HeyJaredFragments and Asides
Retired and reflecting on a 43-year career in the shadow of the U.S. federal government. Only occasionally oversharing.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 11, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest issues
[25 years on] The Unsettling (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Someday, I’ll stop reposting this. But on the 25th anniversary, I have no choice. As memory fades, this matters. What follows are my memories of the day, as a native New Yorker living outside Washington D.C.I grew up knowing the Empire State Building was the tallest in the world, but, like a typical New Yorker, I’d only been up there a few times as a child. When the Towers went up, I was a young teenager, and hated the ugly “modern” architecture on my classic NY skyline. I never visited them, bu
What’s the Matter (opens the original)
Read excerpt
A most gentle soul asked me recently whether I was an author, a question which stumped me for some time. Well, yes, I have this Substack/blog. And yes, I have published peer-reviewed work as a researcher at the oldest think tank in the U.S. But I haven’t had anyone publish me. The think tank work was directed research for a study sponsor, usually an office in a federal agency. That was my profession, a researcher rather than author. I sat with this question for a while and realized I didn’t cons
Twelve Years on for July (opens the original)
Read excerpt
See this footnote to understand the motivation for this series.1I may abandon this series, the jury is out. I find myself reading Summer 1971; Five Months that Changed America, which makes a much stronger case for when the seeds for the spiral we are living through began. Inflation rages. Crime is rising. Abortion rights take center stage at the Supreme Court. China poses an existential threat. Black lives are
Twelve Years On for June (opens the original)
Read excerpt
See this footnote to understand the motivation for this series.1<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="1092" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CUXa!,w_1456,c_limit
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.