Put it in writingWhen I left Vienna, I packed up all of the aerogrammes, letters and postcards I had received from home in an empty Sachertorte box and flew to JFK with them...Jan 13, 2025I thought I was ready for fire. I was wrongJust after sunset on Wednesday, another spark caught in the Hollywood Hills. The fire had crept closer, now just on the other side of the canyon. We could wait no...Jan 10, 2025The land of my childhood is on fireAs horrifying as the spread of these fires has been, they are merely the latest in a long and harrowing catalogue, writes Steve Almond. Over the past decade, not a...Jan 10, 2025Farewell to Jimmy Carter, and a more innocent timeMadeleine Blais was a staff writer for the Trenton Times in 1976 when she was assigned to cover the Democratic Convention in New York City where Jimmy Carter claimed his...Jan 9, 2025My letter from Jimmy Carter's White HouseDecades later, I don’t remember what prompted 10-year-old me to write to President Carter, writes Jane Rosenzweig. But I do remember how excited I was when I received a response...Jan 8, 2025AdvertisementNot all monsters look like monstersMore than 50 men were found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot. In addition to her own husband, the rapists included a nurse, a journalist and a volunteer firefighter, and they...Jan 7, 2025Maybe making resolutions is a bit like prayingMaybe instead of stating our intentions for a specific thing, we ought to resolve ourselves to a certain way of being in the world — wise, patient, honest, compassionate, humble...Jan 5, 2025'Helpless fury': January 6, four years laterRather than being called to account for his crimes on Jan.6, Donald Trump arrives back on the Capitol steps triumphant and unscathed. His election to a second term dramatically shifts...Jan 3, 2025The triumphant and tragic life of Maria CallasThere is much to love about Netflix's “Maria”, a biopic about soprano Maria Callas, including the film’s visual splendor, writes Paul Wink. But the film misses opportunities to illuminate the...Jan 3, 2025Public trust in science is ebbing — and will have real-world consequencesAnti-science attitudes have historically encumbered societal progress in the U.S., often with serious ramifications, writes Frederick Hewett. The scientific community is now bracing for upheaval as the Trump administration prepares...Jan 2, 2025Jimmy Carter won my vote with his inspired idealism — he’d win it againAt times throughout his presidency, political and economic circumstances forced President Carter to subordinate his impulse to protect the living world. But his accomplishments outweigh his failures, writes Frederick Hewett,...Dec 30, 2024Jimmy Carter’s humility hurt his political career. It also made him remarkableI will always remember Jimmy Carter for the sense of decency that he brought to the Oval Office and for his tireless post-presidential efforts to do good throughout the world,...Dec 30, 2024Cog's best essays of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In their own way, these essays help us avoid staggering through life without really seeing it,...Dec 22, 2024Cognoscenti's best stories of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In Cog’s best stories of the year, our authors wrote about politics and heartbreak, mass transit,...Dec 20, 2024My mother’s jewelry, a tree and a new Christmas traditionWhen Christine Willmsen’s mother died, her strongest memories were about their troubled relationship. This year, though, her mother’s jewelry — and a small tree — led the way to a...Dec 19, 2024Time travel with us: The Cog 2024 playlistIn 2024, 27 Cog essays featured music. The right song, even just a few notes, can take us back in time to another version of ourselves. These songs are the...Dec 18, 2024Welcoming the light in this season of darknessHanukkah and Christmas fall on the same day in 2024, a calendar coincidence that's happened only nine times since 1900 and won't happen again until 2052. The light from both...Dec 18, 2024The sacred spirit of Christmas — at my local drug storeDr. Seuss’s Grinch found redemption in a simple insight: Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. But, writes Rich Barlow, each year my local pharmacist provides a Christmas meal —...Dec 17, 2024Why I’ve come to appreciate snoring, sort ofAny pretense we had 25 years ago, about how we might need to contort ourselves to accommodate each other, has given way to understanding and a certain acceptance, writes Cloe...Resume03:49Dec 13, 2024Just the right mix of books for 2024As the co-owner of a bookstore, The Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Hannah Harlow reads for a living. These are the books that stuck with her in 2024. Dec 13, 2024Next Page
Put it in writingWhen I left Vienna, I packed up all of the aerogrammes, letters and postcards I had received from home in an empty Sachertorte box and flew to JFK with them...Jan 13, 2025
I thought I was ready for fire. I was wrongJust after sunset on Wednesday, another spark caught in the Hollywood Hills. The fire had crept closer, now just on the other side of the canyon. We could wait no...Jan 10, 2025
The land of my childhood is on fireAs horrifying as the spread of these fires has been, they are merely the latest in a long and harrowing catalogue, writes Steve Almond. Over the past decade, not a...Jan 10, 2025
Farewell to Jimmy Carter, and a more innocent timeMadeleine Blais was a staff writer for the Trenton Times in 1976 when she was assigned to cover the Democratic Convention in New York City where Jimmy Carter claimed his...Jan 9, 2025
My letter from Jimmy Carter's White HouseDecades later, I don’t remember what prompted 10-year-old me to write to President Carter, writes Jane Rosenzweig. But I do remember how excited I was when I received a response...Jan 8, 2025
Not all monsters look like monstersMore than 50 men were found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot. In addition to her own husband, the rapists included a nurse, a journalist and a volunteer firefighter, and they...Jan 7, 2025
Maybe making resolutions is a bit like prayingMaybe instead of stating our intentions for a specific thing, we ought to resolve ourselves to a certain way of being in the world — wise, patient, honest, compassionate, humble...Jan 5, 2025
'Helpless fury': January 6, four years laterRather than being called to account for his crimes on Jan.6, Donald Trump arrives back on the Capitol steps triumphant and unscathed. His election to a second term dramatically shifts...Jan 3, 2025
The triumphant and tragic life of Maria CallasThere is much to love about Netflix's “Maria”, a biopic about soprano Maria Callas, including the film’s visual splendor, writes Paul Wink. But the film misses opportunities to illuminate the...Jan 3, 2025
Public trust in science is ebbing — and will have real-world consequencesAnti-science attitudes have historically encumbered societal progress in the U.S., often with serious ramifications, writes Frederick Hewett. The scientific community is now bracing for upheaval as the Trump administration prepares...Jan 2, 2025
Jimmy Carter won my vote with his inspired idealism — he’d win it againAt times throughout his presidency, political and economic circumstances forced President Carter to subordinate his impulse to protect the living world. But his accomplishments outweigh his failures, writes Frederick Hewett,...Dec 30, 2024
Jimmy Carter’s humility hurt his political career. It also made him remarkableI will always remember Jimmy Carter for the sense of decency that he brought to the Oval Office and for his tireless post-presidential efforts to do good throughout the world,...Dec 30, 2024
Cog's best essays of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In their own way, these essays help us avoid staggering through life without really seeing it,...Dec 22, 2024
Cognoscenti's best stories of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In Cog’s best stories of the year, our authors wrote about politics and heartbreak, mass transit,...Dec 20, 2024
My mother’s jewelry, a tree and a new Christmas traditionWhen Christine Willmsen’s mother died, her strongest memories were about their troubled relationship. This year, though, her mother’s jewelry — and a small tree — led the way to a...Dec 19, 2024
Time travel with us: The Cog 2024 playlistIn 2024, 27 Cog essays featured music. The right song, even just a few notes, can take us back in time to another version of ourselves. These songs are the...Dec 18, 2024
Welcoming the light in this season of darknessHanukkah and Christmas fall on the same day in 2024, a calendar coincidence that's happened only nine times since 1900 and won't happen again until 2052. The light from both...Dec 18, 2024
The sacred spirit of Christmas — at my local drug storeDr. Seuss’s Grinch found redemption in a simple insight: Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. But, writes Rich Barlow, each year my local pharmacist provides a Christmas meal —...Dec 17, 2024
Why I’ve come to appreciate snoring, sort ofAny pretense we had 25 years ago, about how we might need to contort ourselves to accommodate each other, has given way to understanding and a certain acceptance, writes Cloe...Resume03:49Dec 13, 2024
Just the right mix of books for 2024As the co-owner of a bookstore, The Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Hannah Harlow reads for a living. These are the books that stuck with her in 2024. Dec 13, 2024