Mike O’Brien is a compulsive reader and thinker who is occasionally dragged, kicking and screaming, into writing things. Prior works include an MA thesis on democratic legitimacy and ecological stewardship, a theatrical pro-wrestling detective noir, and a stand-up show about knife sharpening and the philosophy of technology. He is a long-time staffer at Mainline Theatre and the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival, and a collaborator with the Environmental and Animal Ethics Research Group at l’Université de Montréal. Email: mike [at] flowspace.org
by Mike O’Brien I’m disappointed in my columns so far. Not to say that they’ve been completely without value; I’ve managed to turn out some decent pieces and some kind readers have taken the time to tell me as much. But, taken together, my output exhibits a fault that I had sought to avoid from…
by Mike O’Brien This column is not about the American election. You’re welcome. Instead, I want to write about evidence, justification, and risk. This is partly a response to very recent events, and partly a regurgitation of some ideas I ruminated on years ago. First, the recent bits. I was listening to the Montreal branch…
by Mike O’Brien (Disclaimer: I have spent the last month in a cabin in the woods, and during that time the media has caught wind of TwinsTheNewTrend and spilled ink about their appeal and significance. What I have written below may therefore be redundant. But it’s still got a hep beat you can bug out…
by Mike O’Brien One of the greatest joys of my graduate studies was reading primary sources in full, rather than a mishmash of summaries and excerpts. I could have done this prior to graduate school, but I didn’t, because I was lazy. (I am still lazy.) Having to read and re-read the works of authors,…
by Mike O’Brien It’s a bountiful feast for discriminating worriers like myself. Every day brings a tantalizing re-ordering of fears and dangers; the mutation of reliable sources of doom, the emergence of new wild-card contenders. Like an improbably long-lived heroin addict, the solution is not to stop. That’s no longer an option, if it ever…