"I have sedulously endeavored not to laugh at human actions, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them." –Baruch Spinoza
What is Light Over Heat?
This Substack is dedicated to understanding our fascinating, exasperating social world. My recent focus has been on guns and gun culture in America. Few arenas of social life generate more animosity (heat) and less insight (light) than guns. Here I aim to reverse that equation by promoting Light Over Heat.
I never saw or touched a gun until I was 42 years old, so I know what it is like not to understand firearms. Since 2011, I have journeyed deeper and deeper inside American gun culture to understand to understand why guns make sense to those who own them. I hope my work translates what I have learned for anyone curious and open-minded about the issue.
As a lifelong liberal sociology professor who now owns guns, I speak with a unique voice in our cacophonous debates on the subject. One reviewer of my book Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture recognized this and said I bring to the gun issue “a refreshing Bob Ross-like calmness that’s much needed.”
If you are tired of our paralyzing national argument about guns, my work offers a hopeful alternative based on the kind of civil conversations we desperately need right now. Light Over Heat.
What You Can Expect
My work here is not paywalled, so everyone who subscribes will receive everything I post. See my note on support below for a pitch to potential paid subscribers.
I do not have a set publication schedule. Instead, I post my thoughts as they come to me and as I have time to record them.
I do not have a fixed rotation of certain types of articles I publish. Sometimes my posts will be reports on my time in the field of gun culture. Or reflections on significant or controversial developments in the news. I may announce events or highlight people that readers will be interested in. Or write reports on books or articles I am reading.
“Light Over Heat” on Substack extends the writing I have been doing on my Gun Culture 2.0 blog since 2012 and complements the videos I post on my Light Over Heat YouTube channel.
How I Make This
Light Over Heat means being honest, including about how this gets made. I do my own thinking and research, and I write the first draft of everything myself. Before anything goes public, I ask Claude.ai to review it for accuracy, consistency, comprehensibility, tone, and style — the same way I would ask my human writing accountability partner, Lynn, to look it over had she but had world enough, and time. I frequently implement Claude’s suggestions, but rarely use its specific language. I also routinely ask for help with the things I struggle with, like engaging titles and calls to action. But the ideas, the arguments, and the final judgment calls are always mine.
A Note on Support
Putting out materials like this is part of my mission to educate people and enrich conversations about our social world. I have never paywalled my work, so it is free to you. But the work is not free to me.
If you want to support my efforts, please consider a paid subscription to this Substack. Beyond the financial assistance, your contribution encourages me to continue this work by showing me you value it.
In addition to this Substack, you can support my work by doing any of the following:
Like and share my work across platforms to help others see this work, which is my main goal.
Buy my book: Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture.
Make a direct financial contribution to help offset my costs through Buy Me A Coffee or PayPal Donate.
About Me
I am a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. You can read more about me here, and find a bibliography and videography of my major works here.
