Ned Gallagher:
What I’m Up To
The Dawn of 2026
“And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.”
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
Into A New Year
My January looks to be a continuation of where 2025 left off: teaching and coaching and residential life commitments at school, some lifelong learning courses here and there, and managing the usual work/life balance. In addition, our annual D.C. trip for government students awaits at the end of the month. And before I know it, it will be Spring Break!
What I’m Reading
Working On Now:
- Jonathan Franzen, How to Be Alone
- Craig Thompson, Ginseng Roots: A Memoir
Recently Finished:
- Tom Tomorrow, Our Long National Nightmare
- Rob Kyff, Gatsby’s Secrets: The Hidden Motifs, Moments and Metaphors That Shape Fitzgerald’s Masterpiece
- Mark H. Mullin, The Headmaster’s Run
- Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt
- Paul Cornell, Țhe Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s
- Dan Watters & Hayden Sherman, Batman: Dark Patterns
- John Fugelsang, Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
On Deck:
- John Irving, Queen Esther
- Charles King, Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah
- Annie Dillard, For the Time Being
- Chip Kidd and Michael Cho, The Avengers in the Veracity Trap!
For Courses I’m Taking This Winter:
- Simone Beauvoir, The Second Sex
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
- Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefit
- Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
- Karl Marx, The Marx-Englels Reader
- F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
- Alighieri Dante, Paradiso
- John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
- Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth
- John Locke, Second Treatise on Government
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
- John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
For Courses I’m Teaching This Winter:
- Michael Lewis, Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service
- Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”
- Mark Twain, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
- François Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
- Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
- Flannery O’Connor, “Good Country People”
- Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V For Vendetta
What I’m Watching
Ongoing—Television:
- The Expanse, season 1 (Prime Video)
- The Pitt (HBO Max)
- A Man on the Inside, season 1 (Netflix)
- Saturday Night Live, season 51 (NBC/Peacock)
Recently Finished—Television:
- Stranger Things, season 5, Part 2 (Netflix)
- Dead Hot (Tubi)
- Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films (Disney+)
- Selling Superman (Prime Video)
- Ricky Gervais: Mortality (Netflix)
On Deck—Television:
- The Night Manager, season 2 (Prime Video)
- Wonder Man (Disney+)
- Toast of Tinseltown (Roku)
- Game of Thrones: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max)
- Shrinking, season 3 (Apple TV)
- Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Paramount+)
- Hijack, season 2 (Apple TV)
- coverage of Australian Open tennis (ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN+)
Recently Finished—Films:
- Stranger Things: The Finale (d. The Duffer Brothers, 2025), cinema
- Avatar: Fire and Ash (d. James Cameron, 2025), cinema
- Avatar: The Way of Water (d. James Cameron, 2022), streamed in 3-D on Disney+
- Avatar (d. James Cameron, 2009), streamed in 3-D on Disney+
- The Canterbury Tales (d. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1972), Blu-ray
- Materialists (d. Celine Song, 2025), streamed on HBO Max
- The Man From Earth: Holocene (d. Richard Schenkman, 2017), streamed on Prime Video
- Sentimental Value (d. Joachim Trier, 2025), cinema
- The Thief of Bagdad (d. Michael Powell et al., 1940), Blu-ray
- The New Yorker at 100 (d. Marshall Curry, 2025), streamed on Netflix
- Jay Kelly (d. Noah Baumbach, 2025), streamed on Netflix
- Hamnet (d. Chloé Zhao, 2025), cinema
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (d. Rian Johnson, 2025), cinema
What I’m Listening To
Music:
- lots of Pink Floyd and Talking Heads
Podcasts:
- Smartless
What I’ve Been Attending
- Maybe Happy Ending, Belasco Theater, New York City, January
- The Great Gatsby, Broadway Theater, New York City, January
- Operation Mincemeat, Golden Theater, New York City, January
- Weston Priory, Weston, VT, December
- ”Christmas By Candlelight,” Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA, December
- Handel and Hayden Society: “Baroque Christmas,” Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, December
- Blue Heron: ”Christmas in 16th-Century Spain & New Spain,” First Church in Cambridge, Cambridge, MA, December
- Festival of Lessons & Carols, Seymour St. John Chapel, Wallingford, December
- Teaching American History webinar: ”Jefferson: the Statesman,” online, December
- Handel and Hayden Society: ”Handel’s Messiah,” Symphony Hall, Boston, November
Where I’m Traveling
Recent Trips:
Upcoming Trips:
What I’m Learning
What I’m Looking Forward To