Dad, husband, promiscuous reader, music geek, movie nerd, Montanan, NE DC Canine Knucklehead Ward co-founder, @cspan director of editorial operations
Washington, DC
Joined July 2008
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Ben O'Connell retweeted
Professional news!
SO excited to announce that I will be manning @cspan’s first-ever election night big board, the DEMOCRACY DASHBOARD, next month along with the great Jon McArdle.
E-Day lineup is stacked too, with @kirk_bado, @ercovey, @JessicaTaylor, @abbyyturner_ and more>>
Last night, @mulaney gave a shout out to my colleague @HowardMortman on Colbert—specifically, Howard's seating the chart for the Supreme Court oral argument in the tariff's case. youtube.com/watch?app=deskto…
Ben O'Connell retweeted
To celebrate C-SPAN's Founders Day, we taped a conversation on the beginnings of "cable's gift to America."
Founder Brian Lamb and former co-CEO Susan Swain joined CEO Sam Feist to talk about the quest to bring LIVE, gavel-to-gavel coverage of Congress to every American home.
“May I read to you the wisdom of a Nobel laureate?”—Me before I read Beckett aloud to my family
ALT So that I would have hesitated to exclaim, with my finger up my arsehole for example, Jesus-Christ, it's much worse than yesterday, I can hardly believe it is the same hole. I apologize for having to revert to this lewd orifice, 'tis my muse will have it so.
Most impressively, Weinman chronicles the path of destruction Edgar Smith left in his wake. His wives and girlfriends, his victims and their families, his own family, his friends—few who Smith knew entirely escaped.
Glad to have finally read Sarah Weinman’s terrific SCOUNDREL, which tells the story of Edgar Smith, a murderer and abuser who conned William F. Buckley, Jr. into leading an effort to spring him from death row, only to wind up back in prison after nearly killing another woman.
I’m (finally) reading Sarah Weinman’s SCOUNDREL, her account of William F. Buckley’s crusade to free convicted murderer Edgar Smith, and ran across a fascinating tangent: WFB helped launch the career of science writer and Bozeman resident David Quammen.
Ben O'Connell retweeted
Watch complete conversation with former President Obama tonight at 8pm ET on C-SPAN2. c-span.org/event/public-affa…
Former President @BarackObama: "We are certainly at an inflection point not just around political violence but there are hosts of larger trends that we have to be concerned about...Political violence is not new...What happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy."
Ben O'Connell retweeted
From 2016, Robert Redford receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"His art and activism continue to shape our Nation's cultural heritage, inspiring millions to laugh, cry, think, and change."
Find more of his C-SPAN appearances here: c-span.org/search/?searchtyp…
RIP.
Ben O'Connell retweeted
#BREAKING: C-SPAN is coming to @YouTube and @Hulu this fall!
Press Release: C-SPAN.org/YouTubeTV
Press Release: C-SPAN.org/Hulu
Finally, You Dreamed of Empires (2024) by Álvaro Enrigue (trans. Natasha Wimmer) is as grimy, funny, and fascinating a book as I’ve read in a long time. It deserves all the accolades.
Oakley Hall’s Ambrose Bierce & the Queen of Spades (1998) Is highly recommended if you’re into historical mysteries in which the setting is the star, such as Caleb Carr’s The Alienist or Joe Gores’s Hammett.
Two childhood friends—now a writer and a gangster—reunite at a bar frequented by miners, intellectuals, thugs, and prostitutes in an unnamed African city. Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s prose in Tram 83 (2014) echoes the jazz reverberating through the club.
In Ghosts of Iron Mountain (2025), Phil Tinline finds the roots of some modern right-wing conspiracies in a ‘60s lefty satire. It’s a fascinating exploration of how ideas disseminate among fringe ideologies.
Earl Lovelace’s long, energetic sentences bring Port of Spain’s Calvary Hill neighborhood to life in The Dragon Can’t Dance (1979).
I resisted picking up James (2024) by Percival Everett. While I’d loved most his earlier work I’d read, everyone’s raves for The Trees, which left me cold, had me skeptical. Glad I relented—only God’s Country eclipses James for me.
Ficciones (1944) by Jorge Luis Borges turned my brain inside out. Stories like “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” “The Garden of Forking Paths,” and “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” delighted, astonished and, occasionally, perplexed me in wonderful ways.
