Cultural Criticism and Analysis

Wandering Through Documenta

Wandering Through Documenta Wandering Through Documenta

Do big, world-scale art exhibitions have any use today?

Sep 13, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

Betita in 1969

Legendary Chicana Organizer Betita Martínez Wrote a Perfect Parody for the Trump Era—in 1967 Legendary Chicana Organizer Betita Martínez Wrote a Perfect Parody for the Trump Era—in 1967

Martínez penned it after leaving her job at The Nation to work for SNCC.

Sep 11, 2017 / Tony Platt and Elizabeth Sutherland Martínez

Colin Kaepernick answers questions at a news conference on August 26, 2016.

Inside Colin Kaepernick’s Trip to Africa Inside Colin Kaepernick’s Trip to Africa

Scholar Ameer Loggins recounts their experiences on the continent.

Jul 25, 2017 / Podcast / Dave Zirin

Mary Gaitskill Remains Open to Opposition

Mary Gaitskill Remains Open to Opposition Mary Gaitskill Remains Open to Opposition

The closest thing we get to a precept in Somebody with a Little Hammer is that we should all try to learn to think for ourselves—and, even then, things can go wrong.

Jun 19, 2017 / Larissa Pham

Al Franken Is Not Running for President

Al Franken Is Not Running for President Al Franken Is Not Running for President

But his new book is the antidote to Trumpism.

Jun 5, 2017 / Q&A / Joan Walsh

The Quiet Discontent of Sarah Manguso

The Quiet Discontent of Sarah Manguso The Quiet Discontent of Sarah Manguso

The essayist and poet has made an art out of concision. But what do her essays leave out?

Jun 1, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Charlotte Shane

1960 West Berlin Congress of Cultural Freedom

How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers

Joel Whitney talks about his book Finks, which exposes the agency’s corruption of American culture during the Cold War.

May 31, 2017 / Patrick Lawrence

Factory or Forest, Modernity and Climate Change

Factory or Forest, Modernity and Climate Change Factory or Forest, Modernity and Climate Change

In India, the pathology of denial about global warming reveals the real crisis at our door—one of imagination.

May 19, 2017 / Abhrajyoti Chakraborty

George Saunders’s Lincoln

George Saunders’s Lincoln George Saunders’s Lincoln

The novel ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ examines the Civil War as the root of America’s violent past—and as a possible source of empathy that might release us from it.

May 3, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Jon Baskin

The Fight Over Sexual Freedom

The Fight Over Sexual Freedom The Fight Over Sexual Freedom

Geoffrey Stone’s book is a powerful reminder that the history of sexual equality is one of backlash as well as progress.

May 3, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Anna North

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