Culture

Ben Shahn, 1965.

How Should We Remember the Art of Ben Shahn? How Should We Remember the Art of Ben Shahn?

Caught between his political and aesthetic commitments, the painter, photographer, and illustrator has suffered the fate of misapprehension.

Sep 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Pujan Karambeigi

Kamala Harris at a campaign rally, 2024.

The Shortest Presidential Campaign The Shortest Presidential Campaign

Kamala Harris’s 107 Days offers a devastating indictment of Joe Biden. It also documents the limits of her own politics.

Sep 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jeet Heer

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic

One Battle After Another, a sensational adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, captures the manic energies of a country on the brink.

Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / John Semley

A 35mm film photo shows an automobile making its way down an empty dirt road in Badlands National Park, 1940.

On the Road With Joe Westmoreland On the Road With Joe Westmoreland

The writer’s only novel, Tramps Like Us, is a classic of queer literature—one that crystallizes the agony and the ecstasy of coming of age during the HIV era.

Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Geffen

Disney CEO Bob Iger holds a 2016 press conference at Disney’s Shanghai resort.

How the Kimmel Controversy Echoes Disney’s Dirty China Deal How the Kimmel Controversy Echoes Disney’s Dirty China Deal

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner berated the company’s capitulation before authoritarian MAGA threats, but in many ways, he set the example.

Sep 24, 2025 / Ben Schwartz

A Social Democratic leaflet against capitalism, 1905.

How Capitalism Survives How Capitalism Survives

According to John Cassidy’s century-spanning history Capitalism and Its Critics, the system lives on because of its antagonists.

Sep 24, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erik Baker

Kimmel Canceled

Kimmel Canceled Kimmel Canceled

Corporations bow to an autocrat’s whims.

Sep 23, 2025 / OppArt / Steve Brodner and Peter Kuper

The Supreme Court Has Always Been This Bad

The Supreme Court Has Always Been This Bad The Supreme Court Has Always Been This Bad

From allowing segregation to gutting abortion rights, the court’s reactionary streak runs deep. A new collection shows why calls for reform are as old as the court itself.

Sep 23, 2025 / Richard Kreitner

A lithograph illustrating the discovery of iguanodon fossils in Bernissart, Belgium, 1878 (c. 1880).

The Fight Over the Meaning of Fossils The Fight Over the Meaning of Fossils

When the remains of prehistoric creatures were discovered in Europe and the United States, it opened up a vociferous debate on the nature of time and the purpose of science.

Sep 22, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Katzenstein

Jimmy Kimmel.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Bosses Sold Us All Out Jimmy Kimmel’s Bosses Sold Us All Out

The mainstream media is complicit in the biggest attack on free speech since the McCarthy era. Kimmel’s suspension is just the latest proof.

Sep 18, 2025 / Jeet Heer

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