Habermas

At the age of 96, Jürgen Habermas passed away today. His ideas of deliberative democracy and communicative rationality speak to our highest aspirations – what I jokingly referred to as inverted Trump-speak when trying to explain it to my students the other day.

Waking up to grey skies, I otherwise spent the morning running. To my great joy, I was joined by William for the first Parkrun of 2026, and hopefully we will be able to get back into our Parkrun routine later this spring when I return from the US.

With the real world hellbent on destruction, the kids and I watched The Martian from 2015, which, with its depiction of US–China cooperation, already feels like something from another world. Maybe I am biased here, but there is something about space that truly brings humanity together in our shared vulnerability, and like with For All Mankind, one can only wish that we would direct our energy outwards rather than focus on what divides us.