Culture
How the Skydance Merger Will Remake Hollywood and the News Business How the Skydance Merger Will Remake Hollywood and the News Business
The Ellison family’s $110 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery means more top-down control, and less room for dissent.
Red Vienna Is Still Alive Red Vienna Is Still Alive
The Austrian capital chose not to privatize the commons, and it shows.
Yale’s Protest Tradition Is Back Yale’s Protest Tradition Is Back
For the first time in more than 50 years, Yale students gathered around an iconic sculpture to protest their university and their government.
Black Freedom in an Age of White Oligarchy Black Freedom in an Age of White Oligarchy
Justin Leroy’s The Lowest Freedom points toward the limits of liberty under racial capitalism.
Books
The Palestine of Soraya Antonius and Annemarie Jacir The Palestine of Soraya Antonius and Annemarie Jacir
In The Lord and in Palestine ’36, the story of Mandatory Palestine comes into focus.
The Bund and the Radical History of Jewish Anti-Zionism The Bund and the Radical History of Jewish Anti-Zionism
Molly Crabapple’s Here Where We Live Is Our Country revisits the past of the Jewish Labor Bund and considers what it might mean for our future.
Love and Literature in Leslie Fiedler’s America Love and Literature in Leslie Fiedler’s America
When will the American novel grow up?
Film
How the Skydance Merger Will Remake Hollywood and the News Business How the Skydance Merger Will Remake Hollywood and the News Business
The Ellison family’s $110 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery means more top-down control, and less room for dissent.
The Misremembered ’90s of “The Backrooms” The Misremembered ’90s of “The Backrooms”
The Gen Z filmmaker presents the decade not as it was but as reproduced via nostalgic threads on Internet forums.
Boots Riley’s Communist Heist Film Boots Riley’s Communist Heist Film
Yes, it even has Marxist teleporters.
David Ellison’s Delusional Stab at Self-Justification David Ellison’s Delusional Stab at Self-Justification
While the Skydance–Warner Bros. merger is in legal limbo, the CEO seeking to pull it off makes a disingenuous case for it in the court of public opinion.
Do Epics Need Heroes? Do Epics Need Heroes?
In recent years, the online right has contested adaptations of epic in order to make an argument about masculinity. The Odyssey is their latest target.
Television
How the Skydance Merger Will Remake Hollywood and the News Business How the Skydance Merger Will Remake Hollywood and the News Business
The Ellison family’s $110 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery means more top-down control, and less room for dissent.
Road Trip to Nowhere Road Trip to Nowhere
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s reality show is an ungainly mix of corporate corruption and MAGA agitprop.
Architecture
Red Vienna Is Still Alive Red Vienna Is Still Alive
The Austrian capital chose not to privatize the commons, and it shows.
The Obama Center as a Tomb of Neoliberalism The Obama Center as a Tomb of Neoliberalism
Kate Wagner on architecture and public memory.
What’s Behind the Dubai-ification of America’s Yemeni Cafés? What’s Behind the Dubai-ification of America’s Yemeni Cafés?
Over the years, Yemeni cafés have become beloved establishments for students and coffee lovers alike. But recently they have undergone a conspicuous aesthetic makeover.
Music
Treat Spotify Like a Public Utility Treat Spotify Like a Public Utility
Music streaming platforms have way too much control over musicians and music lovers. It’s time to rein them in.
Justice for Macklemore Justice for Macklemore
The rapper has been dumped from Ed Sheeran’s tour for saying “free Palestine.” That’s a disgrace.
Dolly Parton Understood That Working 9 to 5 Doesn’t Really Pay the Bills in Today’s America Dolly Parton Understood That Working 9 to 5 Doesn’t Really Pay the Bills in Today’s America
Social mobility has ground to a halt. Why that’s lousy for American music.
Dolly Parton Was More Than an Icon Dolly Parton Was More Than an Icon
Later in life, she was heralded as a symbol of Americana—complete with her own amusement park. But what will last of her is her body of work.
A Rave Novel Rediscovered A Rave Novel Rediscovered
Ann Scott’s “Superstars” captures the last gasp of pre-Internet counterculture.
Publishing
John Edgar Wideman’s American Vernacular John Edgar Wideman’s American Vernacular
The master novelist offers a view of a United States defined by its cultures of improvisation.
Daniel Poppick’s Novel of White-Collar Work Daniel Poppick’s Novel of White-Collar Work
The first novel by the poet asks us what fantasies get us through the day.
Paying Tribute to Richard Lingeman—Longtime Executive Editor and a Quiet Force at “The Nation” for More Than Three Decades Paying Tribute to Richard Lingeman—Longtime Executive Editor and a Quiet Force at “The Nation” for More Than Three Decades
A man of few spoken words, on the page he was a marvel.
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