Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days:

YouTube: Mark Carney’s Speech at World Economic Forum – On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Carney, an economist who previously led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, owes his election as Prime Minister to Donald Trump. For months preceding the April 2025 Canadian election, the country’s Conservative Party held large leads in most polls due mostly to “voter fatigue” with the Liberal Party that had long held power. However, Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st American state created a surge in nationalism among Canadians that blunted this desire for change, and Carney won an unexpected victory. US/Canadian relations have further deteriorated due to Trump’s erratic tariff policies. In last week’s speech, Carney forcefully identified a “rupture” in the world order that has prevailed since World War II that relied on US leadership for global stability. Carney called for the world’s “middle powers” to assert their collective power through an “alliance of the middle” saying, “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” He called for “variable coalitions” that exclude the US to protect these other countries from American coercion. I found Carney’s speech to be refreshing. Too many people in this country assume that the world should be ruled by a handful of “great powers” like the US, China, and Russia, with other nations just imperial possessions lacking in autonomy. Anyone who studies history knows that is not how the world works, certainly not in the long term. The video of Carney’s speech is available here. 

Podcast: “Impolitic with John Heilemann” – Heilemann, a political analyst for NBC news, chief political columnist for Puck, and the host of this podcast, interviewed author and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman about his new book, Football, which was published last week. I’ve been a fan of Klosterman since reading his 2023 book, The Nineties, which synthesized the importance of that seemingly forgettable decade to modern world events. My existing fandom plus hearing this interview make me anxious to read this new book. Unquestionably, football is a cultural juggernaut with 92 of the top 100 television broadcasts of 2024 featuring that game. (The other eight were Games 6 and 7 of the World Series, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, the Kentucky Derby, the Presidential Inauguration, the State of the Union speech, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, and the Academy Awards.) Despite its current dominance, Klosterman asserts that football will eventually go the way of boxing and horse racing. They still exist but are very much niche notwithstanding their former cultural dominance. Among the reasons he cites for football’s ultimate demise are the unwillingness of many parents to allow their children to play football in light of the long term health risks, especially from CTE. But Klosterman cited other things. He explained that football got its start in the 19th century because in the post Civil War era, “society” feared the men would become “less manly” without the opportunity to engage in mortal combat. Football served as a stand in for that and, in many ways, continues to do so. He also observed that society is likely to turn on today’s “toxic masculinity” that is often embodied in football. (Although Klosterman mentioned neither, the “performative toughness” embraced by the current regime in Washington and the erasure of mention of domestic violence allegations against two Patriots players made his observation resonate with me.) Finally, Klosterman cited advertising as a long term risk to the NFL. This seems counterintuitive given the stratospheric TV ratings, but his point is that the dominant force in one era often ignores challenges to its dominance due to current financial benefits. He illustrated that by recalling how dismissive newspaper editors were of the internet in its early days, proclaiming, “there will always be newspapers.” As much as I enjoy football, I suspect its dominance of the TV ratings has more to do with there being no competition of that scale. With so many attention-demanding options, people’s viewing choices are disbursed. Over time, those same forces will cause the erosion of football viewership which is an existential threat to the NFL. This new book is about much more than the demise of football. Klosterman almost sounded regretful when talking about that part since it will dominate the headlines and cause polarization among potential readers. The book seems much more a cultural history of football than anything else, which also makes it worth reading. 

Magazine article – “Won’t Back Down: The stubborn songs of Zach Bryan” by Kelefa Sanneh in the New Yorker – Although I enjoy country music when I hear it, I don’t hear it very often so Zach Bryan was not on my radar until he burst into Lowell history and culture by purchasing the former Saint Jean Baptiste Church on upper Merrimack Street to help create the long-planned Jack Kerouac Center. Bryan has frequently cited Kerouac as a primary literary influence on his song writing. One of his biggest hits, “Burn, Burn, Burn” channels a famous passage from On the Road in which Kerouac wrote, “The only people for me are the mad ones… the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles.” This New Yorker piece reviews Bryan’s newest album, “With Heaven on Top” which is described as “a shaggy record composed of twenty-four songs (and one poem” about chasing peace of mind around the world.” I haven’t listened to any of the songs yet, but I will. For now, it’s nice to see an artist who has invested in Lowell get the broader national exposure that comes with a review like this one. 

Movie: Sinners (2025) – One of the reasons I began this “Seen & Heard” column is to incentivize me to watch more movies and read more books. I’ve long been interested in both, but I’ve slid into our attention economy’s “doom scrolling” trap with more and more of my time. This focus shift paid off this weekend when I watched Sinners on Amazon Prime. Directed by Ryan Coogler, whose previous films include Creed and Black Panther, Sinners gained much attention last week when it set the record for the most Academy Award nominations ever with 16. Upon watching it, my reaction was, “Wow, what a great movie.” In its review last summer, the New York Times described it as “genre-defying, mind bending fantasia” set in the Jim Crow south. That’s particularly accurate since the movie includes vampires which is to me about as strong a put-off as you can have for a movie. But that’s where “genre-defying” comes in, because I saw it as a historical drama depicting the oppression of Black people in the American South – the movie is set in Mississippi in 1932 – and the way those people responded to that oppression. Music plays a huge role in the movie, mostly the Blues, but then the vampires emerge singing Irish folk songs which, as someone of Irish descent, was baffling to me. However, like a piece of Surrealist art, this had unexpected juxtapositions, suggesting (to me, at least) that stronger powers in society stay strong by pitting oppressed people against each other. Perhaps I’m just projecting my view of modern society onto this film.  

Book: Disney Adults: Exploring (And Falling in Love With) a Magical Subculture by A.J. Wolfe – This 2025 book by the founder of the popular The Disney Food Blog, looks at the growing cohort of adults whose children have grown or who are childless who repeatedly return to Disneyworld for vacations. Wolfe is among that group and the book offers an uncritical explanation in the face of what she rightly identifies as unfair and unjust societal criticism of so-called Disney Adults. Wolfe explains that affection for Disneyworld is a hobby but that plenty of other people have expensive hobbies and aren’t derided for it. She used the example of a guy who has season tickets to an NFL team. When you add all the costs and time, season NFL tickets would exceed that of twice-annual trips to Orlando. Why do Disney Adults get so much negative attention? The author suggests the perception at least is that women and LGPTQ people dominate Disney fans so there’s misogyny involved. She is also sympathetic to the challenges that corporate America faces in operating within a deeply divided country. She uses Disney’s uneven response to Florida’s 2022 “Don’t Say Gay” bill as an examplbe. Portrayed by proponents as empowering parents to control information about sexual orientation and gender identity received by their children in school, the LGBTQ community saw the law as a targeted attack on them rather than a measure for parental rights. Disney’s initial response was to say nothing about the bill which infuriated its LGBTQ employees and fans. In response to their protests, Corporate Disney spoke out against the bill which in turn incurred the wrath of the Florida political establishment and those Disney fans who supported the act. Wolfe also identifies another peril facing Disney leaders. Much of the affection people have for the place, she argues, is rooted in fun experiences in the past. People return to again experience the enjoyment they once felt. But when Disney changes something, as it inevitably must, people react negatively to change. She gives Disney high marks for listening to feedback and sometimes even responding to it. Overall, I’m pleased that I read this book. Many people I know are big fans of Disney and vacation there often. It’s not something I want to do, but as A.J. Wolfe wrote, it’s a hobby and, when it comes to hobbies, my attitude is “to each their own.”