I wrote a piece about traveling with my son to Sudan. I was hoping it would be like the trip I took with his sister when she was younger, but it turned out quite differently. The essay was published by Your Teen Magazine, a publication for parents of teenagers. Bonding With My Son In Africa?…
Cognoscenti has published my latest essay: The Patriots’ Superficial Secret Weapon The New England Patriots are going to the Super Bowl! Again! For the third time in four years! For the eighth time in 17 years! Perhaps you’ve heard about this development? Sports writers, pundits, the mailman, your dog walker — it feels like everyone…
I’ve rediscovered tennis. I played when I was a teenager and rarely has a year passed when I didn’t play a few games, but this spring, I signed up for a town round-robin and found myself playing regularly twice a week for the first time in ages. Thinking about the game — my game —…
Like a few million other people, I went to see the new movie Wonder Woman soon after it came out. Like a few hundred other people, I’ve taken a course in the Sumerian language and was surprised when, as a minor plot point, our heroine reads a few lines of that ancient tongue. So I wrote…
Turns out, if you Google “Pee in the Sahara” you may find the story of Mauro Prosperi, an ultramarathoner who went off course in Morocco and ended up in Algiera (183 miles off course). Or, you could find my short article on a bus stop in Sudan and the “facilities” provided there. You can read…
For Take Your Child to Work Day, 2017, Cognoscenti published I Took My 11-Year-Old Daughter To Work … In Sudan: Last year, I took my daughter to one of my part-time jobs: to northern Sudan, where she accompanied me as I worked as an archaeologist. No, I’m not crazy, and yes, her mother knew (and we…
February 3, 2017, Cognoscenti published: History Repeating: Lessons From The Civil Rights Era For Maximizing The Power Of Protests At least one elected official and his advisors seem eager to confirm the adage that “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” As Americans gird themselves against societal upheaval and figure out how…
Things change. Yep. The changes are not often what we’re seeking but we need to adapt. Since the US election in November 2016, I’ve published two essays in WBUR’s Cognoscenti that reflect my optimistic disappointment. Surely, there’s a way out of this? The first was published on November 14, 2016: A New ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ Host,…
My essay in the Connections column of The Boston Globe Magazine, October 16, 2016: I’ve never been to a quinceanera — the traditional party given for 15-year-old girls as a sort of bat mitzvah/debutante/you-are-now-a-woman celebration popular in Latin America. However, I have recently been to several cincuentaneras (fetes for folks turning 50). And they are getting elaborate. My sister’s 50th…
Our local NPR station, WBUR, has an “op-ed” type page on their website called “Cognoscenti.” There’s something I wrote about watching the Netflix series “Stranger Things” with my family: Like many people, I indulged in nostalgia this summer watching the Netflix television series “Stranger Things.” But not because of the content of the show. For…
Jack Cheng, PhD 