How Should We Remember the Art of Ben Shahn? How Should We Remember the Art of Ben Shahn?
Caught between his political and aesthetic commitments, the painter, photographer, and illustrator has suffered the fate of misapprehension.
Sep 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Pujan Karambeigi
The Shortest Presidential Campaign The Shortest Presidential Campaign
Kamala Harris’s 107 Days offers a devastating indictment of Joe Biden. It also documents the limits of her own politics.
Sep 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jeet Heer
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic
One Battle After Another, a sensational adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, captures the manic energies of a country on the brink.
Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / John Semley
On the Road With Joe Westmoreland On the Road With Joe Westmoreland
The writer’s only novel, Tramps Like Us, is a classic of queer literature—one that crystallizes the agony and the ecstasy of coming of age during the HIV era.
Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Geffen
How Capitalism Survives How Capitalism Survives
According to John Cassidy’s century-spanning history Capitalism and Its Critics, the system lives on because of its antagonists.
Sep 24, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erik Baker
The Problem of Green Capitalism The Problem of Green Capitalism
A conversation with Thea Riofrancos about her new book Extraction and the hidden cost and obscured history of the capitalist push to monetize the energy transition.
Sep 23, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
The Fight Over the Meaning of Fossils The Fight Over the Meaning of Fossils
When the remains of prehistoric creatures were discovered in Europe and the United States, it opened up a vociferous debate on the nature of time and the purpose of science.
Sep 22, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Katzenstein
The True Threat of OpenAI The True Threat of OpenAI
Karen Hao’s recent book on the company argues that its ambitions are not merely about scale or the market but the creation of a global force that rivals a colonial power of old.
Sep 17, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Deck
The Lost Souls of the Internet The Lost Souls of the Internet
In Searches, Vauhini Vara probes the ways that we rely on the Internet and how we periodically attempt to free ourselves from its grip.
Sep 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami
Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History
In Flashlight, Choi examines the tragedies—past and present—that haunt a family living in Japan.
Sep 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya