What The Flux

This trip is a scouting mission. With growing instability in the U.S., we’re beginning what could be a short or long journey to figure out where in the world we might ride out the storm. Just before we left, our friend Matty handed us a hard copy of Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari’s latest book. It explores how information networks—from myth and print to AI—shape civilizations, and how authoritarian regimes centralize information while democracies remain more open and adaptive. Harari warns that AI may tip the balance further toward control and manipulation. This theme hits home. With moves in the U.S. to consolidate data systems and AI accelerating surveillance, our concerns about staying put grow stronger. In Ioannina, Greece, we wandered into a Municipal Art Museum and stumbled on an exhibit about newspapers as primary information sources before the digital age. It made me reflect: Americans have grown used to stability. We’ve never had to think about invasion. But Europe remembers war ...

The monasteries of Meteora, Greece, are considered among the most awe-inspiring and surreal religious sites in the world. On our way from Ioannina to Volos, we chose a 1.5-hour detour through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen, heading toward Kastraki—the closest village to the Meteora monasteries.  By this point in our trip, Rob’s driving skills had seriously leveled up. He handled the narrow, winding, two-lane mountain roads like a race car driver, often commenting how glad he was that we’d rented a five-speed. At times, massive tour buses and 18-wheel trucks came barreling around sharp hairpin turns, nudging oncoming cars toward cliff edges that dropped thousands of feet. There were moments when I honestly couldn’t bear to look. With help from ChatGPT—whose travel advice we’ve admittedly relied on quite a bit—we landed at Doupiani House, a boutique hotel uniquely positioned in front of Meteora’s stunning natural spectacle. It was the last stop on the winding r...