Wednesday Blog by Seán Thomas Kane

This past weekend, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art debuted a new retrospective exhibit on the life and work of Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. One of her great initiatives was to express rebellious joy in her art, especially later in her career.

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Over the last week, I've been thinking about how much I still use cash, and what that says about my lifestyle as a whole.

Guests:

Alex Brisson, New York City

Elizabeth Duke, Kansas City, MO

George Vial, County Donegal, Ireland

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Over the last week, I've been thinking about the standards we define to cast a model of normality, or in an older term normalcy. This week then, I try to answer the question of what even is normal?

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This Monday, North America experienced its second total solar eclipse in the last decade.

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This week, after going down the rabbit hole of the Chicago Manual of Style's monthly Q&A newsletter, I thought I'd talk a bit about grammar.

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Last week, I returned to Chicago, this time on a business trip to attend a conference, and on the way took time to slow things down and enjoy the lived experience.

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This week, to begin Season 4 of the Wednesday Blog podcast, I want to talk about what it means to exist. I know, small topic for a Wednesday.

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This week, to round out Season 3 of the Wednesday Blog podcast, a few words about my love for museums.

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This week, I want to talk a bit about how the period I study resonates in our everyday lives through the foods we eat.

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Today, one week after this city's great triumph and great tragedy, I've decided to reflect on the week now passed.

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In a week of great triumph for my city and impactful announcements, some words on civic pride.

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This week some words on time management.

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I've long wondered about what kind of leader I want to be. This week a coalescing of those ponderings.

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As we end the coldest month of the year and I think ahead, I want to share with you my thoughts on the joy of travel.

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This week I want to talk about how we can recognize the existence of unknown things.

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This week, how technology enhances and supplements human nature.

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This week, a discussion of copyright expiration and what that means for this publication.

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As we end 2023, I want to discuss doubt, one of the great drivers of my faith.

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Today it's my birthday. So, some words about milestones.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, a reflection on the rising Sun.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, some words about St. Nick.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, how we enhance our vision with innovation.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, recognizing the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, my perspective on the last century and a half as a time of tremendous change.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, I argue that we should stick to Standard Time

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, some words about a trip just completed.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, I extol the virtues of listening to our bedfellows in nature.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, looking back to a Renaissance philosopher to try and make sense of the present.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, I have a bone to pick with the weather.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, why our conversations about ecology and culture are grounded in loss.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, a look back 200 years to another time of great political change in the United States.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, I try to remember a story for this week that I came up with on Saturday while lost in a parking garage.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, how we present ourselves to the world around us and in the mirror to our own reflections.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, recollections of this past holiday weekend's activities at the Kansas City Irish Fest and beyond.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, some thoughts on what it means to be a man in 2023 inspired by Greta Gerwig's new film Barbie. Yes, there are a handful of mild spoilers.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, how I've learned to deal with stage-fright and in some cases overcome it.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, I've decided to write about some of the advice I'm thinking about as I prepare to teach an entirely new age range in this new school year.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, how the pandemic made permanent somethings that were once reserved for fieldwork.

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This week on the Wednesday Blog, I want to air a pet peeve of mine about stories taken out of context.

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This Monday, I went to see the new Christopher Nolan film about the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the team that invented the atomic bomb.

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This week, adding onto last week's release about my work as a translator, I'm discussing my view on how language ought to be personalized.

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This week, I talk about my experiences as a translator.

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This week, the Wednesday Blog is coming out a day early in honor of our Independence Day.

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This week, a consideration of how memories survive as stories.

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This week, in honor of Bloomsday, how reading Joyce helped prepare me for my doctorate.

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This week I'm discussing what the word "classical" means to me in musical as well as historical and political terms.

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Concerns have been raised lately over the risk that the increasing artificial intelligence of our computers poses to humanity. I think the risk truly lies in who teaches these computers and what they are taught.

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Season 2 Finale: This week, the conclusion of "Ghosts in the Wind" as Dr. Olivia Stephens and her team make a groundbreaking discovery on Mars.

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This week, the story continues as Dr. Olivia Stephens settles down on Mars with her colleagues at Elysium Base, making new friends and continuing her search for evidence of past Martian life.

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This week I'm beginning the three part Season 2 finale titled "Ghosts in the Wind" which follows the astrobiologist Dr. Olivia Stephens in the year 2055 as she tracks down traces of past life on Mars.