I write about what we know but do not believe.
—David J. Frost
We know there’s a climate crisis, but we act as if we don’t believe there is. We know we will die, but we do not believe it when we make our summer plans. When we act against our better judgment, when we “know better” but do the wrong thing anyway—for example, in procrastination—then, too, we are acting like we do not really believe what we know, our “better judgment.” Some of us know we don’t have free will, but we have a hard time believing we don’t.
My 7,500-word essay on the psychological effects of denying free will appears in the Summer 2026 issue of The Missouri Review.
I’ve also published in The Smart Set, SLAB Literary Magazine, Philosophy Now, and elsewhere. I wrote the first chapter in Girls and Philosophy, which is about Lena Dunham’s HBO show, Girls, and is part of Open Court Publishing’s Philosophy and Pop Culture Series.
With an English B.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. in Philosophy from UC Irvine and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the UNC-Chapel Hill, I teach philosophy, exclusively online, for Alamance Community College in North Carolina.
I live on the Oregon coast with my dogs, Fritz and Lou Salomé, 3000 miles from Brooklyn.
I researched and wrote—under a pen name—a book that applies dual-process psychology to procrastination. As such, I have spoken at the Oregon Coast Learning Institute and am available for speaking engagements on the psychology of procrastination, the philosophy of productivity, and how to set up your writer’s nook for a sustainable writing practice.
I have nearly completed a book proposal about what philosophy can offer a grieving atheist. It is a philosophical, self-help memoir, sort of in the genre of auto-theory— critical theory applied to one’s own life—paying homage to one of my favorite writers, Maggie Nelson.
What is Armchair Vertigo?
I created this Substack not so much to share excerpts of my manuscripts as to explore some of the same topics and themes, and doing so in the vernacular of online culture instead of the literary register.
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. That way you won’t miss anything.
I’ll be posting brief items to the website every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday (but these will not go into your inbox, just the website) and the email newsletter will go out Mondays.
My current and former students get paid subscriptions for free by clicking here.
Still want more from me? Visit: linktr.ee/davidfrost.
