David Roberts || Sparks From Culture | Substack

Welcome to Sparks From Culture

Personal essays on life, literature, and privilege from the POV of generational wealth and living within the Manhattan bubble.

Aug 11, 2023 • David Roberts

Belle Burden's memoir Strangers and the torture of hindsight

Belle Burden’s memoir Strangers is a post-mortem on the sudden rupture of her seemingly idyllic twenty-year marriage.

Jan 31 • David Roberts

DEFCON 2 for risk of nuclear war

This week, in between watching Oppenheimer, I also watched Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minster, give an important speech at the Davos conference.

Jan 24 • David Roberts

When the rich bring the ick: Ozymandias in Manhattan

when an extremely wealthy hedge fund executive and his wife choose to splash their extravagance in our faces.

Jan 17

Revisiting Willy Loman in the age of Trump

I wrote the post below in the summer of 2023, trying to understand the continued appeal of Trump through the lens of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s…

Jan 10 • David Roberts

Recent posts

My two cents about my inheritance

My wife Debbie and I needed to decide how or whether we might share our wealth with our adult children. To guide us, we had the good and the bad of my…

Jan 3 • David Roberts

Binge-gifts for you from Debbie and me

Life’s better when you have books and TV shows you like. For my wife Debbie and me, 2025 was a “productive” year for reading fiction and watching TV…

Dec 27, 2025 • David Roberts

I spend $28,000 on Substack subscriptions

An interview about my Substack extravagance by the excellent Anne Kadet of the terrific CAFÉ ANNE.

Dec 20, 2025 • David Roberts

Imagine There's No Scarcity

I am an example of a wealthy person for whom the “economic problem” of want has been solved...

Dec 13, 2025 • David Roberts

Recommendations

APT&AWRY

Dominic AA Randolph

BordoLines

Susan Bordo

Maiden Mother Matriarch

Maiden Mother Matriarch

Louise Perry

The Ivy Exile

The Ivy Exile

the Human Carbohydrate

the Human Carbohydrate

Stella Tsantekidou

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