Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers.

I'm hosting my first ever Burns Supper on Saturday, and plan to bully my friends into giving toasts, reading poems, and also making cock-a-leekie soup. It's just chicken and leek soup, so it's delicious and silly at the same time.

This week, rather than a somber reflection on tomorrow's ghastly inauguration, we're turning to the defiance of good words and good food, of celebrating things that are eternal even as an ugly shadow falls across our faces. Slàinte Mhath!

— Talia