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Last year, Christopher J. Scalia offered a list of 13 novels every conservative will love (but probably haven’t read). His publisher, Skyhorse, promised that reading your way through Scalia’s list would help us “better understand a great intellectual tradition.”
But no one has done that better than George H. Nash, the historian who literally wrote the book on the conservative intellectual tradition. Nash’s most famous book, “The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America,” first published in 1976, helped to define and shape a nascent political movement.
Now 80, Nash is an old-school thinker, having been raised in an era without social media, without “influencers” and the “hot-take certainty” he disdains.
Anyone can post a hot take online and be rewarded with attention and followers. It takes much more effort to do the sort of studying and reflection that produces a mature intellect like Nash’s, and fewer of us have the discipline for that anymore.
Forty percent of Americans didn’t read a single book in 2025, according to YouGov, and in a statistic that should be worrying to conservatives, Democrats read more books than Republicans. (Perhaps even more worrying is that our shrinking attention span makes it difficult not just to engage with books, but with movies, actor/producer Matt Damon recently told Joe Rogan.)
Fortunately, there are plenty of online resources for conservatives who want to think better by reading deeply, and in a recent conversation with the Deseret News, Nash offered some recommendations — six journals he regularly goes to for information. Consider this list an intellectual leg-up from a rock star in his field:
- The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal’s University Bookman
- The Imaginative Conservative
- Modern Age
- Public Discourse
- Law and Liberty
- And, of course, National Review which Nash says is “is very strong, still.”
Whither Anderson Cooper?
News broke Monday that broadcaster Anderson Cooper would end an unusual arrangement in which he worked for both CNN and CBS: He’ll remain with CNN, but will no longer be a correspondent for CBS’s “60 Minutes,” a position he has held for nearly 20 years.
Variety called the news the “latest blow to the revered Sunday-night newsmagazine,” but partisans on social media quickly divided into two camps, represented by “this is a tragedy” and “good riddance.”
No one, however, seems to be buying the reason that Cooper offered: that he wants to spend more time with his two sons. (In the past, he has talked about how disappointed he was to miss his son Wyatt’s first steps, because he was on an assignment overseas.)
Instead, there is widespread speculation that Cooper is another casualty of Bari Weiss assuming control of CBS News.
For its part, CBS released a statement saying, in part, “We’re grateful to him for dedicating so much of his life to this broadcast, and understand the importance of spending more time with family. ’60 Minutes’ will be here if he ever wants to return.”
Regardless of the reason, it was an abrupt turnaround from last fall, when reports said Weiss was considering Cooper or Fox News’ Bret Baier for the CBS Evening News anchor position, which ultimately went to Tony Dokoupil.
The Roganization of everything
Fox News superstar Sean Hannity, already one of the hardest-working people in conservative media, will start a twice-weekly long-form podcast next month, the network announced this week.
The show will feature “unfiltered conversations with compelling and influential figures across culture, business, sports, politics and beyond,” a press release said, and will be filmed on a new set in Florida dubbed Hannity’s “man cave.”
Joe Rogan did more than help elect Donald Trump. He changed the media landscape.
The new show will be called “Hang Out With Sean Hannity” and launches March 3.
Quote of the week
On the Feb. 12 Deseret Voices podcast, McKay Coppins asked former U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake to give us a reason for optimism in the current political climate.
Said Flake: “We’ve been through worse before. If you look at our history, we’ve had immense and incredible challenges: going through the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement. We’ve had some violent, ugly times, but we’ve always come out better — not perfect, but better — and I think we’ll do the same here. Americans are kind, generous, good people. It’s just that you don’t hear much from them.”
Recommended reading
Valerie Hudson is watching a Los Angeles trial that she sees as the most serious legal challenge that social media companies have faced.
“From what we’ve heard in testimony so far, Meta is arguing that ‘addiction’ is different, clinically speaking, from ‘problematic use,’ and if it’s problematic use, then that is the user’s fault. YouTube’s strategy appears to be to deny it is a social media company at all. If that’s the best they’ve got, I smell blood in the water.”
Has social media’s Big Tobacco moment finally arrived?
The internet is full of recommended “life hacks” — shortcuts to a better life. A proven strategy, however, often goes unremarked — it’s to choose a life partner at a young age. Brad Wilcox and Maria Baer applaud a Super Bowl quarterback who did just that and share the benefits he will gain from the decision.
“Young married men (22-35) who are married with children are significantly more likely to be ‘very happy’ with their lives, with 37% of married fathers reporting they are very happy compared to only 14% of young men who are single and childless. Likewise, just 14% of young women who are single and childless are very happy, compared to 41% of young married moms (22-35). Our culture insists that marriage and family hold women back from meaningful, happy lives. The data tells exactly the opposite story.”
Want a great life hack? Marry young
An educator recently argued in The Atlantic that it’s OK to let kids fail. That shouldn’t be up for debate, and it’s not just kids who need to come to terms with that, Naomi Schaefer Riley writes.
“Even before grade inflation kicks in, for many students, there are years when there are essentially no grades. Report cards in elementary school are based almost entirely on ‘effort’ or what teachers perceive as effort. Many schools eschew letter grades entirely until middle school. Quizzes and tests are often deemed to be stressful experiences and are minimized.”
It’s OK to let kids fail, and this needs to start before high school
End notes
Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent, a time in my faith tradition, and many others, of somber reflection in the weeks leading up to Easter. While not mandated by any church, many people choose to sacrifice something, a practice that has been taken up by people who aren’t even religious.
Regardless, this is a time I have to remind some well-meaning people that “Happy Ash Wednesday” is not an appropriate greeting, what with the theme being “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
I’ll be giving up ice cream, which is a bigger sacrifice than you might think, especially now that RFK Jr. has given his blessing to full-fat dairy.