Bloggage

As a Credentialed Professional Historical Thinking Guy, I’m constantly reminded of how we can only really understand ourselves when we’ve got an understanding of our past. Only through learning about the people who came before us do we start to get “the strangeness of now,”; that is, how unusual our present-day era is when understood in historical perspective. Like my podcast, these essays are not verbatim bits from my larger book project, but they’re book-project-adjacent. Let me know if you like what you find here and drop me a line when you get a chance!

— Doug

Blog Archive

  • AI Makes Me Feel Cheap
    by Doug
    A two-bit excuse for why I haven’t been keeping up with my history podcast, “You Are A Weirdo.”
  • Spontaneous Generation of Life and the Author’s Platform
    by Doug
    How the history of science helped me rein in my magical thinking Note: A shorter, less frenetic, footnote-free version of this essay originally appeared as a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog. Jane is a guru on all aspects of the publishing industry. So this is embarrassing. Here I am,… Read more: Spontaneous Generation of Life and the Author’s Platform
  • Space, Time and Breakfast
    by Doug
    Thinking like a historian helps you understand oatmeal—and the human condition By Doug Sofer Travel the world and you’ll discover that your normal is everyone else’s abnormal. Take, for example, breakfast.In the USA only some foods make sense for breakfast. Crunchy, sugary grainy bits; hot bread products with syrup; smoked,… Read more: Space, Time and Breakfast
  • You Are A Weirdo: The Original Essay
    by Doug
    This short essay originally appeared in a faculty-written column for the Maryville College student newspaper, The Highland Echo, all the way back in March 2017. The concepts developed here inspired this ongoing project. By Dr. Doug Sofer You are a weirdo. You talk, read, write, dress, sing, dance, socialize, move,… Read more: You Are A Weirdo: The Original Essay
  • In the wind
    by Doug
    Fill one or two of your nostrils with air. Do you smell that? It’s the scent of a soon-to-be-released podcast. And it’s going to change history as we know it. This series is about the Strangeness of Now. It’s about how, when you start to explore genuine history, you learn… Read more: In the wind