How Did We End Up With Our Current Public Defender System? How Did We End Up With Our Current Public Defender System?
Sara Mayeux’s new history highlights how without a more fundamental transformation of criminal law, public defenders often provide only a limited form of equality and fairness befo...
Dec 14, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Matthew Clair
The Vanishing Queer Underground of Los Angeles The Vanishing Queer Underground of Los Angeles
Reynaldo Rivera’s photos of the city's nightlife document a time of cheap rent and possibility.
Dec 10, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wolf
How Rural China Became an Engine for Global Consumer Capitalism How Rural China Became an Engine for Global Consumer Capitalism
Xiaowei Wang’s Blockchain Chicken Farm surveys the tech industry in the Chinese countryside to upend the way we talk about the Internet in the West.
Dec 9, 2020 / Books & the Arts / A.Y. Li
A Salacious Press, an Unchecked Government: Heinrich Böll’s Prescient Fiction A Salacious Press, an Unchecked Government: Heinrich Böll’s Prescient Fiction
A 1975 film adaptation of his novel The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum looks how fragile freedom is under democracy.
Dec 8, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Phoebe Chen
Roberto Lovato’s Journalism of the Soul Roberto Lovato’s Journalism of the Soul
In his memoir Unforgetting, he shows how reportage that is rooted in personal biography and inner turmoil can unveil a more powerful kind of truth.
Dec 7, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Kyle Paoletta
Olivia Laing’s Banal Avant-Garde Olivia Laing’s Banal Avant-Garde
In a recent essay collection, Funny Weather, the British writer reveals the limits of her critical method.
Dec 3, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Dilara O’Neil
Susan Taubes’s ‘Divorcing’ Asks: How Far Can the Novel Take You? Susan Taubes’s ‘Divorcing’ Asks: How Far Can the Novel Take You?
The sole book she released during her life was a work of ahead of its time in terms of style, irreverence, and experimentation.
Dec 2, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Schaffer-Goddard
John Wilson’s Magically Poignant Urban Histories John Wilson’s Magically Poignant Urban Histories
His documentary series for HBO is a head-spinning interrogation of the chaos of New York City life.
Dec 1, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi
Pronoun Study Pronoun Study
They paid them to cut their olive trees down. You paid them to cut their olive trees down. We paid them to cut their olive trees down. They paid you to cut your olive trees down. W…
Dec 1, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Ari Banias
Rhyme Rhyme
Body, teach my mind to age. Rage has taught me nothing. Pain has taught me only to rage at pain. Blame has taught me nothing. But I still blame. Here lies one taken in their prime.
Dec 1, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Mario Chard