The Common Reader

12/11/2025

TCR contributor Michael A. Kahn from our ‘Second Chances’ issue: The real world is filled with transformative “second chance” stories—true tales of people who at some point in their lives answer the summons of a new path.

The real world is filled with transformative “second chance” stories—true tales of people who at some point in their lives answer the summons of a new path.

12/11/2025

He understands “the impossible human experience of just trying to get through the day with everyone you love being somewhat OK at the end of it.”

12/10/2025

TCR contributor Courtney M. Cox eyes the resurgent career of Lewis Hamilton for our ‘Second Chances’ issue: British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton’s move to Scuderia Ferrari signals a second act, a new opportunity to emerge victorious not only on the track but also to continue pushing the limits of what is possible beyond it.

British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton’s move to Scuderia Ferrari signals a second act, a new opportunity to emerge victorious not only on the track but also to continue pushing the limits of what is possible beyond it.

12/09/2025

TCR Managing Editor Ben Fulton’s essay from our ‘Second Chances’ issue: The “hatchet man” for President Nixon, and a chief architect of both Nixon’s “dirty tricks” and the team of “Plumbers” who schemed to smear, libel, drug, and, in at least one case, even assassinate the president’s vast list of “enemies,” lived not just to endure the stain of a criminal conviction and seven months in federal prison, but seemingly transcend it. Watergate historians, however, are not so kind.

The “hatchet man” for President Nixon, and a chief architect of both Nixon’s “dirty tricks” and the team of “Plumbers” who schemed to smear, libel, drug, and, in at least one case, even assassinate the president’s vast list of “enemies,” lived not just to endure the stain of a cr...

12/08/2025

TCR Editor Professor Gerald Early on the latest bio of baseball legend Pete Rose: Kostya Kennedy’s ‘Pete Rose’ is a tour de force display of journalism, top-flight writing, and excellent research. It is rich in biographical details, yet it is not meant to be a biography in the typical sense, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave account of a life. The book is more of an exploration of Pete Rose as a celebrity athlete, his rise, his fall, and how he has managed both, or how managing his failures hinges entirely on how well he can throw around the weight of his accomplishments.

Kostya Kennedy’s ‘Pete Rose’ is a tour de force display of journalism, top-flight writing, and excellent research. It is rich in biographical details, yet it is not meant to be a biography in the typical sense, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave account of a life. The book is more of an explorati...

12/08/2025

The latest from TCR Heartland Journalism Fellow Tolu Daniel: Heritage is collective, aesthetic, and performative. It is something you inherit. Whereas history, on the other hand, is authored, linear, personal. It is something you produce. Museums often allow Africans the former but not the latter. Our art is heritage; European art is history. Our works are culture; theirs are achievements.

Heritage is collective, aesthetic, and performative. It is something you inherit. Whereas history, on the other hand, is authored, linear, personal. It is something you produce. Museums often allow Africans the former but not the latter. Our art is heritage; European art is history. Our works are cu...

12/07/2025

TCR contributor Courtney M. Cox tackles Kamala Harris’s campaign memoir: Published less than a year after her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 election, ‘107’ Days is an extraordinary feat in its turnaround time. However, in its haste to hit the shelves, there may not be enough distance in the former Vice President’s assessment of her campaign to truly offer the clear vision of hindsight.

Published less than a year after her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 election, 107 Days is an extraordinary feat in its turnaround time. However, in its haste to hit the shelves, there may not be enough distance in former Vice President Kamala Harris’s assessment of her campaign to truly offer th...

12/07/2025

TCR Heartland Journalism Fellow Wen Gao writes on ‘Second Chances’: He seemed almost happy. Maybe because the river, the night, and the freedom felt good to him. He played one of his favorite songs, “My Girl” by the Motown group The Temptations, music from his youth before he went to prison.

He seemed almost happy. Maybe because the river, the night, and the freedom felt good to him. He played one of his favorite songs, “My Girl” by the Motown group, The Temptations, music from his youth before he went to prison.

12/07/2025

TCR staff writer John Griswold’s latest essay, from our new special issue ‘Second Chances’: If you have ever cared for an addict, you know the desperate feeling of no easy solutions. Science has no inoculation or cure, so treatment is a combination of lengthy and often expensive behavioral and pharmacologic therapies that still depend on “the individual’s desire to change,” as LAM puts it.

My visit was not just to catch up with my cousin Marsha. She had told me when we first met earlier this year about a man who had been through the (Life After M**h) LAM recovery program, still lived in one of their houses, and had pled “open” at his final sentencing hearing, offering evidence of ...

12/06/2025

Noa Ablin, TCR’s editorial intern, on the latest exhibition at St. Louis’s Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts: In a museum, we often try to understand what a painting means and where it is coming from, placing ourselves at the center of the experience. This sculpture removed me completely. I was forced to look outward instead of inward, as if I were seeing a world that existed without me.

In a museum, we often try to understand what a painting means and where it is coming from, placing ourselves at the center of the experience. This sculpture removed me completely. I was forced to look outward instead of inward, as if I were seeing a world that existed without me.

12/06/2025

TCR staff writer Jeannette Cooperman’s latest essay, from our ‘Second Chances’ issue: More than ten thousand species are now critically endangered. Humans have clear-cut forests, paved grassland, overharvested, overfished, and overhunted. Much of the existing ground is being strangled by honeysuckle, kudzu, vetch, cheatgrass, and various exotics. Can we get a second chance?

More than ten thousand species are now critically endangered. Humans have clear-cut forests, paved grassland, overharvested, overfished, and overhunted. Much of the existing ground is being strangled by honeysuckle, kudzu, vetch, cheatgrass, and various exotics. Can we get a second chance?

12/06/2025

The Buddha would have us stand still, calmly watching what is happening inside us until the energy of those drives dissolves. But was he happy?

Why would I not desire a good Camembert, or a sweater soft as a lamb?