“Why do we accept bad listening? Because, I think, listening well is hard, and we all know it. Like all forms of self-improvement, breaking this carapace requires intention, and ideally guidance.” “The art of listening.” Aeon, May 2022

“In terms that Orwell would understand, Segnit finds the idea of giving up his family – as all true retreatants must – appalling… This gives the narrative a relatable human touch; but with most modes of retreat being dedicatedly solitary, it also means that the account becomes rather alienated from itself.” “Present and elsewhere.” Review of Retreat: The Risks and Rewards of Stepping Back from the World by Nat Segnit. The Times Literary Supplement, September 2021.

“If you are one of those souls who are compelled to make a feast of questioning – whose enquiries are by nature incessant, maximalist, thorough – then you must eventually arrive at pessimism. Like athletes or armies, philosophies prove their strength by doing battle with their sternest possible foes.” “The Enlightening Dark: On Pessimism.” The Independent, December 2020

“Hermann Hesse’s search for wisdom forces us to confront a crucial question: do you prefer your soul, or the world?” “The Inward Gaze: Hermann Hesse and the Double-Edged Sword of Dwelling on the Self.” Aeon, July 2020

“Strange but true: breathing is keeping you alive, but it’s also killing you.” “On the benefit of conscious breathing.” Aeon, February 2019

"I have come to understand David Foster Wallace's Oblivion for what it really is: A work of horror fiction, whose unique brand of horror is rooted in Wallace’s reading about the brain." "David Foster Wallace and the Horror of Neuroscience." The Millions, March 2018

"Does the current state of neuroscientific research create a pessimistic picture of human existence; and if so, how should we react? Can an individual consciousness know itself, and to what degree? And can an individual consciousness contact and know other consciousnesses, and to what degree?" "Neuroscience, Consciousness and Neurofiction." (PhD Thesis.) University of British Columbia (UBC) Open Collections, December 2017

"In its debates, and its attempted or resisted rapprochements, neuropsychoanalysis dramatises a tension between two basic ways of thinking about what it means to be a human being: as a subject, and as an object. Or, to use an unfashionable dualism: as a mind, and as a brain." "Freud in the Scanner." Aeon, December 2017; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, February 2018

"Why is it so hard, this naked aloneness? And, more beguilingly still, what might be gained from enduring it? Relaxation? Creativity? God?" "Into the Deep: On the Nothingness Inside a Float Tank." Aeon, July 2015

“Despite its compassionate tone, From a Mountain In Tibet doesn't promise relief via the page… That this registers as a lack – that simply observing a Buddhist life, rather than efficiently extracting the wisdom from it, feels like a failure – is an un-Buddhist reader response.” “The full religious package.” Review of From a Mountain In Tibet: A Monk’s Journey by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche. The Times Literary Supplement, October 2020

“Hermann Hesse’s search for wisdom forces us to confront a crucial question: do you prefer your soul, or the world?” “The Inward Gaze: Hermann Hesse and the Double-Edged Sword of Dwelling on the Self.” Aeon, July 2020

“The weight of life’s ephemerality – the feeling that its glories are always slipping away without you ever quite holding them in two hands – is what pushes a lot of people toward Buddhism. One Blade of Grass evokes this disquietude with tender force.” “There’s no one breathing.” Review of One Blade of Grass by Henry Shukman. The Times Literary Supplement, January 2020

“One should expect only the very shallowest sort of revelation from the literary pilgrimage. Whatever remains, whatever is real, survives purely as that dense and ethereal thing: language.” “Kafka in Prague: An Attempt at a Ghost Hunt.” The Independent, October 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, January 2020

“Cari Mora is interesting for being a sort of repentance: Having served Starling to a man dripping in Satan imagery, Harris now wishes he could snatch her, and the silence of her lambs, back from between his elegant jaws.” “Cari Mora: How the new thriller by Thomas Harris silences those lambs.” The Independent, May 2019

“The raw teachings of the physical; an unabashed love of irrational play; the echoes of the innocent pathos of youth; small moments of transcending our material prison. This was Camus’s beautiful game.” “How Albert Camus Found Solace in the Absurdity of Football.” The Independent, March 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, June 2019

“Horror – like the theology that provided its former home – is animated by the full spectrum of human psychology. It is driven by our desire to stop all the clocks, shrink into a bubble of the familiar and the known, reject all things foreign. Equally, it is shot through with the bone-deep knowledge that if we can’t adapt, we will perish.” “Horror is a Dark and Piercing Reflection of Our Anxious Times.” Aeon, September 2018; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, September 2018

"At bottom, is the novelist more priest than scientist? Is trusting in fiction really any more sensible or rational than trusting in religious myth?” "Can There Be an Atheist Novel?" The Point, March 2018

"I have come to understand David Foster Wallace's Oblivion for what it really is: A work of horror fiction, whose unique brand of horror is rooted in Wallace’s reading about the brain." "David Foster Wallace and the Horror of Neuroscience." The Millions, March 2018

"Does the current state of neuroscientific research create a pessimistic picture of human existence; and if so, how should we react? Can an individual consciousness know itself, and to what degree? And can an individual consciousness contact and know other consciousnesses, and to what degree?" "Neuroscience, Consciousness and Neurofiction." (PhD Thesis.) University of British Columbia (UBC) Open Collections, December 2017

"Buddhism can be seen to cordon off and denigrate, in pursuit of psychic equilibrium, precisely those inner voices, those inner narratives, which are the wellspring for what Westerners generally regard as worthy of praise in the arts." Review of Nothing and Everything by Ellen Pearlman. MAKE Literary Magazine, February 2015

"Accusations of scientism and reductionism may or may not be warranted, but the fact remains: the most fundamental discovery in all of biological science remains more-or-less completely un-talked about in English seminars." "On the Origin of Novels? Encountering Literary Darwinism." The Millions, February 2014

“Hermann Hesse’s search for wisdom forces us to confront a crucial question: do you prefer your soul, or the world?” “The Inward Gaze: Hermann Hesse and the Double-Edged Sword of Dwelling on the Self.” Aeon, July 2020

“One should expect only the very shallowest sort of revelation from the literary pilgrimage. Whatever remains, whatever is real, survives purely as that dense and ethereal thing: language.” “Kafka in Prague: An Attempt at a Ghost Hunt.” The Independent, October 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, January 2020

“My grandfather never expected me to meet the family he left behind in Assam. He kept them secret, and was apparently ready to take the fact of their existence to the grave.” “Flutesong Over the Water.” The Nightwatchman (by Wisden), September 2019

“In terms more suited to an Ancient Greek dramatist or a medieval theologian than a YouTuber or a typical guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, Peterson talks in a way that would make a dinner party unravel into silence.” “The Unbearable Heaviness of Jordan Peterson.” Folha de São Paulo, April 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Version

“The raw teachings of the physical; an unabashed love of irrational play; the echoes of the innocent pathos of youth; small moments of transcending our material prison. This was Camus’s beautiful game.” “How Albert Camus Found Solace in the Absurdity of Football.” The Independent, March 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, June 2019

“Intellectual reputation is a weird lottery. In his heyday, Erikson was a star; today, his name is barely recognised. But Erikson’s ideas shouldn’t be allowed to evaporate into history.” “Erik Erikson knew that self-invention takes a lifetime.” Aeon, January 2019

"Buber was abandoned by his mother at three years old, and said in old age that his lifelong engagement with the nature of human relationships ‘had its origin in that moment’ when he realised she was never coming back.” "All Real Living is Meeting: The Sacred Love of Martin Buber." Aeon, March 2018

“My grandfather never expected me to meet the family he left behind in Assam. He kept them secret, and was apparently ready to take the fact of their existence to the grave.” “Flutesong Over the Water.” The Nightwatchman (by Wisden), September 2019

“Virat Kohli is staying on my floor – in what I assume is the room with a burly Sikh gentleman stationed outside it at all hours – and in the two days before the game, the K-word is on the air, like a mantra.” “The Tamasha in Jaipur: Embedded With The Rajasthan Royals.” Wisden Cricket Monthly, April 2019

“All great moments of football are fundamentally unlikely, their execution Promethean. To be brilliant with the body is to shake your first at Zeus’s wrath, and to witness it is to discover what Camus thought made the game worth the candle: moments of glorious, earthbound, vanishing transcendence.” “How Albert Camus Found Solace in the Absurdity of Football.” The Independent, March 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, June 2019

“Above all, Villeneuve’s Dune succeeds in conjuring perhaps the most enduring feature of Herbert’s novel – its fundamental strangeness.” “Sand and spice: A science fiction classic on screen.” Review of Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve. The Times Literary Supplement, October 2021

“Murphy develops a detailed taxonomy of anti-listening behaviours, from the well-known – interrupting, glazing over – to the subtler: finishing people’s sentences; asking questions that prompt a certain answer; jumping into the pauses people leave while gathering their thoughts; internally finessing your own response before you’ve heard the entirety of the thing you are responding to.” “Unplugged: Why are we so lonely?” Review of You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy. The Times Literary Supplement, May 2021

“The other optimisms that died with the hippies are all downstream of this basic failure to bring about a revolution in the nature of human consciousness; the failure to shed the ego, embrace the spirit, glimpse salvation in another dimension.” “The Terrible Optimism of the Hippies.” The Independent, November 2019

“This, I posit, is why a man who laboured in the dark for thirty years is now selling millions of books and embarking on sold-out international lecture tours: Because he makes the case for taking life, and oneself, very seriously.” “The Unbearable Heaviness of Jordan Peterson.” Folha de São Paulo, April 2019; also, Portuguese-Language Version

“Not The Nose: What A Horror Show.” (Podcast appearance.) The Colin McEnroe Show, WNPR Connecticut Public Radio, October 2018

“Horror – like the theology that provided its former home – is animated by the full spectrum of human psychology. It is driven by our desire to stop all the clocks, shrink into a bubble of the familiar and the known, reject all things foreign. Equally, it is shot through with the bone-deep knowledge that if we can’t adapt, we will perish.” “Horror is a Dark and Piercing Reflection of Our Anxious Times.” Aeon, September 2018; also, Portuguese-Language Syndication, in Folha de São Paulo, October 2018

"Where Galveson most significantly predicts True Detective is in its presentation of a world which fails, despite the best attempts of its inhabits, at being irremediably bleak." "Read and Watch: Galveston and True Detective." Book Riot, March 2014

"A large part of On The Road’s powerful and ongoing appeal undoubtedly stems from the lyricism of its language – as opposed to its linearity, or even narrative coherence. Translating this to the screen could quite simply be impossible." "On The Road, On The Screen." The Millions, May 2012

"Catch 22 is the perfect anti-war novel because it eschews anything that could be considered pious pacifism in favour of a bold examination of what war-making actually amounts to." "Catch 22: War Satire Still Bites in the Age of Fallujah and Helmand." Red Pepper, January 2012

"'It’s tough,' said his aide. 'You get into a routine of calling for things, you know? I mean Ban’s even found himself calling for things outside of work. In the subway in NY he’ll just suddenly start calling for fare reductions.'" "UN Chief calls for power to do more than just call for things." Newsthump, June 2011