Ken Ilgunas
- Dec 21, 2019
Movie Review: "Marriage Story"
Is there a psychological term for when critics band together to fawn over perfectly forgettable and mediocre movies? Delusional...
Ken Ilgunas
- Dec 1, 2019
Movie Review: "The Irishman"
I’m okay calling The Irishman a good movie. I won’t roll my eyes if it gets an Oscar nomination. I’m just not sure why the filmmakers...
Ken Ilgunas
- Nov 25, 2019
Book Review: "Sabrina"
Nick Drnaso's Sabrina is the most 2019 book you could possibly read. It's about conspiracy theory culture, suburban malaise, and how the...
Ken Ilgunas
- Nov 23, 2019
Book Review: "The Problem with Everything"
Meghan Daum is one of my favorite memoir writers and her latest, The Problem with Everything, is very good. It’s a...
Ken Ilgunas
- Nov 17, 2019
There is no crisis in reproduction
This is a solid, if longwinded, NYT piece about how there are many countries that have fertility rates below replacement levels. While...
Ken Ilgunas
- Nov 15, 2019
Who has less taste: us or the cineplex?
[T]he fact is that the screens in most multiplexes are crowded with franchise pictures. And if you’re going to tell me that it’s simply a...
Ken Ilgunas
- Sep 3, 2019
Movie reviews from this week
I had a nice 5-for-5 movie binge this week. Rapid-fire reviews…. American Factory (available on Netflix) is a documentary that juxtaposes...
Ken Ilgunas
- Sep 1, 2019
Fall 2019 speaking tour schedule
Thur. Sept. 5 - Kenyon College (Gambier, OH), 7 p.m., Community Foundation Theater in the Gund Gallery, 101 1/2 College Drive, Gambier,...
Ken Ilgunas
- Aug 26, 2019
Trip to the Isle of Lewis and Harris
The following are photos from a recent trip to the Isle of Harris and Lewis, one island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland with two names.
Ken Ilgunas
- Jul 22, 2019
Let's learn how to live well, before we live forever
“The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life. Men have been buried at one...
Ken Ilgunas
- Jul 15, 2019
A trip to the Alps
A few weeks ago, I found myself near the town of Berchtesgaden in the German Alps. The following is my account of a two-day solo hike....
Ken Ilgunas
- Jul 12, 2019
The National Park Service in the Anthropocene
“The imperfect is our only paradise.” – Wallace Stevens A few years ago, I was hiking on a trail in Death Valley National Park, thinking...
Ken Ilgunas
- Jun 24, 2019
This Land Is Our Land, updated research
One of the unpleasant realities of traditional book-making is that authors don’t get a chance to edit their finished work unless they’re...
Ken Ilgunas
- Jun 21, 2019
Land ownership inequality
Andrew W. Kahrl wrote an Op-Ed for NYT about whites dispossessing blacks of land: But in addition to invoking the 40 acres black people...
Ken Ilgunas
- Jun 14, 2019
Six days on the Cape Wrath
The Cape Wrath Trail is roughly 230 miles long, stretching from the town of Fort William to the Cape Wrath Lighthouse on the northwest...
Ken Ilgunas
- May 10, 2019
Book Review: American Nations
Colin Woodard’s, American Nations, is one of the best books on American history I’ve ever read. It urges you to think of America less as...
Ken Ilgunas
- May 6, 2019
Game of Thrones Reviews
My pal David and I have now done reviews for each episode of the final Game of Thrones season. (We're done with four of six.) Here they...
Ken Ilgunas
- Apr 26, 2019
Book Review: Prisoners of Geography
I really enjoyed "Prisoners of Geography" by Tim Marshall. It's a great introduction to modern-day geopolitics, which I was terribly in...
Ken Ilgunas
- Apr 25, 2019
Campus Galli in Smithsonian Magazine
I have an article out in this month’s Smithsonian Magazine, on a strange architectural project called “Campus Galli,” a living history...
Ken Ilgunas
- Apr 15, 2019
Backpacker Radio Podcast
Today I'm on Backpacker Radio, talking about my books and the right to roam. A description from their webpage: In today’s episode of...