Books and Ideas

Olaf Stapledon, 1946.

Olaf Stapledon’s Cosmology of Peace Olaf Stapledon’s Cosmology of Peace

In his science fiction classic Star Maker, he imagines a way to overcome fascism on a galactic scale.

Jun 7, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jaime Green

Nikki Giovanni standing by the lectern and woman singing during a performance at The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival., 1973.

How Black Women Writers Got It Done How Black Women Writers Got It Done

Claudia Tate’s 1983 collection of interviews is an important look into the trials writers like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou faced on their way to mainstream acceptance.

Jun 6, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire

Someone on the Internet using a binary code.

Why the Internet Hates Gay People Why the Internet Hates Gay People

A conversation with Alexander Monea about his recent book on the history of search engines, content moderation, AI, and the ways they form biases against queerness.

Jun 5, 2023 / Jacob Bruggeman

Chris Licht, Chairman and CEO, CNN Worldwide, speaks onstage

How CNN Went From Bad to Worse How CNN Went From Bad to Worse

Chris Licht’s disastrous reign is governed by reactionary centrism.

Jun 5, 2023 / Jeet Heer

A village in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey after an earthquake in 1983.

Ferit Edgü’s Prescient Fiction of a Turkey in Crisis Ferit Edgü’s Prescient Fiction of a Turkey in Crisis

His books, which examined the plight of eastern Turkey and the vanity of the Istanbul bourgeoise, take on new meaning after the February 6 earthquakes.

Jun 5, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Kaya Genç

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 07: United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court has begun a new term after Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially added to the bench in September.

Don’t Reform the Courts. Disempower Them. Don’t Reform the Courts. Disempower Them.

The Supreme Court’s extreme anti-worker decision calls for a radical response.

Jun 2, 2023 / Jeet Heer

A visitor takes a picture with his mobile phone of an image designed with artificial intelligence inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s painting “Girl With a Pearl Earring.”

Truth in the Age of the Deepfake Truth in the Age of the Deepfake

Could our interest in true-crime podcasts and celebrity biopics be telling us something about our collective discomfort with faking it?

Jun 2, 2023 / Marianela D’Aprile

Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables

Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables

Dunn’s books are often described as cult classics, which fits not only in the sense that they inspire devotion but also in the sense that cults of personality always appear in them...

Jun 1, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nora Caplan-Bricker

The front page of The Black Dispatch, a weekly newspaper published in Oklahoma City, on June 10, 1931.

The Trauma and Resilience of Tulsa’s Greenwood District The Trauma and Resilience of Tulsa’s Greenwood District

Karlos K. Hill, a historian of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, speaks with Victor Luckerson, author of an “epic” new book on Greenwood.

May 31, 2023 / Q&A / Karlos K. Hill

The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s  “Arabesques”

The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s “Arabesques” The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s “Arabesques”

A new translation of the 1988 novel documents not only the loss and exile created by the Nakba but also the loss and exile created by occupation.

May 30, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Raja Shehadeh

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