5 Public Intellectuals I Keep Tabs On

I’ve written before here about my respect for the late intellectual Christopher Hitchens. Boy, could we use his wit nowadays! There are other living writers, thinkers, and pontificaters that I continue to enjoy learning from. Here are 5 of them.

1. David Brooks

Brooks was a long time columnist for the New York Times, one of their ‘conservative’ writers. He is also the author of several 5-star books, including The Social Animal, The Second Mountain, and How to Know a Person. Brooks has moved to the center over the past 10 years or so. While I don’t agree with all his takes, I admire his thoughtfulness and his willingness to acknowledge changes to his thinking on important issues.

2. Sam Harris

Sam Harris pisses everybody off. Liberals don’t like him because he condemns the ideology hiding behind organized monotheistic religions, and conservatives don’t like him because he is one of the most effective verbal butchers of MAGA stupidity. He’s also an AI doomer, which can be off putting to those who are AI optimists. Most importantly though, Harris speaks clearly about the benefits of a meditation practice and his app Waking Up is arguably one of the most comprehensive secular tools for waking up from the ongoing and persistent delusion of the self.

3. Ryan Holiday

Holiday is a writer, book store owner (yes!), podcaster, and general promoter of Stoic wisdom. His books, like those by Brooks and Harris, are fantastic collections of history and all-purpose wisdom. He also walks his talk regarding virtue, calling out racism and greed that are commonly dressed up as patriotism and ‘family values.’ And did I mention he likes great music?

4. Shane Parrish

Parrish is the Canadian writer and podcaster behind the Farnam Street blog, which is a trove of wisdom about the human condition. He is also thoughtful, smart, and his work is consistently offering new and interesting ideas to explore further. Parrish, unlike the others on this list, generally avoids politics.

5. Scott Galloway

I’ve been a fan of Prof G, as he is affectionately known, since I first came across his podcast. Like Harris and Holiday, he is an outspoken critic of the current state of American politics and I tend to agree with most of his ideas. He can be off putting in the sense that he is often crude and has a juvenile sense of humor, but when it comes to the intersection of economics and politics I find that I am nearly always in agreement with him. He also promotes what I consider to be a much healthier version of masculinity, which is important when there are so many tools promoting toxic masculinity online. Galloway’s book Adrift, which I finished reading about a week ago, is also worth reading.

Serendipity and Big Spending in DC

This is first and foremost a post about serendipity. First, I googled this very information yesterday while talking with my father. Then today I see the infographic below with today’s date (!), with the same exact information I googled yesterday and read about on a different website. Super weird!

But then, as fate would have it, my lesson today in AP Gov was about interest groups. And you’ll notice if you look at the graphic below, that Washington DC has the highest per capita GDP of any of the United States. New York is second, and has less than the half of DC’s number. Why? Well a big part of it is all the lobbying money flying around in DC (though there is tech and aerospace there, too). Indeed, the initial reason I googled the stat in the first place while talking with my father was because we were discussing the fountain of cash that is our federal government.

Mississippi has the lowest GDP per capita, and while Oregon isn’t close to that number, it is closer to Mississippi’s number than DC’s.

On a related note, according to Open Secrets, the interest groups that spend the most money lobbying at present are:

  1. U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Typically the highest spender, representing business interests across various sectors.

  2. The National Association of Realtors: Their primary goal is to “unleash” housing inventory through legislative and tax reforms

  3. Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA): Represents major pharmaceutical companies, spending heavily to influence drug pricing policies.

  4. Business Roundtable: An association of CEOs from major U.S. corporations, lobbying on tax, trade, and economic policy. National Association of Realtors (NAR): A consistent top spender focused on housing and real estate legislation.

  5. American Hospital Association (AHA): Lobbies on behalf of hospitals and health systems.

  6. Blue Cross/Blue Shield: A major player among health insurance lobbyists.

  7. Meta: Their primary 2026 goal is to prevent a “patchwork” of restrictive state-level AI laws that could hinder development.

Did Apple Lose the AI Race?

I do not invest in individual stocks. However, like a lot of people, and all public employees, I am invested in the stock market in at least one way through my pension plan. As a consequence of having a little skin in the game, I am still very fascinated by the stock market and I follow it like I used to folllow baseball; that is, by taking a look once a day and reading news about what may or may not be impacting the markets. Indeed, macroeconomics is a related topic that I am very interested in and need to know as a high school social studies educator. Nevertheless, I haven’t made any posts about the stock market in particular since I started this blog.

This morning I came across two videos commenting on Apple stock. Apple has been in the news lately because CEO Tim Cook is stepping down and his replacement was named last week. Apple has also been widely seen as losing in the AI race. These videos offer a more update take on where Apple is headed and the two gentelmen agree that with regards to AI, Apple may be in the driver’s seat going forward. As someone is also very interested in AI, I was intriqued by what they had to say.

I’m going to post the videos below and then make sure to revisit these opinions in a year or two to see how things turned out. For the record, Apple stock (AAPL) is trading today at $271.06.

YouTube Video

YouTube Video

Good Riddance to Viktor Orban

Good news today out of Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has gone down in electoral defeat after 16 years in power. A couple of important points include:

  1. Both Putin and Trump wanted Orban to win. Therefore, his loss is a triple win for democracy.

  2. Ukraine also wins, as Orban’s government did not support Ukraine’s brave fight to defend itself from Russian aggression.

  3. Orban’s governent, despite the fact that Hungary is in the EU, is more closely aligned with Putin’s authoritarianism. They’ve been allowing Russian spies carte blanche in the country and have been caught making phone calls to Russian authorities and providing inside information about EU thinking.

  4. The New York Times reports tonight that the turn out was approximately 77%, the highest since Hungary gained its freedom after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This video by independent journalist Caolan Robertson is worth a look.

YouTube Video