The miracle of Notre Dame, the tragedy of the Great Barrier Reef, and what human hands do in between.

"A Miracle: Notre-Dame’s Astonishing Rebirth From the Ashes," by Michael Kimmelman.

Since Sen. Cory Booker's record-breaking speech in the Senate a few weeks ago, we’ve witnessed a series of actions all centered around a different but just as fundamental part of the job of a member of Congress; one that usually happens far away from Washington.

Birtherism is back. As usual, it has little basis in law, reality, or common sense.

You can check out the written version of this podcast at youarehere.substack.com.

A quintessential American poem to defy the sickening signs from the Republican National Convention.

"The New Colossus", by Emma Lazarus:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The first presidential debate laid bare the limits of age, and Congress is older than ever. Should candidates face age limits?

Click here if you'd prefer to read the text version of this post.

An essay about the Rhode Island neighborhood Taylor Swift and I both love.

This podcast features audio versions of each of my posts, read by me, Charlie Hunt. If you liked what you heard and aren’t yet subscribed to my Substack newsletter — which is also called You Are Here — I hope you’ll consider doing so by going to youarehere.substack.com. New posts at least every two weeks; subscriptions are free for everyone.

As I recently promised, I’ll be expanding the different types of posts and content I’ll be offering here, and today is a big step in that direction. It’s a lovely, wide-ranging conversation I recently had with my dear friend, Analía Gómez Vidal. Analía is a career coach, researcher, facilitator, and founder of AGV Services LLC, where she works with international students to help them navigate the legal, occupational, and personal hurdles and opportunities of working and learning in other countries.

Like me, Analía seems to be thinking constantly about the power and importance of place, and we talk about how that intersects with her work. We also get into the first of what I’m guessing is many conversations she and I are bound to have about poetry, for which we both share a passion.

You can watch the full conversation here on Substack if that’s your thing, or, as always, you can listen to it in You Are Here’s regular podcast feed (Apple Podcasts/Spotify). Enjoy (that’s an order)!

A Place Poem about the boisterous beauty of sunflowers, and my finally-successful attempts to grow them (and myself).

My Place Picks featured in the text version of this post:

* The Foreign Landers - “Sunny Side of the Mountain” (Apple/Spotify)

* The Wailin’ Jennys - “Wildflowers” (Apple/Spotify)

* Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

* Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee

* The Conversation - “In a closely divided Congress, aging lawmakers are a problem for Democrats.”

* Spokane Spokesman-Review - “Would Idahoans send an independent to the Senate? Todd Achilles kicks off campaign in North Idaho to find out.”

* City Cast Boise - “Ballot Initiative Targets Grocery Tax, Boise Rents Spike, and River Jamboree.”

In the midst of a federal occupation, residents of Washington, DC is live in a kind of political limbo. Where do they go from here?

Tap or click here for the written version of this post, or go to youarehere.substack.com for more.

Calvin & Hobbes has a lot — too much — to teach us about the two-party race to the bottom.

In a few recent spaces, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein argues that American politics should be “re-regionalized.” He’s right; but his strategy for doing so could use some amendments.

Two normal presidents, and one Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author, give us some actual intel on what Chicago really means, while Donald Trump tries to cow it into submission.

Chicago by Carl Sandburg

Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding, Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing! Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Last Friday, I shared a Q&A I had with The Conversation U.S. about the impending government shutdown; well, the shutdown is now upon us, and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. So I teamed up with The Conversation again (this time joined by Politics & Society Editor Alfonso Serrano) to answer a few more questions about the political dynamics around the shutdown, and what we might expect in the coming days and (God forbid) weeks. If video isn’t your thing, you can read the lightly edited text version of the interview right here on TheConversation.com.

You Are Here is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

And if, for whatever sick reason, you’d like to see even more of me talking about the shutdown, you can also check out these news hits I’ve done over the past 24 hours.

* ABC News Australia - “US shutdown shows Democrats taking tougher stance on Trump policies” (watch below — yes I only have one nice shirt)

* Boise State Public Radio - “Idaho’s 11,000 federal workers brace for shutdown”

* Idaho News 2 - “Local impacts of a government shutdown”

Thanks for watching, and see y’all next Tuesday!

Quick bonus pod for you today! Earlier this week, I had a short Q &A with Naomi Schalit, who's the Democracy Editor over at The Conversation U.S. If you're not subscribed to it, you really should be. They feature crusty academics like me writing well-edited short-form journalistic pieces about current events that offer their particular expertise.

I'm lucky enough to get to write for them pretty often, so earlier this week, we did a brief Q&A about some of the politics around the potential government shutdown that might be just around the corner if Congress and the President can't come to an agreement about the federal budget. There's a text version of this chat as well that you can read in full by clicking here.

My dear friend Analía Gómez Vidal joins be for another fascinating discussion about poetry; this time, about the fine art of translating poetry from other languages. We each read Pablo Neruda’s “Keeping Quiet” — Ani in Spanish, me in English — and dissect some of the differences. We also get into what we loved about the poem; what it offers us in chaotic times; and what we can take from the its ambiguous ending.

You can find Ani online by visiting her website here.

Keeping Quietby Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. For once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language; let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much. It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines; we would all be together in a sudden strangeness. Fisherman in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands. Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victories with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing. What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. Life is what it is about; I want no truck with death. If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive. Now I’ll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go.

What can be done in a country, and an information environment, not capable of reconciliation?

Further Reading:

* My interview on CBC News TV the morning after Charlie Kirk’s assassination

* My interview with CBC Radio the morning after that

* Jamelle Bouie on being honest about who Charlie Kirk was, and what he stood for (The New York Times)

* Anne Helen Petersen on the asymmetrical reactions from the right and left when it comes to political violence (Culture Study)

* Charlie Warzel on the horrific online culture warping that seems to have poisoned the mind of the shooter (The Atlantic)

* Garrett Bucks on “a world awash in guns and other tools of death” (The White Pages)

* G. Elliott Morris on the importance of elite condemnation of political violence (Strength in Numbers)

* Sam Harris on the information war that we’re all currently losing (Substack)

Every two years (and every six years, in the case of the U.S. Senate), every member of Congress faces the same daunting question: what do I do next?

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.