Post Archive

Here you can find every post from Jack's Journal, even the ones I've hidden!

Crowded bullring with audience in white and red clothing, waving banners. Two horses on the sandy arena under a cloudy sky. Energetic atmosphere.

Where Were the Presidents? Ears and Puertas Grandes in Pamplona

Pamplona’s 2025 Feria del Toro drew crowds and controversy, as aficionados questioned trophy standards and the presidents’ handling of Spain’s famed bullring.

Dispatches - 6 July 2025 - Return to Spain

It has been quite the week with a lot of moving pieces.

ADVANCE CHAPTER: Pamplona and La Fiesta de San Fermín

An advance chapter from Jack's next book, "Aficionado: Discovering Spain Through the Art of Bullfighting." He discusses Pamplona's history, traditions, and the San Fermin Festival

A matador dressed in a traditional silver and white traje de luces in front of a charging bull in a sandy bullring. The matador is backing away from the bull as it charges towards him, his red cape (muleta) in his left hand and his espada in his right. The bull's darkened back is stained with blood from the picador's lance and the banderillas.

Death in the Ring: A Moral Reckoning with the Spanish Bullfight

Watching the spectacle before me, I realised it was the first time I had seen something die before me in person. This wasn't a movie, video game, or a thought experiment. Death was real in the ring.

Jack Rogers runs in front of 12 bulls and steers along Pamplona's Calle de Santo Domingo waring white pants, red scarf around his neck, and a blue shirt. The cobblestone street is full of runners in white and red clothing trapped between walls and buildings as the bulls run by.

Corredor: Why I'll Run the Encierro Until I Can't

In running, I lived life not just to the fullest but to its potential end, less than a macabre call for help than living life all out, or at least as much as I could without staring a bull down in the bullring later that evening.