obsession Kills: What Hauchecorne Could Not Let Go
What is the truth in this story? We know it because the narrator told us: Hauchecorne picked up a piece of string. The wallet…
The Ghost Is Not a Plot Device — He’s the Root Cause of Every Death in Hamlet
When something goes wrong — in a factory, in a business, in a life — the first instinct is to identify what happened. The…
