Reviews
Sinking in the Swamp
An extended profile of the numerous, eclectic grifters surrounding President Donald Trump
Suffrage
From our modern vantage point, it's easy to scorn some decisions that suffrage movement leaders made. Suffrage adds context.
Ugly Delicious
Is tahini salsa verde an insidious form of cultural appropriation or two immigrants from Oaxaca riffing on food traditions they love?
The Consequential Frontier
The "privatization" of space has already expanded the possibilities of the cosmos for all mankind far beyond what six decades of federal bureaucracy could.
Secondhand
Adam Minter's book reminds us that a lot of "value is created when less affluent people are given the opportunity to parse the goods of the wasteful affluent."
Learning To Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
Boys skateboard in the streets of Kabul, one student explains in the documentary, but girls would risk reprisals for daring to do so.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The focus on seemingly minor everyday questions of propriety makes the show's 10th season as insightful as it is funny.
The Report
Amazon Prime's new show attempts to dramatize the "enhanced interrogations" that took place under President George W. Bush as well as the Obama administration's failure to hold anybody to account.
'Til Wrong Feels Right
Iggy Pop's new book documents the life of a great individualist who, even more than Sinatra, did things his way.
Sticking It to the Man
A new anthology explores how the counterculture of the '60s and '70s mixed with the mainstream.
Watchmen
The new HBO show explores how systems of authority fail those for whom they are ostensibly responsible.
Future Tense Fiction
"A good science fiction story can help re-sensitize us" to the peril and promise of the new.
Fault Lines
The relics of terrible segregationist government policies are still felt in East Austin, an area that's quickly gentrifying
She Came To Slay
The deeply human Harriet Tubman who emerges in Dunbar's book was exhausted, frustrated—and heroic.
The Outlaw Ocean
Each chapter profiles those who live on the edge of maritime laws, in the gray areas that are so often unenforceable by land governments.
Borderlands 3
In Borderlands 3, you take on a murderous cult worshiping a cruel, vain deity who demands that her minions attack others, sacrifice themselves, and constantly sing her praises.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The show's abundant laughs lie in the space between the way this group of Philly pubkeepers see themselves and how the world sees them.
Coup 53
A new documentary highlights the role played by the CIA and Britain's MI6 in overthrowing Iran's duly elected prime minister back in 1953.
Forgotten Workers
The National Museum of American History display recognizes the throngs who helped enable America's westward expansion.
Right To Be Forgotten
Sharyn Rothstein's sharp new play is a smart and timely look at how to balance free speech and privacy in a wired age.
Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea.
The film flounders when Handler visits a spoken-word night to see college kids talk about microaggressions, but the film gets better when it shifts focus to more grave issues.
Escape from Earth
Was rocketry pioneer Frank Malina written out of some histories of space exploration for his political sins?
Golden Rice
Golden Rice has potential to help millions of people in developing countries, but government regulators, the UN, and anti-GMO activists have gotten in the way.
