Welcome to The Stillest Hour, an experimental multimedia newsletter created by me, Rory Varrato.
I am a PhD candidate in the Philosophy and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University in the City of New York—though I am currently based in Sedona, Arizona, while I prepare my dissertation proposal on the problem of grappling with the possibility of human extinction in the Anthropocene. Before undertaking my doctoral studies, I received degrees in American History (B.A.) and Political Theory (M.A.) from Arizona State University, and I taught for a few years at Scottsdale Preparatory Academy, a ‘great books’-oriented high school. I am also a co-founding member of Extinction Rebellion NYC, though I am no longer active in that chapter. (Learn more about me at my personal website.)
The name of this newsletter is taken from the title of a pivotal chapter in Friedrich Nietzsche’s masterpiece, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. That tome was the first work of philosophy I ever read, at age 14, and, in many ways, its influence on me has shaped the trajectory of my life’s path. To wit:
“It is the stillest words that bring on the storm. Thoughts that come on doves’ feet guide the world.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “The Stillest Hour”
My intent with this newsletter, then, is to collect a variety of such ‘still words’ from multiple mediums into a single location. The planned content is as follows:
Current content
Occasional commentary on news and current events, written from my personal perspective as a transformative anarcho-communist academic and activist originally hailing from Appalachia.
The Bullshit Artists: A biweekly, two-hour long, cross-generational dialogue between myself and political theorist Jack Crittenden, professor emeritus at Arizona State University. These conversations will be focused primarily on discussion of politics, the human condition, and our academic work. They will be unstructured and presented in medias res.
Future content
The Stillest Hour: A biweekly (i.e., twice monthly) hour-long monologue focused on philosophical analysis of news and current events, rooted in my moral and ideological commitments to critical theory and critical pedagogy, existentialism, and transcendentalism. (Eventually, this segment may include interviews.)
This project is in its early stages, and, therefore, it is subject to changes. I welcome constructively critical feedback on the content that I aim to produce.
Finally, I should mention that, following Socrates’s lead, I intend to keep all content on this page free.
Thank you, and please sign up below!
P.S. Don’t forget to tell your friends!
Image Credits: see here.
