Culture

Culture Therapy Culture Therapy

Films to remember for pre-Trumpian times and inspiration.

Michele Willens and Lily Corvo

Pope Francis Upheld the Spirit of Liberation Theology Pope Francis Upheld the Spirit of Liberation Theology

In his criticisms of the church and defiance of traditionalists, Pope Francis continued the legacy of a movement the Vatican itself tried to silence.

Greg Grandin

This President Has Many Puppet Masters This President Has Many Puppet Masters

Trump’s Weekend at Bernie’s White House is inherently chaotic.

Jeet Heer

Books

Sigrid Nunez On and Off the Big Screen

Sigrid Nunez On and Off the Big Screen Sigrid Nunez On and Off the Big Screen

Two new films—Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door and Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s The Friend—attempt to adapt her work. Do they succeed?

Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya

A depiction of Herod the Great.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Lost Roman Epic Zora Neale Hurston’s Lost Roman Epic

In The Life of Herod the Great, we get a novel full of intrigue, betrayal, and revolution.

Books & the Arts / Edna Bonhomme

Old Chapel Lane, Skibbereen, County Cork in 1846.

What Caused the Irish Famine? What Caused the Irish Famine?

A new book offers a comprehensive and heartbreaking account of the most terrible catastrophe to befall Ireland in the modern era.

Books & the Arts / John Banville

Film

This President Has Many Puppet Masters This President Has Many Puppet Masters

Trump’s Weekend at Bernie’s White House is inherently chaotic.

Jeet Heer

David Cronenberg, Transformed David Cronenberg, Transformed

Two works—a new film, The Shrouds, and a career-spanning monograph by the film critic Violet Lucca—present a more sanguine image of the master of body horror.

Books & the Arts / John Semley

9 Ways You Can Save the Internet Right Now 9 Ways You Can Save the Internet Right Now

Because the danger to cultural preservation has never been greater.

Maria Bustillos

Sigrid Nunez On and Off the Big Screen Sigrid Nunez On and Off the Big Screen

Two new films—Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door and Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s The Friend—attempt to adapt her work. Do they succeed?

Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya

Television

Bradley Whittford joins the cast of “The West Wing” in Burbank, California, on March 8, 2016.

Culture Therapy Culture Therapy

Films to remember for pre-Trumpian times and inspiration.

Michele Willens and Lily Corvo

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer holds a roundtable meeting on adolescent safety with creators of the television show Adolescence, and Sarah Simpkin from the Children's Society on March 31, 2025, in London, United Kingdom.

The Creator of “Adolescence” Backs a Social Media Ban for Kids—but It’s the Wrong Move The Creator of “Adolescence” Backs a Social Media Ban for Kids—but It’s the Wrong Move

Although the dangers young people face online are all too clear, the solution is pragmatism, not prohibition.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

We Must Save Public Media to Change It

We Must Save Public Media to Change It We Must Save Public Media to Change It

We need public media more than ever—it’s too precious to let Trump defund it. But to live up to its democratic promise, we must support public media to serve our needs.

Victor Pickard

Architecture

A restaurant on Atlanta’s BeltLine trail.

How Atlanta Became a Walkable City How Atlanta Became a Walkable City

The Beltline and Georgia’s experiment in pedestrian spaces.

Books & the Arts / Karrie Jacobs

Parts of LA  Are Not Going to Be Habitable

Parts of LA Are Not Going to Be Habitable Parts of LA Are Not Going to Be Habitable

Insurers have figured out that risk is too high in parts of California. We need to re-conceive how people are housed, and fast.

Column / Kate Wagner

Yto Barrada’s Rules of the Game

Yto Barrada’s Rules of the Game Yto Barrada’s Rules of the Game

The artist’s installation at MOMA PS1 is not just a public work of art in the form of a playground but also a comment on postcolonial architecture and experimental pedagogy.

Books & the Arts / Will Fenstermaker

Music

Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy

Our last best hope for sharing, shaping, and wrangling over independent ideas may turn out to be America’s scrappy and disparate arts spaces—if they can hang on financially.

Alisa Solomon

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Voice From the Past Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Voice From the Past

The Pakistani qawwali icon sang words written centuries ago and died decades ago. He’s got a new album out.

Feature / Hasan Ali

How the “Subversive Genius” of Kendrick Lamar Sent Trump Home a Loser How the “Subversive Genius” of Kendrick Lamar Sent Trump Home a Loser

The Philadelphia Eagles and Kendrick Lamar’s collective of geniuses made this the Super Bowl we needed.

Dave Zirin

How Spotify Remade the Music Industry How Spotify Remade the Music Industry

On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, Liz Pelly on the music streaming service.

Tech Won’t Save Us / Paris Marx

Publishing

Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy

Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy

Our last best hope for sharing, shaping, and wrangling over independent ideas may turn out to be America’s scrappy and disparate arts spaces—if they can hang on financially.

Alisa Solomon

Barry Malzberg at ReaderCon in 2010.

Novelist on a Deadline: Barry Malzberg, 1939–2024 Novelist on a Deadline: Barry Malzberg, 1939–2024

A speed demon at the typewriter, Malzberg wrote quickly and brilliantly in a variety of genres including mystery, thrillers, and erotica, but his core work was in science fiction….

Obituary / Jeet Heer

Storming the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917.

The Impossible Story of Communism The Impossible Story of Communism

How do you tell the history of a global movement in all its hope and contradiction?

Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

Latest in Culture

A film still of Mahmoud Khalil from the documentary “The Encampments,” directed by Michael T. Workman and Key Pritsker.

Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy

Kei Pritsker, a codirector of “The Encampments,” a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.

Apr 8, 2025 / Q&A / Alyssa Oursler

“Snow White” costars Gal Gadot (L) and Rachel Zegler flank DIsney studio head Marc E. Platt at the film’s global premier.

How “Snow White” Got Caught Up in Hollywood’s Culture Wars How “Snow White” Got Caught Up in Hollywood’s Culture Wars

Disney’s box-office bomb has spawned a series of Gaza-and-Trump-themed recriminations.

Apr 8, 2025 / Ben Schwartz

Larissa FastHorse’s Comedy “Fake It Until You Make It” Highlights the Absurdities of Ambition and Authenticity

Larissa FastHorse’s Comedy “Fake It Until You Make It” Highlights the Absurdities of Ambition and Authenticity Larissa FastHorse’s Comedy “Fake It Until You Make It” Highlights the Absurdities of Ambition and Authenticity

It’s a whirlwind of competition, chaos, and comedic discovery.

Apr 4, 2025 / Michele Willens

The Excesses of “Mickey 17”

The Excesses of “Mickey 17” The Excesses of “Mickey 17”

Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi blockbuster is both the director’s simplest and most unwieldy feature yet.

Apr 3, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Phoebe Chen

The Life and Death of Conspiracy Cinema

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

Palestinian filmmaker and Oscar winner for the documentary “No Other Land” Hamdan Ballal poses for a picture with his Oscar, as he recovers after Israeli settlers attacked him at home, in his village of Susya in the south of the occupied West Bank on March 26, 2025.

Must a Palestinian Win an Oscar for the World to Care When He’s Attacked? Must a Palestinian Win an Oscar for the World to Care When He’s Attacked?

The assault and arrest of Ballal Hamdan is horrendous, but the framing of the incident reproduces the idea that some lives are more worthy of defense than others.

Mar 27, 2025 / Sleman Altehe

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