Culture

Saudi Arabia Is Using Games to Improve Its Image Saudi Arabia Is Using Games to Improve Its Image

Podcast / Tech Won’t Save Us / Nov 13, 2025 Saudi Arabia Is Using Games to Improve Its Image On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us: Nathan Grayson discusses Saudi…

Tech Won’t Save Us / Podcast / Tech Won’t Save Us

Franz Kafka’s Best Friend Franz Kafka’s Best Friend

Kafka’s late story about a philosopher dog, like most of his stories about animals, is really about our lost humanity.

Books & the Arts / Jonathan Lethem

How Can We Fix American Democracy? How Can We Fix American Democracy?

Preserving our democracy is as urgent a task as ever, but the question is how.

Books & the Arts / Nicholas Lemann

Books

How Can We Fix American Democracy?

How Can We Fix American Democracy? How Can We Fix American Democracy?

Preserving our democracy is as urgent a task as ever, but the question is how.

Books & the Arts / Nicholas Lemann

An engraving depicting a sansculottes offering a Phrygian cap to King Louis XVI.

The Invention of the Modern Self The Invention of the Modern Self

How did the idea of the individual come into being?

Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs

Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs

Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.

Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour

Film

Rethinking Nuremberg for the 21st Century Rethinking Nuremberg for the 21st Century

The new film Nuremberg may tell us as much about the present as about the past.

Elizabeth Borgwardt

Joachim Trier’s Nostalgic Lens Joachim Trier’s Nostalgic Lens

In Sentimental Value, the Norwegian filmmaker’s most ambitious work yet, he examines the porous boundary between art and life.

Books & the Arts / Alana Pockros

The Pending Disaster of a Skydance-Warners Merger The Pending Disaster of a Skydance-Warners Merger

The Ellison family’s aggressive pursuit of the WBD empire would shred news values and further pillage movie and TV production.

Ben Schwartz

Who’s the Boss? Who’s the Boss?

A bowdlerized biopic of Bruce Springsteen, starring Jeremy Allen White, flattens a musician whose politics and identity are much more complicated.

Books & the Arts / Naomi Gordon-Loebl

Television

A still from “After the Hunt.”

The Messy Campus Thriller of “After the Hunt” The Messy Campus Thriller of “After the Hunt”

Luca Guadagnino’s films have always asked viewers to turn off their brains when it comes to love and sex. In his new film, he asks the opposite.

Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

WBD CEO David Zaslav at this year's Vanity Fair Oscars Party

The Pending Disaster of a Skydance-Warners Merger The Pending Disaster of a Skydance-Warners Merger

The Ellison family’s aggressive pursuit of the WBD empire would shred news values and further pillage movie and TV production.

Ben Schwartz

Left: Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) consults his adviser, Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) in The Sopranos. Right: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance attend the presidential Inauguration.

Trump’s Tony Soprano Presidency Is Bleeding the Country Dry Trump’s Tony Soprano Presidency Is Bleeding the Country Dry

The thrill many felt of having a made-for-TV-mobster president is gone.

Dave Zirin

Architecture

A still from “After the Hunt.”

The Messy Campus Thriller of “After the Hunt” The Messy Campus Thriller of “After the Hunt”

Luca Guadagnino’s films have always asked viewers to turn off their brains when it comes to love and sex. In his new film, he asks the opposite.

Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

Your Dream House Might Be a Fantasy

Your Dream House Might Be a Fantasy Your Dream House Might Be a Fantasy

AI has has invaded the real estate industry, dissolving the boundaries between image enhancement and false advertising.

Kate Wagner

In UChicago’s Mansueto Library, the bookstacks are all underground and unbrowsable.

Why Did UChicago Destroy the Humanities? Why Did UChicago Destroy the Humanities?

The answer is simple: to spend untold sums on useless buildings by starchitects.

Column / Kate Wagner

Music

The Sonic Risks of PUP and Rico Nasty The Sonic Risks of PUP and Rico Nasty

On their new albums, the punk rockers and rapper break all the rules.

Books & the Arts / Bijan Stephen

“It’s a Warning, Set to a Dance Beat”: Jon Batiste on His New Song 20 Years After Katrina “It’s a Warning, Set to a Dance Beat”: Jon Batiste on His New Song 20 Years After Katrina

The New Orleans jazz great tells Covering Climate Now, “When you make a song, you want to inspire people, but you also want to let them know what they can do.”

Mark Hertsgaard

Ozzy Osbourne, Rock God Despite Himself (1948–2025) Ozzy Osbourne, Rock God Despite Himself (1948–2025)

The Prince of Darkness, who gave us heavy metal as we know it, has been laid to rest.

Obituary / Kim Kelly

The Life and Times of Talking Heads The Life and Times of Talking Heads

How influential was the New Wave band?

Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

Publishing

Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs

Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs

Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.

Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love

While Baldwin was persecuted in part because of whom he loved, it was love that impelled him to bring about a more utopian future in which such persecution was not possible.

Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques

Commentary editor John Podhoretz sits in front of a microphone with “Book Expo” written on it.

Militarism Has Long Worked to Shield Antisemitism Militarism Has Long Worked to Shield Antisemitism

From the Cold War till Donald Trump, there’s always been a special dispensation for hawkish bigots.

Jeet Heer

Latest in Culture

Dem Voters Triumph— Plus, That Springsteen Movie

Dem Voters Triumph— Plus, That Springsteen Movie Dem Voters Triumph— Plus, That Springsteen Movie

On this episode of Start Making Sense, John Nichols analyzes Tuesday’s elections, and Greil Marcus explains what’s missing in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.

Nov 5, 2025 / Jon Wiener

Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani (C) with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), left, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), right, during an election rally on October 26, 2025, in New York City.

Voters, Democrats, and Redistricting—Plus, Confederate Monuments in LA Voters, Democrats, and Redistricting—Plus, Confederate Monuments in LA

On this episode of Start Making Sense, Harold Meyerson previews the elections next Tuesday, and Christopher Knight comments on the new art exhibit at MOCA.

Oct 29, 2025 / Jon Wiener

A Downbeat Take on the Heist Movie

A Downbeat Take on the Heist Movie A Downbeat Take on the Heist Movie

Kelly Reichardt’s latest, a sly 1970s drama involving a museum theft, probes the broken politics of the decade.

Oct 23, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi

Nicolas Poussin’s “Landscape with a Calm,” 1650–51.

What T.J. Clark Sees  What T.J. Clark Sees 

His art criticism reaches rarified heights—combining style, rigor, and politics like almost no one else.

Oct 22, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

History’s Lessons for the Second Committee for the First Amendment

History’s Lessons for the Second Committee for the First Amendment History’s Lessons for the Second Committee for the First Amendment

Jane Fonda is reviving the Hollywood advocacy group to meet the high-stakes challenges to free expression in the Trump era.

Oct 20, 2025 / Ben Schwartz

Walter Lippmann on the ocean liner Conte di Savoia.

Walter Lippmann’s Phantom Publics Walter Lippmann’s Phantom Publics

Arguably no American journalist wielded as much influence as Walter Lippmann did in the 20th century. But what did he do with that power?

Oct 15, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gerald Howard

x