Mark D. White

My 2024 in review, and looking ahead to 2025...

This will be brief, as this was not a good year, especially in terms of new work...

I had two books published this year, Rights versus Antitrust and the second edition of The Virtues of Captain America; you can see the various podcasts and blog posts for their dedicated pages (here and here, respectively). I also had two chapters published this year with one more coming in 2025: "Punishment and Resources" in Jesper Ryberg's The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Punishment; a slightly revised version of "Paternalism, Moralism, and Markets" in the second edition of Gerald F. Gaus (RIP), Fred D'Agostino, and Ryan Muldoon's The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy; and "Introducing Rights and Justice to Students of Economics" forthcoming in Ricardo Crespo, John B. Davis, and Giancarlo Ianulardo's The Elgar Handbook of Teaching Philosophy to Economists. (Only the last piece was written this year; everything else was written if not finalized earlier.)

I continued work on The Virtues of Captain America Blog, now well in 1998 and the "Heroes Return" period; blogged intermittently at Psychology Today; and visited my undergraduate alma mater, Ohio Northern University, in March for the first time in thirty years.

The day job continues to deteriorate apace; happily I only have one more semester to serve as department chair and three years left afterwards (which should be much better, as teaching has been a welcome respite). Outside work, I continued my foray into vinyl collecting and seeing live music, which in 2025 now includes Arch Enemy and Emperor, both in May.

I hope need to get things back on track in 2025; this land has lain fallow far too long.

Welcome to autumn... (A personal update)

I wanted to get this update out before the end of August, but it took until now to get some summer tasks done (in the midst of a challenging start to the fall semester), so here we are. At least it gives me an opportunity to post this picture, taken yesterday in the woods near where I live.

The main event here has been the July release of the second edition of my Captain America book (and the August release of the audiobook). I did a round of podcasts for it (which can be found here), most recently the Captain America Comic Book Fans podcast, in which we dove deep into the new material, especially the sections on fascism and "Secret Empire" and the half-chapter on Sam Wilson's time so far as Cap. I also posted at Psychology Today on what "Secret Empire" can teach us about fascism (and I plan to post there about Sam closer to the release of his movie). On The Virtues of Captain America Blog, we finally made it through "Heroes Reborn" and have started in on the "Heroes Return" era with the third volumes of Captain America and Avengers.

In terms of other writing, I have a number of book chapters in various stages of completion for edited volumes, including a chapter on the resource implications of punishment in Jesper Ryberg's The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Punishment, which will be published soon, and a chapter about the importance of teaching economics students about rights and justice for The Elgar Handbook of Teaching Philosophy to Economists, edited by Ricardo Crespo, John B. Davis, and Giancarlo Ianulardo. I also posted twice more at Psychology Today on fascinating journal articles on moral obligations after hearing a slur and questions around manic episodes and autonomy.

Other than that, work continues on several books as well as teaching and chairing. On the concert front, since my last post my son and I saw Deep Purple, Yes, Accept, and Metal Allegiance, and coming up this weekend is Testament, Kreator, and Possessed, followed by King Diamond and Overkill at the end of October and Iron Maiden in early November. (Big plans for 2025 as well, including Nile, Kerry King, Dream Theater, and Oasis.)

Summertime, and the livin' is... goin'... (A personal update)

Welcome back to your quarterly glimpse into my life...

[UPDATED 7-11-2024] The biggest "news" I have to report is that the second edition of The Virtues of Captain America is now available in print and as an ebook and will be released as an audiobook (narrated by Kirby Heyborne) on August 27. I have a number of podcasts lined up, and will undoubtedly be blogging about it here and there, so watch my page for the new edition, the socials, and this blog for news on that. It has been a wild ride since I sent the "hey, what if" email just over two years ago, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

In related news, my blog of the same name recently passed 500 posts, and now covers the entire first volumes of the Captain America and Avengers titles. Of course, this means it will soon be starting in on the second (the controversial "Heroes Reborn" era, for those in the know), but I plan to go through that short run tout suite.

I have continued to blog at Psychology Today, most recently these four posts:

• Can the Serenity Prayer Help Us With Our Attention Problems?
• Is It Wrong to Ask for Fidelity from Our Partners?
• Finding Your Purpose in Life 'The Bear' Way
• Yes, Chef! How "The Bear" Can Make Your Workplace Better

As you can see from the last two, I am a huge fan of The Bear, and am currently engrossed in season 3. (The posts above went up before the new season began, so there are no spoilers for it; the post on finding purpose does vaguely recap the events of "Forks" from season 2.)

Other than that, work continues on several projects (including reading tons of Fantastic Four comics for some mysterious reason), while the day job continues to deteriorate. (1524 days to retirement as of June 30.) In the hope of finding alternative employment opportunities, I bit the bullet and joined LinkedIn although I have no idea what to do with it. (I almost made a joke based on an episode from season 3 of The Bear but I stopped myself before it was too late.)

On the brighter side, I have taken the plunge into vinyl collecting, amassing quite a collection over the past few months as my son and I make our Satuday rounds to the amazing record stores of north and central New Jersey. If you're curious, our main haunts are Scotti's, SOMA Sounds, Factory Records, Sound Exchange, and, as of yesterday, Vinyl Addiction. (There may have been a few ebay purchases too, but I prefer to shop firsthand.)

Also, we have been seeing a few hard rock and metal concerts, including Judas Priest; Saxon and Uriah Heep; Mr. Big; Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, and Frozen Soul (joined by my daughter, briefly home from college); Death to All and Cryptopsy; and most recently Overkill (at the same NJ venue where I saw them in 2010).

Coming up in the late summer and fall: Deep Purple (second time seeing them at PNC Bank Arts Center, third time overall) with Yes; Accept with K.K.'s Priest; Amorphis; Testament, Kreator, and Possessed; and Iron Maiden (second time seeing them at the Prudential Center in Newark, fourth time overall).

That's it for now... I hope to have more to report by summer's end, even if it is only promotion for Cap 2.0. Enjoy the rest of summer—or winter, if you tend toward the southern side of the planet!