November 2025 Digest
What a year this month has been.
Welcome to the second edition of my monthly roundup. Below are some of the best articles I read this month, what longer form writing I’m currently reading as well as a list of some of my articles in case you missed it.
READ ELSEWHERE
Five reads that stood out in November:
Confessions of a Heritage American by Michael Lind in UnHerd
Slopmaxxing by Ben Sixsmith
Universalism Is Not White and Indigenous Worldviews are Not Beyond Scrutiny by Mike Strambler
Being “anti-woke” as a protected philosophical belief by James Murray en Eric Kaufmann in The Critic.
What the Left can learn from Argentina by Thomas Lambert in UnHerd.
WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING
I’m currently working my way through No Country for Old Men, which I must say is a bit of a difficult read to me. I’m generally a fan of Cormac McCarthy but in this book (or at least the Kindle version I’m reading) he writes like someone chiselling dialogue out of stone, which is usually extremely good, but No Country for Old Men reads more like a movie script than a novel.
I’ve been less diligent with my non-fiction reading this month, mostly because a flurry of writing deadlines swallowed the end of November: a chapter on the role of civil society organisations in ideological diversity for a forthcoming book on 30 Years of Democracy, a conference paper on Cape Town’s Ease of Doing Business Index, and a handful of shorter pieces. But I’m inching my way back into the stack.
In between, the sparse minutes that I have for TV (other than the delight of the past month’s international rugby) I’ve been watching Slow Horses and having read Herron’s books a few years ago, I’m prepared to say that the series might actually be better.
MY WRITING THIS MONTH
Have we really reached peak woke? - The Critic
Milei’s second wind and why many mainstream commentators were wrong - BusinessDay
Three Lessons for South Africa from Mamdani’s Election - The Daily Friend
Exit homeless as stage cleared for G20 performative politics - BusinessDay
And for my Afrikaans readers, my November articles:
Drie lesse vir Suid-Afrika uit Mamdani se verkiesing - OntLaer
Ken jy die vierde Afrikaner? Hý kan ’n brug oor die kloof in SA bou - Rapport
Groot Geraas vs. Stil Bouwerk - OntLaer
SOME RADIO AND TV
I was on Izak du Plessis’ YouTube channel Nuuspod to discuss my article in Rapport.
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