Religion at the office?

Weekend Reads for August 2, 2025

Happy Saturday, Ink readers! As we do each weekend for our supporting subscribers, we’ve collected below some of the best writing we’ve come across as we’ve read and researched this week. Among the links you’ll find in today’s edition of Weekend Reads:

• What Zohran can learn from Upton Sinclair

• Making peace with Zen

• Paying attention to the real world

• Bringing prayer into the office

• Why The Scream matters

• And, as always, music to unwind with

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In The Ink this week

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And now, your Weekend Reads

The lessons of Upton Sinclair

It has happened before: an upset victory by a Democratic Socialist in an important primary election after an extraordinary grassroots campaign. In the summer of 1934, Upton Sinclair earned the kind of headlines that greeted Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory on June 24, 2025, in the New York City mayoral election…What happened next may concern Mamdani supporters. Business and media elites mounted a campaign of fear that put Sinclair on the defensive. [Talking Points Memo]

Zen and the art of understanding