Erich J. Prince

@BenedictBeckeld Excellent!

I have been very inspired by the courage with which @BenSasse has faced his cancer diagnosis, and I wrote a short essay about the wisdom he has been providing us in the time since. merionwest.com/ben-sasses-dig…

I had the distinct honor of interviewing @DrJBhattacharya (@NIHDirector_Jay) for our Philadelphia-based magazine @merionwest, discussing his philosophical convictions and his vision for a new scientific revolution @ErichPrince @henrithefinn merionwest.com/a-new-era-in-s…

This is a fascinating interview with @DrJBhattacharya. His observation that Robin Warren, Barry Marshall, and Werner Forssmann were all marginalized by other doctors before later winning a Nobel Prize is a provocative reminder of the limits of consensus. merionwest.com/a-new-era-in-s…

Thank you, @HeyPeterClarke, for a very enjoyable time speaking with you

I really enjoyed my recent conversation with Wilfred McClay about his new book "The Jewish Roots of American Liberty." Here is our conversation: merionwest.com/wilfred-mcclay…

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

I’m grateful to @ErichPrince and @henrithefinn for refreshing and republishing one of my most memorable conversations, with the inimitable @Ayaan:

I very much enjoyed my conversation with @charlesmurray about his new book “Taking Religion Seriously” and hearing about how he gradually has come to appreciate so many religious insights.

We have stepped away from posting on X to focus entirely on how our articles, interviews, and poetry are presented on our site. As such, please visit Merion West's website to enjoy our pieces and, most importantly, our periodically released collections: merionwest.com

@NefflynBe I have a soft spot for tennis

Simply horrifying. We must have the highest tolerance for opinion and absolutely no tolerance for violence.

Thank you, @Eric_Heinze_, for a very interesting essay

It was a pleasure interviewing @SenatorLankford today about his new book "Turnaround." Transcript forthcoming at @MerionWest

What a scary moment for the United States and its former President. I’m relieved President Trump is okay but saddened to hear about the passing of an event attendee. May this country find a better day.

My first time writing on music

@MDPurzycki @merionwest I think he might have been too

@merionwest @ErichPrince Pascal was right

My latest essay on a distinctly modern phenomenon

@victorbruzzone Congratulations!

A nice surprise! Did not even know I was nominated.