What Now? The Newsletter

These are the tips, recommendations and caveats that I send out with my monthly newsletter. Which you can subscribe to here!

 

February 2026

Give away media vouchers – On 8 March, Switzerland will vote on whether to cut the SRG (public radio and television) budget by half. My preference would be for spending more money on media, not less. After all, we’re not particularly well informed — just wait for the next family gathering and ask about the situation in South Sudan or the workings of a car battery. Education is badly needed, and someone has to pay for it.

My suggestion would be that we do this together, with a simple media tax. In return, we would all receive media vouchers from the state worth, say, 300, 500 or, why not, 1,000 francs. We could redeem these not only at SRG, but at any broadcaster, newspaper, newsletter or podcast or we like.

Of course, in order to draw on this fund, the media would have to meet certain requirements. For example, they would have to produce in the country they are financed by, they would have to report on politics or provide multilingual content. They would then receive exactly as much from the fund as they’d be entitled to based on demand. In this model, it would be the citizens who decide how the money is distributed. As democratic as it gets!

Don’t fly – In Search of the Good Stuff was the title of a newsletter I received from Swedish outdoor clothing manufacturer Stellar Equipment. I actually like the Stellar brand — not least because of campaigns such as White Friday, their counterpart to Black Friday, when they donate 20 per cent of their takings.

That’s why the Good Stuff newsletter annoyed me so much. For their latest photo shoot, the snow lovers of Stellar EQ flew to Las Cuevas, Argentina. No doubt that what they found at the foot of the Andes really was good stuff. What they didn’t mention, however, is that on their way there they pumped a lot of bad stuff into the air. Bad stuff that, ironically, is precisely what causes the good stuff to become increasingly scarce. That’s schizophrenic, dear Swedes — if you don’t mind the crass comparison, it’s almost like a murderer taking photos of his victim while committing the crime.

Flying — especially when it’s so unnecessary and not even CO₂-compensated — must be among the things that can no longer be acceptable in 2026. If you know full well that something is bad, you simply don’t do it. (The picture, by the way, doesn’t show Las Cuevas, but Åre, Stellar’s hometown.)

Live a boring life – If you don’t fly to faraway places, you might miss out on an adventure or two. (That said, I’m not so sure whether a beach holiday in Mauritius is more exciting than a hiking holiday in Maderanertal, or whether a weekend trip to New York really broadens your horizon more than one to the village of Noiraigue.) Personally, I find life exciting enough anyway – too exciting, to be honest. I often find myself longing for boredom. Because, in addition to its relaxing effect, boredom has another advantage: when there’s not much going on around us, we are forced to entertain ourselves – with ideas, fantasies and bold thoughts. If we’re constantly in consumption mode, we’re not likely to have many of these.

So, what can we learn from Immanuel Kant, who didn’t mind taking the exact same walk at the same time every day? Maybe this: the more boring your life is, the more interesting you yourself become — necessarily.

 

January 2026

Drink water with wine – Rumour has it that there have been people who could turn water into wine. That’s an impressive party trick, of course, but hardly recommendable from a health perspective. If you prefer long-lasting enjoyment to sporadic binge drinking, I recommend following this simple rule: for every glass of wine (or beer, or spirits), drink at least one glass of water. At the beginning you may need to remember to empty both glasses before you refill them, but after a few cheerful practice sessions, parallel drinking will become second nature.

Your body will benefit in two ways: it has less alcohol to process overall because there is less space for it in your bladder alongside all the water. And secondly, the processing will take longer, which slows down the rise in alcohol levels. So much so that you’ll find yourself following the rule until the early hours.

Discover new terrain, or rather: terroir – For the second tip, which consists of a series of tips in fact, let’s stay on the same, seasonal topic. While it’s become hard to find people who have mastered the above-mentioned party trick, what’s becoming more common is the opposite: people committing to a «Dry January», a start to the year without alcohol. That’s up to them – they’re adults after all – but the idea doesn’t appeal to me for two reasons:

First, short-term diets have been proven to be largely ineffective. And second, you simply miss out on too much. The fact is that the most interesting liquids on the planet have undergone fermentation – a process that results in a variety of flavours that make any simpler alternative seem bland and unappealing. This complexity cannot be imitated, and anyone who forcibly removes the alcohol from the drink after fermentation (think: alcohol-free beer) ends up ruining the slowly-built wonder of nature.

Choose booze, then, in 2026, again. Here are 12 incomparable products of winemaking, brewing and distilling that hardly anyone knows about, that are therefore reasonably priced, and, above all, show the amazing diversity that the world has to offer to those who approach it with an open mind and mouth:

1. Durello. This crisp, tart bubbly from the Monti Lessini (Veneto) is the aperitif of choice for those who think they already know everything there is to know about sparkling wine.

2. Zwickel: Fresh beer from the «Zwickelhahn» (tap), which was originally used for tasting. Unfiltered and therefore more nutritious than the usual Lager.

3. Sour beer. Fermented with wild yeasts, as was customary a few hundred years ago. Far more interesting than most of what is otherwise bottled.

4. Petit Manseng. A grape variety from south-western France, whose super-fresh fruitiness makes it the ideal summer wine.

5. Heida aka Paiën aka Savagnin. Another valuable white variety that could and should replace Chasselas in Valais, western Switzerland and Jura, surpassing it in terms of depth and zest by about a hundredfold.

6. Bobal. One of the very few grapes that can cope with the heat of central Spain, to which it has been accustomed for centuries. Despite its raw power, it is often astonishingly fresh and elegant.

7. Baga. Portugal’s equivalent of Bobal, at home in the Bairrada region. My favourite wine from the entire Iberian Peninsula.

8. Trollinger. Okay this one is far from unknown, but it commonly gets a bad rap due to its lightness and loveless mass production. Identical to South Tyrolean Vernatsch and, like it, irresistibly smooth and tasty when carefully crafted.

9. Teran/Terrano. A Slovenian-Italian red from the Karst region north of Trieste. Deep dark, but anything but clumsy, rather gorgeously zesty and mineral.

10. Vernaccia di Oristano. Sardinia’s forgotten «vino da meditazione». Oxidatively aged, incomparably complex.

11. Jurançon. A sweet wine (made from Manseng!) from the foothills of the Pyrenees. Henry IV is said to have been rubbed with it as a baby; he must have gurgled with delight.

12. «Vogelbeerbrand» (rowanberry) from Tyrol! Sugar-free, so you can enjoy it even after brushing your teeth; the finish will last until the next morning.

 

December 2025

Replace things – This is the rule I set for myself after not buying anything at all for 365 days a couple of years ago (an experiment I described in this TED Talk). Since then, I only buy something new if something old is either irreparably broken or used up. Like the shoe on the left in the picture, whose holes and tears – after three rounds of resoling – could no longer be fixed and waterproofed.

Not give up – What has value should not be given up – that’s true for things both small and big. Last week, I was irritated by what Swiss newspaper NZZ wrote on the subject of Ukraine. Although its defence editor and Swiss Army colonel Georg Häsler advocates the Ukrainian cause with admirable steadfastness, editor-in-chief Eric Gujer seems to be wobbling in his support.

While Häsler writes that peace on Moscow’s terms would mean «subjugation,» his boss writes that Donald Trump’s plan – pre-formulated by Moscow – is a welcome way out and «not surrender.» While Häsler explains in detail why a Ukrainian retreat behind the fortified line in Donbass would be «more militarily dangerous» than «continuing to resist Russian domination,» his boss praises the US government for «actively seeking peace» with this proposal.

What now? Is the plan an expression of «realism» (Guyer) or a «surrender document» (Häsler)? Is there no alternative to ceding the annexed and cruelly maltreated territories «at a morally acceptable price» (Guyer)? Or do we need «energetic steps by liberal forces in all European states to stand united against Russia» (Häsler)? What surely is not morally justifiable is to watch on and advise a rape victim to please just simply give up.

Nor must we give up our support. Surely there are alternatives to the timid and half-baked Ukraine policy, accompanied by a thousand excuses, that the EU and the US have pursued so far (not to mention cowardly «neutral» Switzerland). After all, the EU’s economic output is ten times that of Russia, and that of the US is even fourteen times greater.

The West gave Ukraine a promise of protection in the 1990s and then «shamefully broke it», writes Guyer. That is true. And now we’re supposed to break it again?

Explain Christmas – Something edifying to finish with: it’s Christmas time! A wonderful time in the truest sense of the word – with lots of wondrous things happening. First appears Saint Nicholas, who used to be a bishop but now lives in the forest. Or at the North Pole? He is accompanied by slaves, who were black in medieval illustrations, but later turned out to be merely painted black, and who now no longer wear make-up at all to avoid accusations of blackfacing. Their original task was to beat naughty children, but because this is now just as illegal as slavery, they are increasingly staying home. Except, of course, in Austria – where they are called Krampusse, look like devils and are responsible for getting people into fist fights resulting in dozens of hospitalisations every year.

Then the season of love continues, and Saint Nicholas is replaced by other white-bearded men who have been waiting for this opportunity in supermarkets since the beginning of October. They fly through the sky in Coca-Cola trucks and through chimneys on reindeer, they ride donkeys and dance with elves, and they call themselves Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Weihnachtsmann or Kris Kingle. The latter, however, should not be confused with the Christkindl, who slips from the womb of a virgin as a beardless baby boy named Jesus, or, alternatively, scurries through the snow as a female angel tasked with bringing gifts – while at the same time also receiving them from three super-rich kings who probably suspect that it’s easier for a camel … see above. In any case, it’s complicated.

Perhaps we should use the holidays to shed some candlelight on these matters and explain to the children this winterwonderland that we have created for them? Good luck!

 

November 2025

Take a philosophical bath – You can, of course, philosophize anywhere, but some places lend themselves to deep thinking more naturally than others. The best, in my experience – or at least by far the most pleasant – is the bathtub. Slide into the water with a good question, let the hot steam lull you into mind-wandering mode, and soon you’ll relax so much that you won’t even care if you don’t find an answer. Peace of mind will set in – and if that isn’t the highest goal achievable on the philosophical path, then what is?

Rearm – From the cosy warmth of the bathtub into the cold and brutal reality. War has been raging in Europe for almost four years now, and the wealthy nations of the continent should urgently rearm – first Ukraine, and then themselves. I understand that this call will not be popular with many. I, too, would have preferred to remain the military sceptic that I was back at the age of 19. But unfortunately, Charles de Gaulle was right: «Every country has an army – either its own someone else’s.»

Add to that the moral duty to help the victims of an unprovoked attack. How can it be that a country like Switzerland produces weapons for huge amounts of money, but withholds them from those who so badly need them to fight for their lives? How can we stand by and watch as nearly a million people are murdered, tortured, raped and deported – without imposing comprehensive sanctions on Russia and its supporters, without throwing our full weight into the ring? Debates about the German Taurus, the American Tomahawk or Switzerland’s restrictions on war material would be ridiculous if they weren’t tragic.

What can we, as peace-loving democrats, do? Not much, but at the very least support the politicians who have the courage to stand on the right side of history.

Listen to podcasts – Someone who takes an admirably clear-sighted and empathetic view of the war in Ukraine is former German general Erhard Bühler. His weekly analysis in the MDR podcast Was tun, Herr General? (What to do, General?) is usually worth every single minute.

Less dramatic but still important topics – such as our smartphone addiction and its effects on children – are covered in the podcast Macher & Denker (Makers & Thinkers), where I was a guest alongside publisher Rachele De Caro. If we’re going to immerse ourselves in digital content, perhaps it’s best to do so through our ears, without blinking distractions left and right.

 

October 2025

Live beautifully – Last week, I was in Venice. Only half voluntarily – I had heard that the flood of tourists there had become so high that the city was in danger of finally drowning in it. But my little daughter really wanted to go, and the overtourism in October was hardly any worse than in Lucerne. When we arrived, I was struck once again by how incredibly beautiful Venice is. Not only around San Marco and the Rialto Bridge, but even in the parts where people actually live for more than a few days. It’s the most beautiful city in the world. No doubt.

It doesn’t take a very deep analysis to figure out why. Ninety percent of the houses in each quarter are built from the same materials, and 90 percent are in the same style. Within these commonalities, there is still room for vivid diversity – on the island of Burano, for example (pictured), no house can have the same colour as its neighbour. But these are variations on a shared identity, interpretations of a strict set of rules. These restrictions don’t make the individual houses any less appealing – on the contrary. Differences are interesting exactly when they arise from similar conditions. What’s more, it is precisely because of these restrictions that the individual buildings make such a spectacular ensemble.

«Limitation is the first law of art,» said architect Frank Lloyd Wright. If only everyone understood that! Sure, there are other examples of spectacular ensembles besides Venice: Dubrovnik in Croatia, the English village of Bibury, or the Valais settlement of Blatten, which was buried by a landslide this spring. Perhaps Hamburg’s newly built HafenCity can also be included. But in most places today, buildings are built in the opposite way: without a common understanding, without any vision or care for their surroundings – and without any rules other than the one that construction must be cheap and fast.

The culprits, of course, are the architects, urban planners, politicians, contractors, investors, house builders big and small. They’re all to blame – but so are we, we who inhabitate what they build. When we strive for «better living», we shouldn’t limit our efforts to interiors but also consider how the house we live in looks from the outside, to others. Interiors are seen by a handful of people. Exteriors are seen by millions.

Now, not everyone can choose an apartment based on aesthetic principles. But in rich countries like Switzerland – which, absurdly, ranks at the top of the list worldwide in terms of architectural eyesores (architecture critic Benedikt Loderer explains why in his wonderfully sarcastic book Die Landesverteidigung) – more people can do so than anywhere else. It is high time we applied the same standards to our own neighbourhoods that we apply to our holiday destinations.

Do nothing – South Korean punk musician Byung-jin Park is a master of doing nothing. He recently won a competition in Seoul that required participants to sit motionless for 90 minutes with the lowest possible heart rate. The «Space-Out Competition» is the logical, ultimate contrast to modern everyday live, in which we follow some kind of (often digital) distraction almost second by second, seduced by clever algorithms and the Zuckerbergs behind them (a name which, ironically, translates as «mountain of sugar»). Above all, however, we distract ourselves, as the late poet Mary Oliver noted. We can’t stand being alone with ourselves anymore. Whenever we have to wait for something, no matter how briefly, we reflexively pull out our phones; whenever we feel the slightest pang of anger, we immediately seek comfort at the fridge.

Doing nothing is the best remedy for debilitating distraction. Although I’m far from managing 90 minutes, I have successfully trained myself not to do anything (not even pull out the phone!) until I consciously decide what exactly it is that I want to do next. This creates a short pause between even the smallest activities – sometimes a few seconds, sometimes minutes – during which nothing happens that I’ll later regret as wasted time. I can very much recommend these pauses.

Go out – Because you can’t always do nothing, here’s a third tip: go out, meet up with other people. It sounds trivial, but it’s no longer an obvious choice. We are forced to leave the house less and less often: many of us can work from home, we can get what we need sent to us around the clock, and once we’re on YouTube or Netflix, we see people there who, at least at first glance, are much more interesting than those we might meet over a coffee or a beer. When we do go out, though, it’s always the same: we come back much happier than we would have been if we had spent the same time at home and on the sofa. There is still no medium and no chatbot that can raise a glass to us and really mean it.

So go out, and not just at the weekend! For those of you who live in Switzerland, there’s an opportunity to do so this week: on Thursday, October 9, my book launch will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Hotel Beau Séjour in Lucerne. I would be delighted to see some of you there.

 

September 2025

Do your best – Modern people (that would include most of us) suffer from never being satisfied with themselves. In our distant past it was very clear what humans had to do (hunt mammoths/gather berries), and equally clear was it how to define success (mammoth killed/berries found). Today everything is much more complicated. There are a thousand things we could also do. And for everything we end up doing, there will be a thousand other people who do it much better than we ever could. In the past, we knew nothing about these other people and possibilities. Today, they are omnipresent – and increasingly driving us crazy.

In this life brimming with opportunities for optimisation, it seems worth keeping one thing in mind: we can only do our best. In fact, no one can do more than their best. Conversely, this means that those who do their best have achieved the greatest possible success — regardless of the outcome. So, if you take a moment to ask yourself the following questions whenever you face a challenge: What is the best I can do? What is within my capabilities? And if you then do your best to the best of your knowledge — you’ll have every reason to be proud of and satisfied with yourself. No one will ever manage to get more than the maximum out of themselves, so when we succeed in doing so, we have done as much as anyone else. Mikaela Shiffrin, Mother Teresa and that guy in the picture included. There is simply nothing more we can do, so it would be absurd to demand more of ourselves. We don’t have to be the best. We just have to be the best possible.

Eat nuts – Speaking of the best possible – here’s the best possible snack there is, especially now in autumn. As you will know very well, the temptation to quickly grab a bag, a packet, a tin or even take a peek into the fridge between two tasks (or why not during a task?) is huge. The more tedious the task at hand, the greater the desire for distraction, and after every small step: for reward.

Bummer, then, that snacking between meals is proven to be unhealthy. Every snack raises blood sugar levels, causes the liver to become fatty and promotes inflammation. Every snack? Almost every snack – except nuts. Nuts contain hardly any sugar, so they don’t mess with your blood sugar levels. They are still nutritious thanks to their protein and oils, and tasty they are, too. That’s why for some time now, I’ve been treating myself to a nut after every little task – even if it’s just a few lines of text. Just one single nut, mind you. This drip-feeding tactic also has a positive effect on productivity, because nuts are definitely addictive – they’re just not unhealthy. And yes, it’ll make you occasionally feel like a squirrel. But aren’t they cute?

Order «Abglanz» now – I’ve eaten a lot of nuts while writing this book. It’s my second novel, it’s called Abglanz (which would roughly translate as «pale reflection») and it will be published on the 23rd of September. It’s about identity and jealousy, about art, career and the wish for a child, as well as the relationship between East and West. The anti-heroine of the novel, Selin Zwingli, works as a graphic designer while hoping for a breakthrough as an artist. In vain – as is her desire to become pregnant. But when she comes across the paintings of an unknown Tibetan artist named Nima, Selin hatches a plan. She pretends to be Nima, starts painting pictures in her style – and is promptly hailed as a sensation. Her family dreams also seem to be coming true in her. But then she meets the real Nima, and Selin’s future, built on lies, begins to crumble …

But read for yourself! At least if you do read German or intend to grab the opportunity to learn it. You can pre-order the book at your favourite bookshop or here. Here is an interview about it. And on October 9, the official book launch party will take place at Hotel Beau Séjour in Lucerne. Come along – I’d be delighted if you could.

 

August 2025

Cook blueberries – The wild blueberry is the queen of berries. No coincidence that it wears a crown (see picture)! There is no other berry quite so small, but neither is there another so delicious. To its cultivated, pumped-up descendant, the blueberry available in supermarkets, it compares like Joni Mitchell compares to Britney Spears. So let’s go blueberry picking before it’s too late again! When roaming through the low bushes, however, you won’t just have to contend with ticks (strong recommendation: get vaccinated against TBE), but also with the increasingly widespread fox tapeworm. So: do not put the berries directly into your mouth (as tempting as it may be), wash them thoroughly before eating, or – better still – cook them down. This will not only benefit your health but even their already gorgeous taste: the heat of the pan brings out the berries’ blue blood and elevates their aroma to Elysian heights. Mmhh. Mmmhhhh. Mmmmmmmhhhhh!

 

July 2025

Protest – I have never taken part in street protests. Not because I wouldn’t share the demonstrators’ concerns – in fact, I quite often do – but because I never felt the need to take to the streets for something that I can vote on at the ballot box. In a democracy, especially a direct one like Switzerland’s, we are constantly being asked how our state should be organised, what rights and duties we should have and what we should invest our state money in. If a change to the status quo seems important enough, we can easily force a referendum or initiative and put it to the vote. Nothing happens (and nothing can be kept from happening) against the will of a majority of the people. Public demonstrations – and it feels like one passes in front of my balcony in Lucerne every other week – therefore often seem worthy of support to me, but also somehow unnecessary. I’d rather read or write an opinion piece than chant the same slogan again and again.

There is one exception, however – an emergency in which public protest becomes a public duty even in a democracy: when that democracy itself is being attacked. This was recently and still is the case in the USA: their president and would-be king Donald Trump is trying to snatch budgetary sovereignty from Congress, he is harassing «unfriendly» companies, institutions and even member states, and he is arbitrarily arresting people who dare to rebel against him. In doing so, he is trampling on the rule of law and its foundation, the separation of powers. In such a scenario – which until recently I would have thought impossible in the USA and which I hope never to experience here – writing hands alone are no longer enough. It requires feet that take to the streets.

Open email blindly – Now, from big politics to small everyday worries. Am I alone in being afraid of email? Often, it takes just a glance at the sender or the subject line and I know: this will be an invitation that I definitely don’t want to accept, but that I absolutely can’t refuse either. Or: This enquiry will easily cost me a week of unplanned, unpleasant work. Or: Shit, what? This appointment is tomorrow? When emails like this appear on the horizon – that is, at the top of my Outlook timeline – they make me break out in a sweat.

Or rather: they used to do so. Because I’ve recently adopted a tactic from the good old habit of opening letters that avoids unnecessary stress. I move the email window so far to the left of the screen (see picture) that the only thing I see is the messages’ sent times – no sender and no subject. I only ever see one email at a time, the one that I’ve clicked on right now. Just as when going through a pile of letters, I’ll only know what a message is about when I open exactly that message. Only then can it stress, burden, distract or outrage me, if that’s really what it will. The time of anxiety is limited to the unavoidable minimum.

Subscribe to «Challenge Accepted!» – One email that is always comes welcome, even though it doesn’t deal with light topics, is the «Challenge Accepted!» newsletter from Swiss newspaper Republik. Once a fortnight, it offers concrete ideas on how to get out of the climate crisis. ETH researcher Ulrike Lohmann, for example, explains why it might be worth spraying sea salt into the atmosphere to create new clouds, which will in turn reflect sunlight and thus cool the planet. Like the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines did in 1991: after its eruption (see picture), the earth was almost half a degree cooler for a year.

 

June 2025

Jump in – This works on a literal level (Lake Lucerne, where I am typing this, is currently afresh 17 degrees), but it can be adapted to all kinds of things that seem daunting, that you keep putting off and which pile up all the more threateningly: paperwork, project planning, potato peeling … If you jump into such unpleasant tasks – immediately, whenever one comes to mind  – you’ll save yourself the period of foreboding(the opposite of anticipation) that torments you when you procrastinate. Even more importantly, though, it’ll have the same effect as jumping into an ice-cold mountain lake: once you’re in, you’ll start rowing wildly  –  and you’ll find yourself making rapid progress. It’s all half as bad, you realise, and before you know it, the job will be done, and you’ll be on dry land.

Impose your personal sanctions – One thing we can’t quite bring ourselves to is to deal appropriately with war criminals. As I type this newsletter, the heads of state of Western nations are wrestling with the urgent need to tighten sanctions against Russia and the countries that are financing Russia’s war. Those who don’t want to wait to see what may or may not happen at the political level can go ahead and personally sanction the companies that continue to do business with Russia: They are on this scandalous list. In some cases (Adobe, AstraZeneca), it’s not so easy to just stop buying from them. But in other cases, it is. Geox shoes, for example, are not only objectionable from a moral point of view, but also – well, see picture.

Drink Schilcher – And back to something rosier. As temperatures rise, so does the desire for something fresh and fruity to drink. If it also looks like a summer sunset –perfect. Unfortunately, the vast majority of rosés don’t live up to their pretty looks. This is partly due to the way they are made: huge quantities of low-quality grapes are used, and the grape juice only remains in contact with the flavorsome skins for a very short time. The result often is bland and banal. I know of two noteworthy exceptions, though: Lambrusco di Sorbara, a frizzante/spumante from Emilia, whose grapes are naturally lighter in color than the other Lambrusco varieties. And, yes, Schilcher from Styria – a real Rumpelstiltskin of a wine, whose Blauer Wildbacher grape variety was presumably selected from wild vines. The Schilcher presents itself accordingly: its acidity is so pithy that Pope Pius VI is said to have called it «pink vinegar». But anyone who’s ever had a sip of good Schilcher on a hot day (like Peter Skoff’s, pictured) will understand this to be a compliment.

 

May 2025

Melt your Easter chocolate – Most chocolate bunnies don’t taste half as good as they look. The same is true for those chocolate eggs. They still must be eaten, though – by Christmas at the latest. A good idea is to melt them and to give them a flavour boost. One possibility is to turn them into the astonishingly delicious chocolate cake with rosemary and olive oil that Anna Jones describes in her book One Pot, Pan, Planet. (Astonishingly good, of course, only if the olive oil is top of the crop.)

Go and see Alina Grasmann’s paintings – Spring is often described as the most beautiful of all four seasons. A questionable assessment – I’d argue that many of places where we spend our lives greatly benefit from the autumn fog and winter snow that mercifully cover them. But be that as it may – what is certainly among the most beautiful and fascinating things to behold this spring are Alina Grasmann’s oil paintings. Some of them can be seen this month at the Brühler Kunstverein. Lucky you if you happen to live nearby! To everyone else I’ll highly recommend a visit to Alina’s website.

Understand good things as an exception – «90 percent of everything is crap», claimed science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon wrote books with such fantastic titles as The Last Egoist and A Saucer of Loneliness, and it greatly annoyed him that his art was mostly treated with disrespect. Of course, 90 percent of all science fiction novels are bad, he said – but the same applies to everything else. His rule, which became known as «Sturgeon’s Law», may not be quite so generalisable. Some 70 percent of all bathtubs, for example, are good in my experience. But basically Sturgeon is right: what is good is usually the exception. This applies to chocolate (see point 1) as well as to oil paintings (point 2), to the songs you hear on the radio and to the passes played by FC Luzern. It even applies to the people who hold important public offices – and to those who elect them. I do believe in the good in humans, but it is rare and precious. If we can bring ourselves to accept this fact, life suddenly becomes more bearable. Instead of getting upset about everything and everyone, we can sharpen our focus on the other 10 per cent, which fortunately also exist. We can encourage, recommend and emulate them, and we absolutely must ensure that they never disappear completely. Because then – but only then – would we really have reason to despair.

 

April 2025

Go to war? – It is astonishing: When the Spanish Civil War broke out in the summer of 1936, numerous international intellectuals – among them George Orwell, André Malraux, Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway – joined the Spanish Government forces in their fight against General Franco’s fascists. Today, a war is raging in Europe that has already claimed more victims than the one back then, and in which the roles of good and evil are at least as obvious. But when intellectuals speak out about it at all – the vast majority avoids doing so – they often warn, under the pretence of pacifism, against full and effective support for Ukraine. What if that support were seen as participation in the war? What if, in the end, we were forced to face the destroyer of democracy and human rights ourselves? You don’t necessarily have to take up arms to keep a clear conscience. (Hemingway, by the way, didn’t, either; he was «only» a reporter in the war). But even in post-heroic times, coming out in support of the victims of and offering them the odd franc/euro/dollar should not be too much to ask. Especially from those who prefer to fight with the pen.

Listen to Happy Traum – This is not a new album by Heidi Happy (although I’ll recommend that too, when it comes), but a real name! Harry Peter «Happy» Traum was born in 1938, grew up in New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s (along with Bob Dylan), and died in 2024. Farewell song: There’s a Bright Side Somewhere. I can’t listen to his feel-good folk for too long, but it is a nice reminder of an America that used to be – and perhaps will re-emerge someday.

Tie your shoes on one leg – The very best fitness tests are free. Whenever I tie my shoes, I try to do it standing on one leg – and because I usually leave the house sober, I reliably succeed. I even like to think that I’ll keep this skill forever if I practise it every day: If I can do something so simple today, how would I not be able to do it tomorrow? Should that sad day ever come, I’ll lose more than my balance.

 

March 2025

Don’t be an asshole – Politics have recently become simple. They used to be rather complicated: Should we change the tax system? If so, how? Protect the climate? With what measures? Support the economy? Yes, but which one? It wasn’t always clear what was right. Discussions and debates were important. Then, however, came the assholes. Berlusconi in Italy, Haider in Austria, Orbán in Hungary, Trump in America, and so on. Now, every country seems to have its own. Of course, there have always been assholes – but they used to be outsiders who could easily and safely be ignored. They had no megaphone and no network. Today, however, they have both, and so they organise, recruit and mobilise themselves. Suddenly, there are very, very many of them – or at least they have become more visible. And they are grasping for power, as any group that sees an opportunity to form a majority will try to. As a result, they are setting the political agenda – whether we like it or not. The discussions and debates have become obsolete. Of course it would be important to discuss whether geoengineering is sensible, whether we need start-up subsidies for technology firms or a higher value-added tax. It would be important if we weren’t facing a much more urgent question: Whether the assholes will come to power (or stay in power where they already are). Against the immediate danger they pose, everything else becomes a minor matter, because the assholes have the capacity to answer every single political question in the worst possible way. That’s why people with a heart and a brain and a spine need to join forces urgently, even if they don’t agree on everything. What matters these days is not so much whether we vote for this or that party, for this woman or that man – what matters is not to vote for assholes. That is: not to be one ourselves.

February 2025

Vote — With this I’d like to address in particular (but not only) my neighbours and friends in Germany, who will have the opportunity to choose between «Jamaica», «Kenya», «Germany», «Dirndl», a Fourth Reich or some other colorful option on February 23. It’s of immeasurable importance that every rational voter exercises her or his right. (While everyone else is welcome to stay home.) Because it’s true what Winston Churchill said: that democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others. But it’s also true what Henry Mencken said: «As democracy continues to perfect itself, the presidency will more and more accurately reflect the inner soul of the people. One great and glorious day, the people’s heart’s desire will be fulfilled and the White House will be adorned with a true idiot.» Fortunately, at least in theory, there are different ways of perfecting democracy. For those of you who haven’t completely given up on it, here’s a suggestion (in German).

Breed mammoths — The mammoth is my favourite animal (or would be if it still existed). I was therefore delighted when I heard on Sam Harris’ podcast that the American entrepreneur Ben Lamm wants to resurrect the woolly giant – not at some distant point in the future, but before the end of the decade. Delighted I was, and also a little frightened, because interventions in the planet’s gene pool tend to come with mammoth-sized uncertainties. Lamm is serious about this, though, and he seems to have the best intentions. According to him, the reintroduction of extinct species (he also works on the genome of the Tasmanian Tiger and the Dodo) could not only be spectacular, but also ecologically sensible. Listen to his and Harris’ conversation here.

Open email blindly — I get about three or four dozen emails a day. Most of them are harmless (my favourites are simple spam that I can just click away). But what if a request pops up that you know is going to turn your whole week upside down? What if the French Road Traffic Office suddenly gets in touch? Or that long-forgotten school friend who thinks that it’s «finally time for a drink after all these years»? I’m afraid of messages like that, not to mention the really bad news. And I’m not the only one: according to a recent German study, more than 60 percent of us feel stressed and consider their health affected by the daily flood of email. What to do? Unwanted messages and requests can’t simply be magicked away – there comes a time when you must deal with them. What can be eliminated, however, is the stress we feel before opening them. In most cases, the sender’s name or the subject line is enough to make us break out in a sweat. We may still be on the first email of the day, but we’ve already glanced over what is lurking fourteen lines further down. And twenty-two. And thirty-five … Unread messages can upset us so much that we can’t even concentrate on the one that’s in front of us, let alone anything else. That’s why I’ve got into the habit of moving the email window to the left side of the screen – so far that I can only see the «sent» dates, not the senders and not the subject lines. This way I know how many messages I have left to read, but not who they come from or what they contain. Going through email thus feels like going through a pile of letters used to feel: You calmly open one after the other, not knowing what to expect. This won’t protect you from unpleasant surprises, but it does take away the fear of them because you can’t see them coming. Also, every now and then, you might be in for a nice surprise.