Ned Gallagher:
What I’m Up To
Labor Day 2026
“All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.”
- Virginia Woolf
In Praise of Idleness
The month of August was largely unscheduled for me this year. I was contemplating setting up a mid-month trip to Japan, but never pulled the trigger. Instead, I used the final weeks of vacation to sleep late, read books, catch up on films and TV shows, visit family, do some cleaning, watch tennis, and generally revel in the dog days of summer. That doesn’t mean I was entirely unproductive—all my syallabi for the fall term were entirely ready to go weeks before the start of the school year. And I did finish a trio of summer courses I was taking (on comparative mythology, 1940s film noir, and Milton’s poetry, in case you were wondering). I also used the downtime to get some things fixed: I had repairs and servicing completed on both my Vespa and my Audi and also had a minor surgical procedure to correct a hammertoe. For the most part, the pace of life was gloriously relaxed and my calendar pages were thrillingly blank.
What I’m Reading
Working On Now:
- Maryanne Wolf, Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World―A Cautionary Cognitive Science Study on How Screens Affect Attention Spans
- Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- Alex Ross, Marvel Dimensions: A Graphic Novel
Recently Finished:
- Keith McNally, I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir
- Apollonius of Rhodes, The Argonautica: The Voyage of Argo
- Geoff Dyer, Missing of the Somme
- Matthew Futterman, The Cruelest Game: Chasing Greatness in Professional Tennis
On Deck:
- Jonathan Gienapp, Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique
- Douglas Stuart, John of John
- David McCulloch, History Matters
- Paul Beatty, Sellout
- Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, Redcoat [Deluxe Edition}, volume 1
For Courses I’m Taking This Fall:
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
- Martin Luther, The Essential Luther
- The Holy Bible
- Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
- Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion
- Simone Weil, Waiting for God
- Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
- Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear It Away
- Plato, ”Meno”
For Courses I’m Teaching This Fall:
- Annalee Newitz, Automatic Noodle
- Andrew Gordon, A Modern History Of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
- 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:
- Lanterns (HBO Max)
- coverage of U.S. Open tennis (ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN+, ABC)
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 4 (Paramount+)
- Ted Lasso, season 4 (Apple TV)
- The Shards (Hulu)
- Diarra from Detroit (Paramount+)
- Widow’s Bay (Apple TV)
Recently Finished—Television:
- Chad Powers, season 2 (Hulu)
- Sterling Point (Prime Video)
- coverage of North American summer tennis tournaments: Washington, Montréal, & Cincinnati (Tennis Channel, Tennis TV)
- Bait (Prime Video)
- Hacks, season 5 (HBO Max)
- Aces: The ATP No. 1 Club (Prime Video)
On Deck—Television:
- Dublin Murders (Starz)
- The Agency, season 2 (Prime Video)
- The Bear, season 5 (Hulu)
- Silo, season 3 (Apple TV)
- Under the Dome, seasons 1–3 (Paramount+)
- Star City (Apple TV)
Recently Finished—Films:
- ”Space Seed”/Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [Director’s Cut] (d. Nicholas Meyer, 1981) double bill, cinema
- Coyote vs. Acme (d. Dave Green, 2026), cinema
- The Last Sunrise (d. Carlson Young, 2026), streamed on Prime Video
- The Dynasty: UConn Huskies (d. Matthew Hamachek and Erica Sashin, 2026), streamed on Apple TV
- Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon (d. Douglas Tirola, 2015), streamed on Pluto
- Novak Djoković: The Wolf in Winter (d. Jason Hehir, 2026), streamed on Prime Video
- One Night Only (d. Will Gluck, 2026), cinema
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day (d. Destin Daniel Cretton, 2026), cinema
- The Dark Knight (d. Christopher Nolan, 2008), streamed on HBO Max
- Leviticus (d. Adrian Chiarella, 2026), cinema
- WALL•E (d. Andrew Stanton, 2008), streamed on Disney+
- The Dink (d. Josh Greenbaum, 2026), streamed on Apple TV
- There Will Be Blood (d. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007), streamed on Paramount+
- The Invite (d. Olivia Wilde, 2026), cinema
- The Devil Wears Prada (d. David Frankel, 2006), streamed on iTunes
- The Odyssey (d. Christopher Nolan, 2026), cinema
- The Departed (d. Martin Scorsese, 2006), streamed on iTunes
- Almost Famous (d. Cameron Crowe, 2000), streamed on Paramount+
What I’m Listening To
Music:
- Luca Sestak, Lighter Notes
- U2, “Street of Dreams” [single]
- Carly Simon, Comes in Waves
Podcasts:
- Served with Andy Roddick
- The New Yorker Radio Hour
What I’ve Been Attending
- New Haven Road Race, New Haven, CT, September
- Much Ado About Nothing, Elm City Shakespeare, Edgerton Park, Hamden, CT, September
- Teaching American History summer teacher seminar: “The American Revolution,” Niagara Falls, NY, August
- Mubadala DC Open tennis tournament, Washington, DC, August
Where I’m Traveling
Recent Trips:
Upcoming Trips:
What I’m Learning
What I’m Looking Forward To