The quest for truth and meaning has propelled my journey, my improbable journey from religion to ethical humanism. I am a first-generation humanist. My parents were born into a traditional religious setting, but later embraced... Read More

Keep your superintelligence. The real danger is quieter: a kind of polished thoughtlessness, the production of outputs that feel increasingly less owned. I don’t fear a machine that can outthink me; I worry about a... Read More

When I first started writing, I thought the job was to sound certain. I thought that if I arranged my sentences neatly enough, if every paragraph landed perfectly and every metaphor shimmered just right then... Read More

James Boswell once summed up the tragedy of the LGBT community: we do not have Jewish grandmothers (from "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality," 1980). These “bubbes” are more than matriarchs. They are our elders—keepers of... Read More

I keep coming back to a question that’s hard to shake: if humanism is rooted in dignity, what happens when “human” is no longer the only category that matters? It’s easy to say, “we’ll cross... Read More

What does it mean to live ethically in a society where surviving (let alone thriving) comes with a price tag? For millions of Americans, debt is not just a ledger of numbers; it’s a life... Read More

This essay was previously published in Etymology Press and is reprinted here with the author's permission. Ought connotes a moral obligation. In our society, if you have a child with a disability, you are obligated... Read More