Archive - The Midwesternist

The Power of Willin’

What Little Feat and TV soundtracks can teach us about this moment

Feb 2 • Dan Canon

May 2025

What’s the Point?

A hopeful message for soon-to-be lawyers (and everyone else, I guess)

May 27, 2025 • Dan Canon

July 2024

It Doesn’t Matter If It Was Staged

Facts, Futility, and the Storytelling Brain

Jul 16, 2024 • Dan Canon

I Know What’s Wrong with America

It's probably not what you think.

Jul 10, 2024 • Dan Canon

With fear for our democracy

Before examining the specifics of her blistering dissent in Trump v.

Jul 2, 2024 • Dan Canon

June 2024

Why would a lawyer choose to give bad advice?

I give advice for a living.

Jun 30, 2024 • Dan Canon

A Sinner Prays for Forgiveness on the Road to the Magic Kingdom

Lost to the ages but clear in my memory is a news story about a Midwestern family with a broken refrigerator.

Jun 15, 2024 • Dan Canon

The Story of the Robin

Impossibility, archetype, and turdus migratorius

Jun 8, 2024 • Dan Canon

May 2024

I Am Pleased to Announce My New Role as Chief Puppy Masher

You can't spell "allegory" without "gory"

May 28, 2024 • Dan Canon

How to Defend a Dead Pope

In 897, Pope Formosus was put on trial for violation of canon law and perjury.

May 15, 2024 • Dan Canon

The Cauldron and the Courthouse

On ancient ordeals, modern trials, and imagining a world without courts.

May 4, 2024 • Dan Canon

April 2024

Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming

It is rarely a good idea to deploy soldiers to college campuses.

Apr 27, 2024 • Dan Canon