Best wishes to the prime minister who, as Paul Wells noted late last week, in addition to being stranded in India waiting on replacement parts for his plane, is also trapped in a metaphor.

Every year I read the Massey Lecture, the book version of the national public lecture series founded in 1961. I think it’s important to celebrate scholarship that’s not limited to ivory towers or hidden behind ivy paywalls.

This year’s topic (and title) is The Age of Insecurity—and, while I generally agree that we’re anxious at a civilizational level (my wording), I am ultimately not persuaded that what ails us is the singular fault of a particular economic system. Here’s my rule: if “law of the jungle” can be effectively substituted for capitalism, it’s a reflexive argument that you’ve likely grown tired of hearing. Incidentally, the same rule holds for “in a kindergarten classroom” and socialism.

Anyway, don’t let that discourage you from enjoying it—or any of the other lectures that have come before. It’s important to defend institutions, even—especially—when you don’t always agree.

Speaking of making a correct diagnosis, the Spectator’s Kate Andrews, in an excellent effort to retrace the route the Tories took to paint themselves into their present corner, actually gets to the root of why everyone is anxious and everything feels broken:

…Rishi Sunak now must explain why, 13 years on, schools are unsafe, nothing gets built, and the country’s major institutions all seem to teeter on the brink of collapse. Because that’s what happens when short-term political decisions pile up: lots of money is spent, nothing much happens.

In other words: it’s the software not the hardware. If it were the hardware, we couldn’t have build these things in the first place. We’ve either forgotten how to operate them, lost the will, or need to reconsider our leadership criteria.

Questlove’s recent appearance on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend is pure joy.

So far, I’ve only seen a few tributes to Peter C. Newman, who died last week, but I hope the trend continues. If anyone deserves a long-form journalistic fête, it’s him.