The Water Dipper

Children, Pawpaws, and Ticks

“Against Killing Children.” In a new essay, Wendell Berry speaks against the violence on which our machine age runs and invites us to imagine...

Berry, MacIntyre, and Screens

“News from the Berry Center.” The Berry Center fall newsletter provides updates on their ongoing work, and Mary Berry’s opening letter serves as a...

Work, Repair, and Reading

“In Defiance of All Powers.” Peter Mommsen introduces Plough’s new issue on Freedom. It looks quite promising, but my physical copy hasn’t arrived yet,...

Cheese, Solidarity, and Tradwives

“How a Vermont Cheesemaker Helps Local Farms Thrive.” The essay up on FPR’s front page right now by Lenny Wells describes some possibilities for...

Contaminated Farms, Individualism, and Art

“Twelve Months to Fall Back in Love with America.” Anarchist, hobo, Coast Guardsman, Catholic, Front Porch Republic conference-goer, and now newlywed A.M. Hickman is...

Volunteering, Urban Farms, and Grocery Stores

We’ve now posted the FPR conference schedule. Based on feedback from recent conferences, we've built a bit more elbow room into the schedule to...

Contrary U, New Verse Review, and Vinyl Records

“Captive Users.” Alexander Stern pens a thoughtful review essay that puts Cory Doctorow’s The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation in...

Nisbet, Fact-Checking, and Leopold

“Robert Nisbet for the Present Age.” Kirstin Birkhaug describes the experience of teaching Robert Nisbet’s The Present Age and watching her students respond to...

Wendell Berry, the Pioneer Fire, and Idols

“‘Your Friend, Wendell’: A 90th Birthday Tribute to Wendell Berry.” To mark Wendell Berry’s 90th birthday, The Library of America published a set of...

Motherhood, Rural Decline, and Phoenix

I’ll be logging off the internet for a few weeks and thus pausing these Water Dippers. I aim to resume them in early August....