Jonathan Gourlay
@gourlayj.bsky.social
PhD Humanities, author of Nowhere Slow, full time teacher in immigrant community. Sign up for my newsletter, Desire Paths, here: https://desire-paths-a4c079.beehiiv.com/subscribe
This is totally dumb considering what's going on, but what is social media for? OK: I think it's funny that we say our dogs are going to "do business" when they are really just shitting in the yard.
January 23, 2026 at 2:46 PM
This is totally dumb considering what's going on, but what is social media for? OK: I think it's funny that we say our dogs are going to "do business" when they are really just shitting in the yard.
Afro-punk catharsis from Fela Kuti, "Zombie" -- been listening on repeat and imagining ICE goons. They also don't think until you tell them to think. youtu.be/Qj5x6pbJMyU?...
Fela Kuti - Zombie
YouTube video by Fela Kuti
youtu.be
January 19, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Afro-punk catharsis from Fela Kuti, "Zombie" -- been listening on repeat and imagining ICE goons. They also don't think until you tell them to think. youtu.be/Qj5x6pbJMyU?...
Doing some pre Xmas writing: Is MS Word grammar check worse now? It's just wrong half the time.
December 24, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Doing some pre Xmas writing: Is MS Word grammar check worse now? It's just wrong half the time.
Gonna predict stepped-up ICE raids in my neighborhood on Xmas day -- it's going to be in the mid-50s (they don't come out as much in then cold) and it will be a good (?) photo-op to ruin Xmas for an immigrant family.
December 22, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Gonna predict stepped-up ICE raids in my neighborhood on Xmas day -- it's going to be in the mid-50s (they don't come out as much in then cold) and it will be a good (?) photo-op to ruin Xmas for an immigrant family.
I don't think they're aliens, but I'll just note that nobody in the White House can seem to speak, stand, drink, or walk like a human being.
December 22, 2025 at 7:49 PM
I don't think they're aliens, but I'll just note that nobody in the White House can seem to speak, stand, drink, or walk like a human being.
My dissertation depended on: 1) someone wrote a logbook in 1840, 2) the last living relative who cared about the family's reputation died in the 2000s, 3) the family donated it to a research library, 4) the librarian knew what exactly what I needed and brought it to me. #librarians
December 22, 2025 at 4:42 AM
My dissertation depended on: 1) someone wrote a logbook in 1840, 2) the last living relative who cared about the family's reputation died in the 2000s, 3) the family donated it to a research library, 4) the librarian knew what exactly what I needed and brought it to me. #librarians
This is how you do it.
December 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
This is how you do it.
You ever get, like, one full free day off and your brain just seizes up and you feel like you've never had a thought in your life and then you just do the dishes so to feel as if you 'did something' with your day off?
December 5, 2025 at 4:03 PM
You ever get, like, one full free day off and your brain just seizes up and you feel like you've never had a thought in your life and then you just do the dishes so to feel as if you 'did something' with your day off?
Would you like to get knowledge from a, like, book or "grammatical nutrient paste extruded from the rectum of a predictive statistics machine"?
desirepaths4.substack.com/.../is-ai-at....
desirepaths4.substack.com/.../is-ai-at....
December 5, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Would you like to get knowledge from a, like, book or "grammatical nutrient paste extruded from the rectum of a predictive statistics machine"?
desirepaths4.substack.com/.../is-ai-at....
desirepaths4.substack.com/.../is-ai-at....
If one Afghan stands in for all Afghans, FWIW I know two of the brightest, most talented young Afghan women. Sponsor 1000 like them and they will pay back your country a gajillion-fold.
November 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM
If one Afghan stands in for all Afghans, FWIW I know two of the brightest, most talented young Afghan women. Sponsor 1000 like them and they will pay back your country a gajillion-fold.
TIL: #mamdani 's mother is film director Mira Nair. For a certain type of cineaste, this gives him eternal street cred. (Monsoon Wedding hit at just the right time for me.)
November 22, 2025 at 4:45 PM
TIL: #mamdani 's mother is film director Mira Nair. For a certain type of cineaste, this gives him eternal street cred. (Monsoon Wedding hit at just the right time for me.)
This week I wrote about Rev Dr Michael Woolf getting stomped on by police in front of me. (Looks like he deactivated his BSky account... hopefully not forever.) Anyway -- take a look: desirepaths4.substack.com/p/beaten-the...
Beaten, then Rewritten
At an ICE detention center, clergy gathered to stand with their neighbors. What unfolded shows how beliefs — and the narratives built for us — shape the moral world we live in.
desirepaths4.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:52 PM
This week I wrote about Rev Dr Michael Woolf getting stomped on by police in front of me. (Looks like he deactivated his BSky account... hopefully not forever.) Anyway -- take a look: desirepaths4.substack.com/p/beaten-the...
#Reuters had this while the @chicagotribune.com didn't even bother to mention who was arrested or why.
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
November 16, 2025 at 1:23 AM
#Reuters had this while the @chicagotribune.com didn't even bother to mention who was arrested or why.
Wow -- I was about ten feet away from Rev. Woolf, not being arrested, and could only find one word to say (Shame!) -- That he had the wherewithal to preach sentences from the ground... respect!!!!
November 16, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Wow -- I was about ten feet away from Rev. Woolf, not being arrested, and could only find one word to say (Shame!) -- That he had the wherewithal to preach sentences from the ground... respect!!!!
A few sights and sounds from Broadview IL this morning -- any harm that came to police was from them tripping over themselves to arrest clergy.
November 15, 2025 at 4:16 AM
A few sights and sounds from Broadview IL this morning -- any harm that came to police was from them tripping over themselves to arrest clergy.
I left before the tear gas, but I was there for the tears. desirepaths4.substack.com/p/the-answer...
November 6, 2025 at 6:27 PM
I left before the tear gas, but I was there for the tears. desirepaths4.substack.com/p/the-answer...
"Truth isn’t something we own, but something we participate in — a process of believing responsibly."
Believe Responsibly open.substack.com/pub/desirepa...
Believe Responsibly open.substack.com/pub/desirepa...
Believe Responsibly
What does it mean to know something while under siege?
open.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
"Truth isn’t something we own, but something we participate in — a process of believing responsibly."
Believe Responsibly open.substack.com/pub/desirepa...
Believe Responsibly open.substack.com/pub/desirepa...
Even the Morton salt girl is out today. (And old shy guys like me.)
October 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Even the Morton salt girl is out today. (And old shy guys like me.)
Stuff getting you down? Try listening to the Meyer / Gourlay... Cabaret. 100% no slop; all brainwork. A break from politics to think about love, lust, death: human stuff! Now streaming everywhere: meyergourlay.hearnow.com
Meyer / Gourlay Cabaret
Meyer / Gourlay Cabaret is the first compilation of Dan Meyer / Jonathan Gourlay songs. If you are a fan of human expression with live playing and singing and words written from the heart and mind: go...
meyergourlay.hearnow.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Stuff getting you down? Try listening to the Meyer / Gourlay... Cabaret. 100% no slop; all brainwork. A break from politics to think about love, lust, death: human stuff! Now streaming everywhere: meyergourlay.hearnow.com
Yeah, I'm an alpha male -- "Alpha" women's rights!!
(Also, a dad. Alas.)
(Also, a dad. Alas.)
September 30, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Yeah, I'm an alpha male -- "Alpha" women's rights!!
(Also, a dad. Alas.)
(Also, a dad. Alas.)
Isaac Chotiner: Hi, Prof. Petard, I was hoping to come over and do a little hoisting. Is 10AM good?
Prof. Petard: Hoisting, you say? Why I've got my own equipment. Come on over!
(Just catching up with this banger: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...)
Prof. Petard: Hoisting, you say? Why I've got my own equipment. Come on over!
(Just catching up with this banger: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...)
Can Liberalism Be Saved?
The legal scholar Cass Sunstein argues for a more expansive definition of an ideology under threat.
www.newyorker.com
September 26, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Isaac Chotiner: Hi, Prof. Petard, I was hoping to come over and do a little hoisting. Is 10AM good?
Prof. Petard: Hoisting, you say? Why I've got my own equipment. Come on over!
(Just catching up with this banger: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...)
Prof. Petard: Hoisting, you say? Why I've got my own equipment. Come on over!
(Just catching up with this banger: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...)
"It's a pressure cooker out there and everyone wants to microwave their way to success." -- an oddly wise quote from new NFL announcer, J.J. Watt.
September 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
"It's a pressure cooker out there and everyone wants to microwave their way to success." -- an oddly wise quote from new NFL announcer, J.J. Watt.
Do I trust this sender? Friends, the sender is me.
September 4, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Do I trust this sender? Friends, the sender is me.
This Memorial Day weekend: Why not watch some big, beautiful WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda movies?
desire-paths-a4c079.beehiiv.com/p/hangmen-al...
desire-paths-a4c079.beehiiv.com/p/hangmen-al...
Hangmen Also Die!
On the consolations of WWII propaganda
desire-paths-a4c079.beehiiv.com
May 22, 2025 at 11:46 PM
This Memorial Day weekend: Why not watch some big, beautiful WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda movies?
desire-paths-a4c079.beehiiv.com/p/hangmen-al...
desire-paths-a4c079.beehiiv.com/p/hangmen-al...
I guess the only way to get someone to read your dissertation is to -become pope-
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
Pope Leo’s Doctoral Dissertation: Thoughts on Power and Authority
www.nytimes.com
May 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM
I guess the only way to get someone to read your dissertation is to -become pope-
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...