“Chi ha dimenticato vuole transcinarci in un mondo di muri”–An interview with La Repubblica on the 75th anniversary of the dropping of a bomb on Hiroshima—August 6, 2020
“The Best Reason to Go to College”—an Op-Ed on the beginning of the new school year, for The New York Times, September 7, 2020
“The Power of the Everyday”–an introduction to In Search of Elsewhere, a fresh collection of works by the photographer Steve McCurry, September 2020.
“The Best Conversations of my Life”–a long essay on the sharing and receiving of books, in the anthology, The Gifts of Reading, September 2020 (excerpted in The Australian).
“A City Built on Books”–a long essay on the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, for The Los Angeles Times, October 11, 2020
“Making a Life, Not Just a Living:–an Op-Ed for The Times of India on the coronavirus season, October 16, 2020
“The Playboy Philosopher”–a review of Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, Greenlights, in Air Mail, October 24, 2020
“Spirituality, Wisdom and What Sustains us”—an interview with Patheos, October 29, 2020.
“Empathy”—a discussion on an essential virtue with Pravrika Vrajaprana, Vedanta nun, on “Life Examined” on KCRW-FM radio, October 31, 2020.
“The Holding Pattern”—an essay on being a traveler in a world without travel, Conde Nast Traveler, November 2020
“Solitude”—a brief, musical essay for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and its current season of virtual concerts, SOUND/STAGE, November 6, 2020
“All I have is this moment right now, and I need to do deepest justice to it”—the first part of a long interview with The Times of India, run on the Op-Ed page, November 9, 2020
“In Praise of Jan Morris”—a short essay remembering a mighty writer, The Guardian, November 23, 2020
“From Babbling to Listening”—an interview for the Op-Ed page of The Times of India, December 12, 2020
A tiny piece on Antarctica, for the annual collection of Travel Writers’ Discoveries of the year—Financial Times, December 12, 2020
“Absent Foreigners, Kyoto Carries On”—a short piece on Kyoto in November, mid-pandemic, for The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2020.
“Still Life”—a short essay on traveling around my neighborhood, for Kyoto Journal, Issue 99, December 2020.
“Sacred Place”—an essay on the work of photographer Balarama Heller, in Aperture, Winter 2020.
A remembrance of writer and friend Barry Lopez, Orion, January 11, 2021.
‘The Wonders Close to Home”–a long essay on the joys of traveling close to home, for Westways, January 2020.
“Kyoto”–a love-letter to Japan’s ancient capital, for Vanity Fair (U.K.) March 2021.