Essex Hemphill’s Poetry of Belonging Essex Hemphill’s Poetry of Belonging
He was an artist and activist who found in his verse a tool for both community and agitprop.
Jul 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Felsenthal
Who Does Nathan Fielder Think He Is? Who Does Nathan Fielder Think He Is?
The second season of his HBO series The Rehearsal—which tackles the crisis facing the aviation industry—is better understood as an extreme form of reality TV.
Jun 2, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Human Workforce Behind AI Wants a Union The Human Workforce Behind AI Wants a Union
Contractors who work on Google’s AI products are trying to organize, but new obstacles keep appearing in their path.
May 28, 2025 / Emmet Fraizer
The Life and Death of Conspiracy Cinema The Life and Death of Conspiracy Cinema
Why did Hollywood lose interest in making paranoid thrillers like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor? Was it a change in the culture? Or a change in the marketplace?
Mar 31, 2025 / Books & the Arts / T. M. Brown
What Will You Do? What Will You Do?
What’s your “I am Spartacus” move to protect the more vulnerable, the targeted, the invisibled, the next-on-the-list?
Mar 28, 2025 / Kaveh Akbar
Ronald Johnson’s American Romanticism Ronald Johnson’s American Romanticism
Even those of us who enjoy Ralph Waldo Emerson will apologize for his poetry. His essays—most of which began as lectures—are erudite but predominantly concerned with honesty and co…
Feb 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David B. Hobbs
The Dubious Return of the Brutalists The Dubious Return of the Brutalists
Why the stark 20th-century architectural style is back in vogue.
Feb 3, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Brook
The Right to Pee Is Everything The Right to Pee Is Everything
Trans peoples' basic right to exist in the world is under assault. Bathrooms are at the heart of that fight.
Feb 3, 2025 / Grace Byron
Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry? Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry?
From Elon Musk to Jordan Peterson, a certain strand of conservatism has recruited the poetry of Homer and Dante in their culture war.
Jan 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Orlando Reade
President Biden Should Pardon Ethel Rosenberg President Biden Should Pardon Ethel Rosenberg
A newly released classified document shows that the National Security Agency knew Ethel Rosenberg was not a spy—and that the government executed her anyway.
Jan 2, 2025 / Phillip Deery