Jon Baskin
@BaskinJon
Founding Editor @the_point_mag
I wrote about the lack of administrative support for the liberal arts in @nytimes. The standard story we hear is that students don't want it. But a darker reality is that even when it wins big with students and donors it loses with those in power. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…
Good piece about the fate of the post-left and also the broader challenges of public political thinking in the social media / podcast sphere compactmag.com/article/the-de…
I’m excited to share my review of Antón Barba-Kay’s very rich and interesting book “A Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of Digital Formation” in the forthcoming issue of American Political Thought: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/73…
Throwback to Frank Thomas hitting a 525-foot bomb during the 1994 Home Run Derby
I love to write a rave about possibly being possessed by a Greek god in the American Midwest. On Michael Clune’s PAN for @bookforum: bookforum.com/print/3201/ang…
I wrote about Sheila Heti for @nybooks nybooks.com/articles/2025/…
On today’s new episode of Selected Novels, Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to Bruce Holsinger about the @nyrbclassics cult classic “Stoner”: buzzsprout.com/1791285/episod…
“Show us how this will align with the university’s enrollment and financial goals” “Ok sure. Here you go” “Aha. Unfortunately you have failed to justify yourself before the tribunal of pure reason, which demands we build the state’s 12th-best computer science program instead.”
What the last two years at Tulsa makes clear is that the decline of liberal education is not reducible to a lack of student interest. Even a popular and successful program with lots of interest and promise can get switched off if the decision-makers don’t like it.
Sad news for those who care about the humanities. I have tremendous respect for @jennfrey and what she was building at Tulsa.
Now for some personal news: today is my last day as Dean. I was stunned to be informed by our new provost there will no longer be a Dean of Honors, period. Nor an Assistant Dean. Rather, I was told there will be a “director” of honors--but that person will not be me. (12/21)
Fierce and fantastic debate just now on @interintellect_ between the great @anecdotal and @a_n_a_berg - both professors with strong emotions about AI arriving at their universities and becoming part of students’ life. Are we cutting administrative slop with AI? Are we losing our
doubt it is a first for @AgnesCallard but might be for The Point. Hopefully not the last!
Is this the first time that @the_point_mag and Agnes Callard have been linked to mentioned in Gentleman’s Quarterly? Potentially!
Some good writing on The Valley, for those who have heard of the show or perhaps have watched every episode twice... gq.com/story/the-vall…
New on Forms of Life, @storyshaped on canvassing for Zohran Mamdani: thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/…