Obsidian Odyssey

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Publications

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Vienna 1: Empire, Splendor, and the Art of Soft Power (11/22)

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Vienna 1: Empire, Splendor, and the Art of Soft Power (11/22)

How the Habsburgs used music and architecture to hold an empire together for six centuries — and what this teaches us about legitimacy, culture, and the limits of force

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Amsterdam & Brussels: Commerce, Calvinism, and the Art of the Everyday (10/22)

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Amsterdam & Brussels: Commerce, Calvinism, and the Art of the Everyday (10/22)

How a merchant republic with no kings, no saints, and no appetite for flattery produced the most honest art in Western history

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Rhine & Bavaria: Myth, Wagner, and the Danger of Beautiful Lies (09/22)

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Rhine & Bavaria: Myth, Wagner, and the Danger of Beautiful Lies (09/22)

On the seductive power of romantic nationalism, the weaponization of beauty, and what happens when a king builds castles in the air

Book] Leadership | Classics Circle: Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (05/12)

Book] Leadership | Classics Circle: Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (05/12)

A Conversation Across Centuries Reading Time: 15 minutes Classical Period: Published 1958 (set in 1890s colonial Nigeria) Core Philosophy: When worlds collide, no amount of individual virtue can prevent the center from falling apart. Why I'm Reading This After four months of philosophy—Marcus teaching discipline, Lao Tzu

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Hamburg: Destruction, Reinvention, and the Art of Starting Over (08/22)

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Hamburg: Destruction, Reinvention, and the Art of Starting Over (08/22)

What the world's most politically saturated city can teach us about resilience, identity, and what survives catastrophe

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Weimar & Leipzig: When a Small City Shapes a Whole Civilization (07/22)

Art] What Cities Make of Us: Art, Power & the Human Condition Across Europe | Weimar & Leipzig: When a Small City Shapes a Whole Civilization (07/22)

How two provincial German towns produced the intellectual DNA of modernity — and what they teach us about the disproportionate power of intentional communities

Book] Leadership | Classics Circle: The Analects - Confucius (04/12)

Book] Leadership | Classics Circle: The Analects - Confucius (04/12)

A Conversation Across Centuries Reading Time: 14 minutes Classical Period: 5th century BCE (Ancient China, compiled by disciples) Core Philosophy: Relationships are everything. Ritual creates harmony. Virtue is cultivated through proper conduct. Why I'm Reading This After last month's Machiavelli—who taught me that power is