Comics Giant Stan Lee Dead at 95
Marvel's former chief left behind a massive cultural legacy preaching tolerance and personal responsibility.
Book Reviews
The Wild Rise of Lyndon LaRouche
What a conspiracy theorist, a Vietnam War deserter, and a Trump adviser have in common
When George Orwell Got in a Fight With the Anarchist Author of The Joy of Sex
The future 1984 scribe debated pacifism with Dr. Alex Comfort in 1942.
Venom Feels Like a Relic From When Hollywood Didn't Know How To Make Superhero Movies
The dull new movie makes for a marked contrast with the delightful new Spider-Man video game.
The Predator Raises the Question: Why Does the Predator Franchise Exist?
Shane Black's lackluster entry doesn't understand the appeal of John McTiernan's action classic.
Vietnam and the Rise of White Power
A new book ties racist reactionary politics to the war, but overreaches when it comes to militias.
Christopher Nolan's 'Unrestored' 2001: A Space Odyssey Is a Testament to the Power of Analog Cinema
The 70mm restoration of Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece is a reminder of the ways advances in technology can help keep old formats alive.
Black Bodies, Radical Politics, and Rebellious Robots
Reading Zora Neale Hurston's study of the life of the last "black cargo" and watching Westworld
Harlan Ellison, R.I.P.
The science fiction maverick helped fill generations of fans with a winning sense of courage and rebellion.
1972: The Year That Made 2018 Seem Sane
Richard Nixon's battle with Timothy Leary puts today's culture wars to shame.
Russians and Reactionaries
The on-again, off-again flirtation between Mother Russia and the deplorables of Europe
The Politics of Star Wars
In honor of Star Wars Day, a roundup of links to my writings and talks on the politics of one of the world's most popular science fiction franchises.
Whose Dystopia Is It Anyway?
Reason writers debate which fictional dystopia best predicted our current moment.
Victor Frankenstein Is the Real Monster
Mary Shelley's misunderstood masterpiece turns 200.
'My Plan Is to Let People Do Whatever They Please'
The daily newspaper columns of H.L. Mencken
R.I.P. Ursula K. Le Guin, Author of One of the Greatest Novels About Freedom Ever Written
How libertarians learned to stop worrying and love The Dispossessed
Electric Dreams Is a Sci Fi Anthology Series That Warns Against Safe Spaces
The show, based on the work of Philip K. Dick, is like Black Mirror but if people were sometimes good.
GW Students Organize to Fight Oppression By Oppressing Reading Choices
Obvious propaganda should be labeled propaganda, obviously.
My Take on the Politics of 'The Last Jedi'
"The Last Jedi" focuses on the value of institutions, not just individual heroes. But it's still hard to tell what the rebels are fighting for.
But What Does Star Wars *MEAN*?
All culture is participatory culture, and none more so than Star Wars. A debate hotter than the twin suns of Tatooine.
Book recommendations from me and my colleagues
Time travel and originalism (not in the same book!)
You Won't Be Afraid of This Dark, But You Might Be Bored
Netflix sci-fi series draws comparisons to Stranger Things that do it no favors.
Statist Just-So Stories
The author of Seeing Like a State casts a skeptical eye on the conventional wisdom about the cradle of civilization.
The Martian's Andy Weir Talks Economics (and Sex) on the Moon in Artemis: Podcast
Weir's new book Artemis imagines life in a lunar settlement.
Sex and Communism
The times and trajectory of Max Eastman, progressive turned "libertarian conservative"
The Insatiable Utopia
The Soviet elite who built a "dictatorship of the proletariat" and paid with their lives
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Early LSD Guru
Friday A/V Club: Celebrate Halloween with Gerald Heard, Boris Karloff, and some killer bees.
Rick & Morty Takes on the American Presidency
The hit cartoon depicts how out of control presidential power has gotten.
The Great James Buchanan Conspiracy
A controversial attack on a libertarian-leaning economist mangles the facts beyond recognition. But the book still has something to teach us.
The Prisoner Turns 50
Friday A/V Club: Celebrating half a century of an individualist TV show
George Washington's 'Founding War of Conquest'
The standing army, Native American opposition, and the high cost of territorial expansion
We Read Hillary's Book So You Don't Have To
Clinton takes complete ownership for how her actions are all your fault.
Breaking Addicts in Order to Fix Them
How Synanon revolutionized drug treatment and poisoned the politics of prohibition.
What Nancy MacLean Gets Wrong About James Buchanan
Democracy in Chains mangles the facts beyond recognition. But the book still has something to teach us.
Cory Doctorow's 'Fully Automated Luxury Communist Civilization'
The author of Little Brother and Walkaway on dystopia, the end of scarcity, and what's going to get him arrested
How Jane Jacobs Challenged the Centralized Urban Planning Groupthink
The death and life of a great American urbanist
