Ned Gallagher:
What I’m Up To
Labor Day 2025
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold.”
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
The Academic Life
An update on my “lifelong learning” endeavors, which typically ramp up in the summer months. In early August I completed my work in the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College, having submitted my final essays for a history tutorial and a preceptorial on The Canterbury Tales. The master’s degree program entailed completing 12 courses, broken into four term-long segments: Literature, History, Politics & Society, Philosophy & Theology. (I also could have chosen Mathematics & Natural Science as one of the segments but stuck with the humanities.) I spread my work over six terms rather than four for better work/life balance, as the fall and spring semesters overlapped with my own teaching, coaching, and other commitments at school. I’m proud to have made steady progress through the program and greatly enjoyed the texts, my fellow students, and the tutors I encountered the last couple years at St. John’s.
In addition to my formal graduate work, I also spent a week in late June with an immersion into The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata as part of the Summer Classics program at St. John’s. A month later, the Teachers Institute at SJC offered a deep dive into Tocqueville’s Democracy in America over four afternoons. And on Monday nights throughout the summer I tackled Milton’s Paradise Lost. So these last few months involved a lot of reading and more than a few probing conversations about the texts at hand.The next few weeks I will be taking a trio of University of Chicago mini-courses: one on the Troilus and Cressida story (both the Chaucer and Shakespeare versions), one on A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, and another on Simone Weil. Then in early October I begin a two-year course sequence at UChicago on The Modern Tradition, an extension of the Graham School’s four-year program in the Great Books. (I have finished similar two-year alumni sequences in the Middle Ages and in the American Tradition.) I will be convening on Wednesday nights with the nucleus of a group that more or less has been together since the fall of 2018. Also on tap this fall will be remote courses at Stanford: one on the centenary of The Great Gatsby and the other a cinema studies offering.
Oklahoma!
In the final week of summer before the new school year got underway, I spent a few days exploring Tulsa, Oklahoma—a trip which capped a series of relatively short jaunts scheduled around my obligations teaching summer school and being a student. I was in Rome for five days in June, traveled to Texas for a weekend in mid-July, spent a few days in Ontario in early August, and had an overnight in Chicago a week later. Though these visits were brief, they scratched my travel itch and broke up my summer routine nicely.
Whither the Magazine?
Two books on my current reading list explore the heyday and decline of magazines as arbiters and gatekeepers in our culture. One text was written by the founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, and the other focuses on the Condé Nast publishing house (which includes The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue among others). Each book laments the end of an era in which glossy periodicals played an important role in everyday life. I grew up in the middle of this era of preeminent magazines; starting in junior high school I routinely devoured a handful of weeklies—Newsweek, Time, and Sports Illustrated. As I grew older, my attention shifted to the highbrow end of the spectrum with magazines that covered politics and ideas; in my first year out of college I started a subscription to The New Yorker (which I have maintained ever since) and soon added The Atlantic Monthly and The Economist to my media diet. (The latter two now arrive only in digital form, alas.) Twenty-five years ago, I was subscribing to an embarrassing number of publications on a weekly or monthly basis; I was a magazine junkie. The rise of the Internet, compounded by the economic crisis of 2007/2008, disrupted the magazine industry’s business model as corporate America slashed funds allocated for print advertising. Page counts plummeted and many of my favorite regular reading materials ceased to exist. The only “hard copies” of periodicals that land in my mailbox nowadays are The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books and a handful of alumni magazines. I certainly miss the golden age of periodicals.
Off to the Races Once Again
This morning my cross country team competed in the annual New Haven Road Race, a Labor Day tradition that signals the beginning of another year of interscholastic athletics. Even with a few decades (!) under my belt at this point, coaching young athletes remains one of the delightful elements of my job. I am something of an outlier in working with interscholastic teams all three seasons year in and year out, but it’s rewarding work. It’s the same reason I spend most of my summers in the classroom during July when most colleagues are opting for a respite; quite simply, I truly enjoy the work.
What I’m Reading
Working On Now:
- Michael Grynbaum, Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America
- Giri Nathan, Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis
- Chris Kempshall, The History and Politics of Star Wars
- Thomas Chatterton Williams, Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse
- Dan Nadel, Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life
Recently Finished:
- Christopher Caldwell, The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties
- Jeff Jarvis, Magazine (Object Lessons)
- Dan McClellan, The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues
- Stephen Fry, Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined
- Caravaggio 2025
On Deck:
- Karen Armstrong, In The Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis
- Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
- Mark Hodgkinson, Being Carlos Alcaraz: The Man Behind the Smile
- Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance
- H.W. Brands, Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics
For Courses I’m Taking This Fall:
- Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde
- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
- Simone Weil, Waiting for God
- Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
- Simone Weil, War and the Iliad
- Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introduction to History
- Leo Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
- Martin Heidigger, Being and Time
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
- Jim Steyer, Which Side of History?: How Technology Is Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives
For Courses I’m Teaching This Fall:
- John Green, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
- Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun
- Joseph Grieco et al., Introduction to International Relations: Perspectives, Connections, and Enduring Questions
- Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
- The Federalist Papers
What I’m Watching
Ongoing—Television:
- coverage of U.S. Open tennis (ESPN, ESPN+)
- Peacemaker, season 2 (HBO Max)
- Invasion, season 3 (Apple TV+)
- Wednesday, season 2 (Netflix)
- A Spy Among Friends (BritBox)
- Étoile (Apple TV+)
- South Park, season 27 (Paramount+)
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, season 17 (Hulu)
Recently Finished—Television:
- Fisk, season 3 (Netflix)
- Welcome to Wrexham, seasons 1–4 (Hulu)
- Eyes of Wakanda (Disney+)
- Fifteen-Love (Acorn)
- Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero (BritBox)
- Art Detectives (Acorn)
On Deck—Television:
- Slow Horses, season 5 (Apple TV+)
- The Paper (Peacock)
- The Diplomat, season 3 (Netflix)
- The Morning Show, season 4 (Apple TV+)
- Futurama, season 13 (Hulu)
Recently Finished—Films:
- Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (d. Laurent Bouzereau, 2025), streamed on Hulu
- Jaws (d. Steven Spielberg, 1975), cinema
- Rosemary’s Baby (d. Roman Polanski, 1968), streamed on Paramount+
- Night of the Living Dead (d. George Romero, 1968), streamed on Prime Video
- Targets (d. Peter Bogdanovich, 1968), streamed on iTunes
- Nobody 2 (d. Timo Tjahjanto, 2025), cinema
- Relay (d. David Mackenzie, 2024), cinema
- The Intruder (d. Roger Corman, 1962), streamed on Plex
- The Last Class (d. Elliot Kirschner, 2025), cinema
- Highest 2 Lowest (d. Spike Lee, 2025), cinema
- Nobody (d. Ilya Naishuller, 2021), streamed on Prime Video
- The Little Shop of Horrors (d. Roger Corman, 1960), streamed on Prime Video
- Rather (d. Frank Marshall, 2024), streamed on Netflix
- Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show (d. Josh Greenbaum, 2017), streamed on Hulu
- Bullitt (d. Peter Yates, 1968), streamed on Tubi
- Point Blank (d. John Boorman, 1967), streamed on iTunes
- A Canterbury Tale (d. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1949), streamed on Tubi
- Marc Maron: Panicked (d. Steven Feinartz, 2025), streamed on HBO Max
- Join or Die (d. By Pete Davis & Rebecca Davis, 2023), streamed on Netflix
- The Swimmer (d. Frank Perry, 1968), streamed on iTunes
- L.A. Confidential (d. Curtis Hanson, 1997), streamed on Prime Video
- Democracy For $ale (d. Sylvain Pak, 2020), streamed on Kanopy
- City Hall (d. Harold Becker, 1996), streamed on iTunes
- Midnight Cowboy (d. John Schlesinger, 1969), streamed on Kanopy
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps (d. Matt Shakman, 2025), cinema
- Reservoir Dogs (d. Quentin Tarantino, 1992), streamed on Paramount+
- Eddington (d. Ari Aster, 2025), cinema
- Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (d. Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin, 2025), streamed on PBS Passport
- Billy Joel: And So It Goes (d. Susan Lacy and Jessica Levine, 2025), streamed on HBO Max
- Malcolm X (d. Spike Lee, 1992), streamed on iTunes
- My Own Private Idaho (d. Gus Van Sant, 1991), DVD
- The Bellboy (d. Jerry Lewis, 1960), streamed on Prime Video
- The Loved One (d. Tony Richardson, 1965), streamed on Hulu
- Thelma & Louise (d. Ridley Scott, 1991), streamed on Tubi
- F1: The Movie (d. Joseph Kosinski, 2025), cinema
- Superman (d. James Gunn, 2025), cinema
- Fail-Safe (d. Sidney Lumet, 1964), streamed on iTunes
- Seconds (d. John Frankenheimer, 1964), streamed on iTunes
- Jurassic World Rebirth (d. Gareth Edwards, 2025), cinema
- Chasing Chasing Amy (d. Sav Rodgers, 2023), streamed on Prime Video
- Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny (d. Chana Gazit and Jeff Bieber, 2025), streamed on PBS Passport
- Always at the Carlyle (d. Matthew Miele, 2018), streamed on Peacock
What I’m Listening To
Music:
- Elton John, Live from the Rainbow Theatre
- Chuck Mangione, Children of Sanchez
- Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
- The Cranberries, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?
- Sting, Dream of the Blue Turtles [2025 remaster]
Podcasts:
- Smartless
What I’ve Been Attending
- Greenwood Rising museum, Tulsa, OK, August
- Art Deco Walking Tour, Tulsa, OK, August
- Bob Dylan Center, Tulsa, OK, August
- Woody Guthrie Center, Tulsa, OK, August
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elm Shakespeare, New Haven, August
- Teaching American History webinar: “Jefferson: the Revolutionary,” online, August
- RSPA webinar: “Coaching Excellence: Shaping Champions On and Off the Court,” online, August
- Billie Jean, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago, August
- Case Method Institute for Education and Democracy session: “Athenian Democracy,” online, August
- National Bank Open tennis tournament, Toronto, August
- The Winter’s Tale, Stratford Festival, Stratford, ON, Canada, August
- As You Like It, Stratford Festival, Stratford, ON, Canada, August
- A Man For All Seasons online reading, Zoom, July
- Twelfth Night, Shakespeare at Winedale, Round Top, TX, July
- King Lear, Shakespeare at Winedale, Round Top, TX, July
- Richard II, Shakespeare at Winedale, Round Top, TX, July
- 2025 Japan Summer Festival, West Hartford, CT, June
Where I’m Traveling
Recent Trips:
Upcoming Trips:
What I’m Learning
What I’m Looking Forward To