Review: An Anime Reboot About Japan's Transition From Feudalism
The protagonist's adversaries eventually embrace modernity.
Reviews
Review: What the Cities: Skylines II Flop Tells Us About Urban Planning
It turns out that making video games and making cities are both really hard.
Review: It's Cloned Mammoths vs. Billionaire Hunters in This New Sci-Fi Novel
Ray Nayler's The Tusks of Extinction explores the value of nonhuman intelligence.
Review: This Young Podcaster Is Channeling Adam Smith
A locked-down high schooler started asking libertarian thinkers what people in her generation should know.
Review: Apple Vision Pro's Magic Is Short-Lived
Apple's pricey new headset ends up feeling clunky.
Review: Violation Podcast Dissects the Broken U.S. Parole System
How do we decide who is worthy of a second chance?
Review: Musical Movie Doesn't Recapture Mean Girls' Genuine Meanness
The audience's tolerance for the truth about bullying has diminished in our oversensitive age.
Review: How Ray Trapani Scammed the Crypto World and Got Away With it
Netflix's Bitconned explores Centra Tech's scammy business dealings.
Review: Tripping on Utopia Complicates the History of Psychedelics
Mind-altering drugs have long been seen as tools for both liberation and control.
Review: Fargo's Self-Identified Libertarian Is No Libertarian
Will Sheriff Roy Tillman replace Ron Swanson as TV's most notable libertarian character? Hopefully not.
Review: Is Saltburn an Eat-the-Rich Comedy? Not Quite.
Critics are misreading the movie. The wealthy are not the villains in this story.
Review: For All Mankind Offers an Alternate History of Moon Exploration
What if Russia had landed on the moon before the United States?
Review: Cyberpunk 2077 Explores Another Lawless Dystopia
In the game's Phantom Liberty expansion, those who make the laws rarely follow them.
Review: HBO's Comedic Take on Pirate Life
The pirates in Our Flag Means Death end up more interested in skirting imperial powers than in plundering.
Review: Netflix's Real-Life Spinoff Can't Recreate Squid Game's Allure
In Squid Game: The Challenge, contestants don't really risk their lives.
Review: Photographic Glimpses at 20th Century Roots Music
Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz's photos document blues, country, and Cajun music.
Review: Ken Burns Explains the Anti–Native American Plot To Kill Bison
The American Buffalo documentary charts the fall and rise of American bison.
Review: Godzilla Minus One Rejects the Idea of a 'Noble Death' in War
Director Takashi Yamazaki brings to the screen the most dreadful version of Godzilla since the franchise began.
Review: Netflix Delivers a Surprisingly Balanced Take on Vaping
Big Vape presents differing views on the supposed youth vaping epidemic.
Review: Exposing a Broken Juvenile Court System
Kids were jailed for minor offenses, as detailed in The Kids of Rutherford County podcast.
Review: Loki Reckons With the Peril of Power
In the second season of his eponymous Marvel series, Loki becomes both more human and more godlike.
Review: A Teen Dramedy on a Native American Reservation
The government abuse that precipitated Native American social woes is not directly discussed in Reservation Dogs.
Review: A Fitting End to Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is ultimately an anime about what it means to be free.
Review: Starfield Is Really a Video Game About Government
Bureaucracy vs. freedom in outer space
Review: Should Humans Settle Mars? This Book Is Skeptical.
A City on Mars is a counterbalance to the growing optimism over space exploration.
Review: Banksy's Iconic Art on Display in London
The unauthorized "Art of Banksy" exhibit includes ads from the street artist's real-life Palestine hotel.
Review: The Disputed Roots of the Cuban Sandwich
It's Miami vs. Tampa in the Florida sandwich wars.
Review: The Florida Novels of Charles Willeford
“Just tell the truth, and they’ll accuse you of writing black humor.”
Review: Scarface Shows How Prohibition Leads to Violence
Tony Montana has a bloody rags-to-riches story.
Review: Craig Robinson's Extremely Florida Sitcom
Killing It mocks capitalism, but at least it's funny.
Review: When Pirates Take Over Tampa
Real pirates terrorized the Gulf Coast. These modern pirates just want to have fun.
Review: The Cross Florida Barge Canal That Never Was
Libertarians will read Ditch of Dreams as a story about bureaucracy and environmentalism run amok.
Review: The Album That Helped Make Florida the Epicenter of Death Metal
Death's 1990 Spiritual Healing paints a right-wing culture warrior’s nightmare vision of America.
Review: How To Live to 100
It's not as easy as Netflix's Secrets of the Blue Zones makes it seem.
Review: Painkiller Falls for Drug War Misconceptions
The series foregrounds cases of OxyContin addiction, despite their rarity.
Review: Blind Plea Only Scratches the Surface of Plea Bargains
Host Liz Flock delivers a compelling narrative but misses chances to interrogate the justice system.
Review: Ahsoka Rejects Star Wars' Good-vs.-Evil Binary
George Lucas divided his universe into light and dark. Dave Filoni is dissolving that worldview.
Review: Inside New York's 20th Century Psychotherapeutic Cult
The Sullivan Institute trapped members and broke up families.
Review: When a Fentanyl Thief Slipped Through the Cracks, Women Suffered
A New York Times podcast tells a story about both the drug war and institutional incompetence.
Review: A Podcast With Lighthearted Takes on Grim Historical Events
In The Rest Is History, two historians strike a pleasing balance between fact-dense narratives and witty banter.
Review: Netflix Offers a Too-Lighthearted Take on Becoming a Cult Leader
Narrator Peter Dinklage takes viewers through a step-by-step process for becoming the next Jim Jones.
Review: A Vampire Mockumentary Takes on Local Politics
“It’s really no surprise, the amount of energy vampires in politics," says a fictional candidate for Staten Island comptroller.
Review: Slow Burn Steps Inside the House at the Center of Clarence Thomas Controversy
A podcast about a man everyone already has an opinion about.
Review: They Cloned Tyrone Draws on Old CIA Conspiracy Theories
The political commentary in Netflix's sci-fi comedy isn't exactly subtle.
Review: Who Really Wrote Little House on the Prairie?
Did Laura Ingalls Wilder's libertarian daughter have an outsize role in crafting the beloved children's series?
Review: Not Everyone Liked the New Deal
Amity Shlaes anthologizes Franklin D. Roosevelt’s critical contemporaries.
Review: Silo Shows the Perils of Authoritarian Hierarchies
Leaders depicted in the Apple TV+ series outlaw "relics" of the past, even including PEZ dispensers.
