Top Ten from the AP Staff
Dear friends,
Jeff invited us this week to share our Top Ten American Purpose articles and podcasts. We consulted our colleagues Suzanne Garment, Rebecca Burgess, Sydnee Lipset, and Laura Silverman—our Favorite Five from each category are below. Enjoy reading and listening.
Best,
Carolyn Stewart and Michelle High
Our Favorite Five AP Articles
Arch Puddington’s “Orbán’s China Infatuation (Opens in a new window)”
More and more I value Arch’s clear, steady intelligence among our diverse offerings. Puddington puts a fine point on the irony that the man the nat cons embrace as a savior of Christian civilization has himself embraced one of the world’s leading persecutors of Christians.
—Suzanne Garment
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Tamar Jacoby’s “Ukraine Displaced (Opens in a new window)”
With her reporting on Ukraine’s internally displaced families, Jacoby offers color and compassion as she details a chronically overlooked aspect of Russia’s invasion.
—Carolyn Stewart
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Carl Gershman’s “Wisdom from Warsaw (Opens in a new window)”
Gershman draws parallels between the democratic spirit forged during the Solidarity movement and Ukraine’s heroic resistance to Russia’s invasion today. It is a splendid essay—incisive, moving, and reflective.
—Sydnee Lipset
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David Skinner’s “The New Language Police (Opens in a new window)”
Words are the currency of this human realm, Skinner reminds us in this four-part series, enabling us to be human with ourselves and with each other. What happens to our souls when our new semantic regulator-overlords shush whole lexigraphies out of existence?
—Rebecca Burgess
* * *
Daniel Chirot’s “Those We Leave Behind (Opens in a new window)”
Chirot looks at the withdrawal from Afghanistan through a long lens, probing deep into the crevices of societal psyches. A haunting take.
—Michelle High
Our Favorite Five AP Podcasts
The Islamic Republic and Protests in Iran (Opens in a new window), Saeid Golkar with Francis Fukuyama on “Democracy IRL (Opens in a new window)”
Golkar, an Iranian scholar and expert on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, offers an inside look at the anti-regime protests and why they represent an unprecedented break from past unrest in the Islamic Republic.
—Carolyn Stewart
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The Ten Days That Defined Obama’s Presidency (Opens in a new window), Cody Keenan with Richard Aldous on “Bookstack (Opens in a new window)”
Very few people know what it’s like to be in the “room where it happened” with President Barack Obama. As the producer-editor of “Bookstack,” I really did feel like a fly on the Oval Office wall during this gripping half-hour depiction of ten pivotal days in Obama’s presidency.
—Laura Silverman
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The Challenges Facing Latin America’s Young Democracies (Opens in a new window), Jorge Castañeda on “Times Like These with Charles Lane (Opens in a new window)”
Lane’s engagement of former Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Castañeda in a tour de force of the status of democracy in an array of Latin American countries packs in a remarkable amount of knowledge and insight.
—Michelle High
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The First Journey into Space (Opens in a new window), Stephen Walker with Richard Aldous on “Bookstack (Opens in a new window)”
The details that Walker shares on the four months preceding Gagarin’s record-breaking flight into space make the success story of the Soviet space program all the more astounding.
—Carolyn Stewart
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Confederate Names and Military Bases (Opens in a new window), Kori Schake on “Times Like These with Charles Lane (Opens in a new window)”
A fascinating and heartwarming discussion about the Naming Commission’s inclusive civic process as it considered new names for thousands of military installations that originally honored confederate generals.
—Michelle High
