Review: The Crown Pits British Tradition Against Reform
The lightly fictionalized historical drama shows that it’s hard for staid institutions to grow and change with the times, especially when they aren’t forced to.
Reviews
Review: Inside Job Reinvents the Workplace Comedy
The Netflix show ostensibly satirizes government control, but it is not made for anyone truly suspicious of government power.
Review: 'How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex'
Samantha Cole's book is marred by vague animosity toward tech companies.
Review: Naomi Novik's Magic Math Actually Makes Sense
The Golden Enclaves is the third installment of Novik's best-selling Scholomance trilogy.
Review: Even in Tolkien's Middle Earth, You Can't Escape Immigration Restrictions
Elves need not apply.
Review: 'Me So Horny' and 59 Other Songs That Explain the '90s
Podcaster and music critic Rob Harvilla reminds us of the debts we owe to the tunes of that often cringeworthy decade.
Review: Post-Roe America Is Unlikely To Resemble the One Seen in The Janes
An underground network in Chicago helped women terminate thousands of pregnancies amid abortion prohibition.
Review: Time Meddling Becomes Altruism in Amazon's The Peripheral
It's the story of a distant future where rich denizens meddle in the affairs of the past.
Review: God Forbid Chronicles Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Fall From Grace
Falwell and his wife engaged in extramarital trysts with a younger man and introduced him to powerful friends, such as future president Donald Trump.
Review: Why Does the CIA Need a Podcast?
The director worries that the public doesn't trust his spy agency.
Review: D.C.'s Planet Word Museum Celebrates Language
Libertarians should recognize language as a quintessential example of spontaneous order.
Review: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation on The Great British Baking Show
For the first time, The Great British Baking Show's three best bakers are immigrants to the U.K.
Review: When Americans Turned Their Backs on Holocaust Refugees
The U.S. and the Holocaust condemns anti-refugee policies of the World War II era.
Review: Is Andor the Most Political Live-Action Star Wars Release?
Star Wars remains an epic tale of good vs. evil, but underneath the myth are ordinary human motivations.
Review: Buckminster Fuller Helped Inspire Our Future
The new book Inventor of the Future prefers to show him as a credit hog.
Review: Try and Fail To Build a Virtual City in Sim Nimby
Eventually the player realizes nothing is getting built and quits.
Review: Be Your Own Boss in Space With 1993's Wing Commander: Privateer
The video game merges free market trading with exciting space combat, and your ethics and goals are up to you.
Review: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Is Good, Actually
The millennial generation has had enough anti-prequel propaganda.
Review: The Libertarianism of Firefly
What if our interplanetary future involved train heists, legal sex work, and a lot of running from the feds?
Review: WALL-E Is Not a Realistic Take on Space Travel
If we move to space, it probably won't be because we filled up Earth with trash.
Review: 1947's Prelude to Space Envisioned We'd Be on Mars by Now
Reality has failed to match author Arthur C. Clarke's hopes.
Review: Astronauts Don't Really Eat Astronaut Ice Cream
The treats you bought in gift shops are too crumbly to eat in microgravity.
Review: When Homer Simpson Went to Space
"Deep Space Homer" aired only eight years after the real-life Challenger disaster.
Review: The Cat Video Game That Public Health Authoritarians Will Love
Stray began development in 2015, so it's not intended to be an allegory about COVID-19 lockdowns, but it sure seems like one.
Review: Better Call Saul Could Only Happen Under Drug Prohibition
The black market for drugs empowers bad actors while imposing serious burdens on innocents.
Review: Corporate Rock Sucks Covers the Slow Decline of Punk's Most Important Label
Perhaps boutique businesses with hip tastes can be as bad for bands as the biggest corporation.
Review: Can Legal Weed Win? Yes, but Only Through Deregulation
Extreme taxes and regulations are hampering legal marijuana markets.
Review: The Sandman and the Joys of Being Human
The series deals with themes of fate, freedom, and choice.
Review: The AnCap Revolution Goes to Mexico in The Anarchists
Activists were divided about whether to professionalize the political community or keep it ideologically pure. Sound familiar?
Review: Antero Alli's Low-Budget Psychedelic Naturalism
Tracer takes mind control to a new level.
Review: Barack Obama and Adam Conover Want To Shift the Blame for Government Failures
Netflix's The G Word tries and fails to restore faith in big government.
Review: Is Prison for Rehabilitation or Punishment?
High recidivism rates are not surprising when life in prison features the same factors that drive crime.
Review: With Depictions of Politician Beheadings and Plunger Abortions, How Has GWAR Not Been Canceled Yet?
Joe Biden, MAGA fans, and Xi Jinping all fall victim to the band's violent displays on its current tour.
Review: Slow Horses Thriller Displays the Dangers of Bureaucracy
The British spy series shows the lengths to which government overseers will go to protect themselves.
Review: Prohibition Makes for Good TV but Bad Government Policy
Peaky Blinders reminds us that when the government bans or artificially limits a resource, control of that resource often gets decided through violence.
Review: HeidiWorld Wants You To Rethink Prostitution
Podcaster Molly Lambert's gambit to get listeners to critically examine the conflation of sex work is mostly successful.
Review: After Cult Leader Was Convicted, His Compound Was Raided by Child Protective Services
The Netflix docu-thriller Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey shows the downfall of Warren Jeffs and the unjustified taking of 450 children inside his religious community.
Review: Rosewood Restrictions Riled U.S. Guitar Makers
In 2017, a bizarre amendment to an international treaty threw American guitar makers into a panic.
Review: The Fall of Cigarette Vending Machines
Formerly ubiquitous tobacco vending machine sales are now banned under a 2010 FDA measure.
Review: Distilling Liquor at Home Could Make You a Felon
Home distilling, unlike home brewing and winemaking, is still prohibited by federal law.
Review: The FDA's Awful Labeling Regulations Made the Baby Formula Shortage Worse
Elaborate labeling requirements blocked the importation of direly needed European baby formula.
Review: When Britain Banned Home Sales of The Exorcist
Even as it gained fans around the world, home sales of the film remained illegal in the U.K. until 1999.
Review: Marta Kubišová Challenged Czechoslovak Communism
Her 1969 Songy a Balady (Songs and Ballads) was yanked from shelves, only to reappear after the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Review: How Melatonin-Filled 'Lazy Cakes' Became the Subject of a Moral Panic
Senators asked for an investigation since the "sweet, chocolaty taste may encourage consumers to eat well over a recommended quantity of melatonin."
Review: Gran Turismo 7
The video game serves as a fun reminder that free trade, not protectionism, makes us all better off.
Review: Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
M. Chris Fabricant's new book details how flawed techniques have led to numerous wrongful convictions.
Review: Apollo 10 1/2
The new movie offers a funny nod both to NASA's glitch-prone engineering and its can-do spirit
Review: The Dropout
Hulu's limited TV series on Elizabeth Holmes shows how regulators failed to catch massive, dangerous medical fraud.