Ideas Big & Simple | Thom Scott-Phillips | Substack

Modernity In Rhythm

How migration and technology enabled a special form of togetherness: A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop.

Nov 7, 2025 • Thom Scott-Phillips

Happy In Theory

This is the short story of my long search for a stable academic home. There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending.

May 23, 2025 • Thom Scott-Phillips

Academics shouldn't use their titles

Putting Dr or Prof before a name betrays the very ideals that we scholars are supposed to advance.

Nov 20, 2024 • Thom Scott-Phillips

How jazz embodies the state

Drums, bass & piano as the tripartite division of power

Nov 13, 2024 • Thom Scott-Phillips

Who gets to make the rules?

Central European University is the first university to have been expelled from a European state since the 1930s. Its story reveals what the 'rule of…

Apr 9, 2024 • Thom Scott-Phillips

Ideas Big & Simple

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