a groundhog is holding a red ball in its mouth ALT: a groundhog is holding a red ball in its mouth

Fitting that the first day of furlough falls on Groundhog Day. (A bit too on the nose, screenwriters….)

Chalkboard politics logo, a chalkboard with the podcast name and affiliations

📣📣📣Announcing...Chalkboard Politics @chalkboardpolitics.bsky.social, a podcast by students, for students (and their teachers). Written, edited, and mixed by the students at @siwpscolumbia.bsky.social and distributed by @goodauth.bsky.social. 1/ www.podbean.com/media/share/...

A Near-Mythic Beast - Orion Magazine The Snow Leopard and other impossible searches

Wrote a piece for the new issue of Orion.

Devastated by the shooting at Brown University, just a short walk away from home. Students have been sheltering in place for hours, hiding as they have been sadly trained to do instead of studying for exams & preparing to go home for the holidays. My heart breaks for my Providence community.

The ch that @profjessblankshain.bsky.social and I wrote focuses on how the Total Force Policy affected the reserves: “Combined with the post–Cold War security environment, it fundamentally changed the way the reserve component is employed, increasing its operational use and professionalization.”

This was a lot of fun.

‘True Nature’ Review: The Restless Peter Matthiessen The writer of “The Snow Leopard” and “At Play in the Fields of the Lord” wrote of nature’s austere simplicity. The man himself was anything but simple.

"Matthiessen’s many masks are on display in True Nature, a deeply researched and artfully executed biography. ... Mr. Richardson has drawn from an enormous range of sources ... to better understand a gifted, difficult man who, for all his adventures and good fortune, seemed resolutely dissatisfied."

50 notable works of nonfiction from 2025 The year’s best memoirs, biographies, history and more, as selected by the staff of The Washington Post’s Book World.

"True Nature" on the Washington Post list of notable nonfiction books in 2025.

In Search of the Snow Leopard A new biography traces the lifelong pilgrimage of the novelist and Zen teacher Peter Matthiessen.

Gosh. "A magnificent literary biography, painstakingly researched, intricately organized, and beautifully written, fully worthy of its sensitive, restless, and driven subject. ... It should be of interest to anyone drawn to the search for our true nature and the deepest truths of the human heart."

Ouch! Feeling kind of old as one of that “earlier generation” that engaged in “shopworn” debates :)

Great review of important recent work on qualitative methods! I would add Fairfield and Charman on formal Bayesian process tracing as one of the key recent contributions.

Two book events this weekend! Both with exceptional writer friends.

Saturday in DC: Politics & Prose with @carlhoffman.bsky.social at 3pm. Details here: politics-prose.com/lance-richar...

Sunday in Providence: Riffraff with @francescawade.bsky.social at 6pm. Details here: riffraffpvd.com/events/

Yes, this is largely symbolic, as the House has already indicated it will not take it up. But the Senate is sending a loud, bipartisan signal across the street to SCOTUS, who will be considering the very question of who decides whether a national emergency exists to justify global tariffs next week.

Going to be a fun one. DC peeps, come out for it!

Two book events this week!

Tuesday eve: Broadside Books, in Northampton, with Hans Teensma and @daeganmiller.bsky.social.

Thursday night: The Leon Levy Center for Biography, in Manhattan, with @pgourevitch.bsky.social.

Both will be wonderful. Links below.

(Pic of the first Paris Review office.)

2 fast, 2 furloughed (pro-American democracy version). #🇺🇸 #🗽

This move could also weaken Congress’s oversight over these ops. Adm. Holsey’s successor will require Senate confirmation, which would invite questions that have thus far gone unanswered. Having his deputy serve in an acting capacity for an extended period skirts scrutiny & erodes advice & consent.

In my book, I argue that this kind of elite disagreement is an important constraint in democracies. And up til now these concerns would make the president think twice, so the “stepping down” would not ever happen. Now it’s happening, but there’s nobody else to pay attention to the fire alarm.

A dream launch at the New York Public Library last night.

A Warning for the Modern Striver A new biography of Peter Matthiessen chronicles his many paradoxical attempts to escape who the world expected him to be.

The writer Peter Matthiessen traveled the world looking for elusive snow leopards and rare cranes. But a new biography shows that the genuine self he was really seeking would be much harder to find, writes John Kaag:

Peter Matthiessen Travelled the World, Trying to Escape Himself He was a spy, a crusader, an obsessive advocate for neglected people and places—yet his work was shaped, too, by an inner crisis.

Reviewed in The New Yorker.

Thank you!

Review: The life of Peter Matthiessen The only person to win a National Book Award for both non-fiction (“The Snow Leopard”) and fiction (“Shadow Country”), Peter Matthiessen...

Early review (two days early, anyway) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Beautifully written, insightful, and engaging, 'True Nature' is a tour de force depiction of a charismatic, restless, self-absorbed, immensely talented literary lion."

We were 2 fast 2 furlough at the Newport Half Marathon.

Launch events next week!

NYPL: www.showclix.com/event/richar...

BPL: www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/lan...

NWS: nationalwritersseries.org/author-event...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in ‘The Night Watch’

There is an alternate universe in which I studied art history and dd my dissertation on this topic: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/a...

Judge issues new broader order barring any National Guard from relocating to Oregon Judge asked federal government lawyer: 'Do you believe this is an appropriate way to deal with a judge’s order that you disagree with?'

Folks we are watching the adjudication of some of the most important constitutional issues of federalism, executive discretion, and judicial review since the 19th c

www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

I'm seeing a) assertions that no one has been thinking about the issues raised by these NG deployments and b) confident assertions about complicated legal issues. So a friendly reminder that we do have experts on domestic use of the U.S. military, and even they don't have clear answers! ⬇️

Book Launch! October 14 at the New York Public Library. Should be a really fun evening. Tickets (free) here: www.showclix.com/event/richar...

The Life and Travels of Peter Matthiessen, Revisited A new book sheds fresh light on the "Snow Leopard" author, from his founding of "The Paris Review" with George Plimpton to working for the C.I.A. to his many affairs.

Floored by this review of my book by Pico Iyer. Gosh.