Thanks to Callum and Maddie at the amazing Pints of Knowledge for hosting me and The World in A Phrase on January 28. And thanks to all the incredibly engaged folks who came out to Soho Comedy House to juggle words, ideas, and balls.

There was a blank sheet selected from the globe — once again, t...

My talk delivered at the International Aphorism Conference in Wroclaw, Poland on October 24, 2025

Whenever I’m lucky enough to travel to another country, or return from abroad to my own, I’m always reminded of an aphorism by the British novelist Norman Douglas:

You can tell the ideals of a nation...

I once stayed in a hotel in Vienna, one of those self-­consciously designed establishments with backlit photos embedded in the walls and tubes of blue, red, and yellow light placed strategically around every common space. My room had a soft blue light in it, a queasy kind of light that made me je...

Here’s a round up of some of the interviews, talks, and articles that have appeared on The World in a Phrase over the past few weeks…

On the ePODstemology podcast, host Mark Fabian and I discussed how I go about conducting research on aphorisms and my year in the British Library compiling Geary’s...