Cultural Criticism and Analysis

The End of the Music Business

The End of the Music Business The End of the Music Business

A century of recorded music has culminated in the infinite archive of streaming platforms. But is it really better for listeners?

Apr 10, 2023 / Feature / Ethan Iverson

Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y.

Stop Gatekeeping Architecture Stop Gatekeeping Architecture

We all inhabit, and therefore participate in, the built environment.

Apr 7, 2023 / Kate Wagner

Senator Megan Hunt

Democrats Can Win on Trans Issues—but Only if They Fight Democrats Can Win on Trans Issues—but Only if They Fight

Though culture war bigotry loses at the ballot box, centrist Democrats have been too quick to surrender.

Apr 7, 2023 / Jeet Heer

Alissa Quart

Is the American Dream a Long Con? Is the American Dream a Long Con?

A conversation with Alissa Quart about her new book Bootstrapped, an examination of how the ideology of individualism helped create the conditions for inequality.

Apr 5, 2023 / Q&A / Rhoda Feng

You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Rich Anymore

You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Rich Anymore You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Rich Anymore

Billionaires dress like the guy next door, which elides the fact of our ever-worsening inequality.

Mar 24, 2023 / Kate Wagner

Sir Francis Bacon

Just Because ChatBots Can’t Think Doesn’t Mean They Can’t Lie Just Because ChatBots Can’t Think Doesn’t Mean They Can’t Lie

Or that they haven’t already started to pollute Google searches. And if publishers win their lawsuit against the Internet Archive, verifying facts and quotes will get a lot harder.

Mar 17, 2023 / Maria Bustillos

Liberating Our Homes From the Real Estate–Industrial Complex

Liberating Our Homes From the Real Estate–Industrial Complex Liberating Our Homes From the Real Estate–Industrial Complex

Having a personal aesthetic at home has become financially detrimental.

Mar 13, 2023 / Kate Wagner

Charles Koch during an interview with the Washington Post at the Freedom Partners Summit on August 3, 2015.

Why the Media Just Can’t Stop Whitewashing the Koch Family Why the Media Just Can’t Stop Whitewashing the Koch Family

The political uses of the “poor little rich girl” narrative.

Feb 27, 2023 / Jeet Heer

The Black Panthers’ Liberation School

Why the United States Needs a New Reconstruction Why the United States Needs a New Reconstruction

In The Third Reconstruction, historian Peniel Joseph examines how how the broken promises of racial equality in the past might be fulfilled in the future.

Feb 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Robert Greene II

Janet Malcolm.

Janet Malcolm, Reluctant Memoirist Janet Malcolm, Reluctant Memoirist

Why was one of the most gifted nonfiction writers of her generation so uncomfortable writing about herself?

Feb 20, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick

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