Review: A Superhero Struggle About the Ethics of Violence
The animated Invincible series wrestles with the ethics of killing for the greater good.
Reviews
Review: Blurring the Line Between Fine Art and Advertising
Commercial genius Alphonse Mucha's ads helped sell everything from soap to Champagne.
In Praise of Zeppo and Shemp
Two new biographies tell the stories of the unsung members of the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges.
Review: How Video Games Can Connect Us to the World
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, a documentary on Netflix, explains how a terminally ill boy found freedom in World of Warcraft.
Review: The Christian Case for Free Markets
Mere Economics makes a religious argument for private property and free exchange.
Review: The Whole Story Tells the Story of Whole Foods Market
Company co-founder John Mackey weaves together lessons from his business, spiritual, and personal journeys.
Review: Authoritarianism Backfires in the Latest Dune Installment
In Max's Dune: Prophecy, even the power to predict others' actions can't tame the chaos of free will.
Review: Netflix's Mo Captures the Absurdity of the U.S. Immigration System
A stateless protagonist dodges the federal government in comedic fashion.
Review: Is the New Captain America Movie an Allegory for Donald Trump?
Brave New World was shot long before the new Trump term, but the parallels are hard to overlook.
Review: Flow Is a Beautiful Low-Budget Animated Feature
The Latvian Oscar winner was rendered on a free and open-source 3D graphic engine.
Review: Aging Millennials Confront Adult Problems on Screen
Apple TV+'s Shrinking is both cringeworthy and relatable.
Review: A Novel About Pronatalist Government Programs
Set in South Korea, Apartment Women reflects real concerns about the country's lagging birth rate.
Review: A TV Spy Thriller About Psychological Consequences of Going Undercover
The Agency depicts the cruelty and dehumanization involved in espionage work.
Review: D.C. Museum Exhibit Illuminates the Brutalities of Slavery
The "In Slavery's Wake" exhibit celebrates black Americans' resistance to slavery and Jim Crow.
What If Native American Tribes Had Gotten Their Own State?
Historian Donald L. Fixico explores a forgotten moment in Oklahoma history and its lessons about liberty.
Review: Another Tasty but Imperfect Meat Alternative
Prime Roots deli-style meat alternatives are made of koji, the fungi that make soy sauce delicious.
Review: A Florida Museum Brings Pirate History to Life
The St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum claims to house more than 800 authentic pirate artifacts.
Review: Rethinking the Stanford Prison Experiment
Did participants exhibit a natural inclination for cruelty, or were they just doing what they thought researchers wanted?
Inside the Russian Occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy's book tells the stories of soldiers, stalkers, and squatters in Chernobyl during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Review: A Sci-Fi Exploration of a Shadowy Government
The deeply weird Southern Reach Series reminds us that human institutions can turn people into something unrecognizable.
Review: A Novel About Walls, Both Literal and Figurative
Author Haruki Murakami offers a potent reminder of the value of free movement.
When COVID Authoritarianism Met Border Authoritarianism
All 194 countries in the World Health Organization imposed COVID travel restrictions. The authors of When the World Closed Its Doors argue it was a failure.
Review: Netflix's Biggest Heist Ever Documentary Takes Bitcoin Seriously
The film exemplifies the new age of mainstream respectability the token has entered.
Review: Armored MMA Is Like UFC but With Medieval Weapons
A bizarre new sport is reaching audiences online, a testament to the value of social media.
The Strange Case of The Immortality Key
Many people depicted in a supposedly "groundbreaking" book on psychedelics and religion are now speaking out against it.
Review: Gladiator II Is a Historical Epic About the Dangers of Political Power
Director Ridley Scott explores what happens when people from the fringes of society rise to power.
Review: Wicked Is a Letdown for Fans of the Books
The movie musical fails to deliver on the more interesting antiauthoritarian themes of its source material.
Review: A Podcast Exploring the History of Immigrant Sanctuaries
The sanctuary movement challenges state power, argue the hosts of Sanctuary: On the Border Between Church and State.
Rise of the 'Constitutional Sheriffs'
Two new books dissect the "constitutional sheriffs" movement, which seeks to nullify laws adherents see as unconstitutional.
Review: HBO's Chimpanzee Murder Mystery
What happened to Tonka the chimp? The Chimp Crazy series investigates.
Review: Laura Marling Mixes Songs With Snippets of Life as a Mom
The album Patterns in Repeat portrays motherhood in an almost exclusively positive light.
Review: Cabaret's Broadway Revival
It's a story about vulnerable people, powerless against the rise of a sweeping authoritarian regime, each seeking a way to cope with the unprecedented times in which they live.
Review: The Radicals Who Tried To Kill Gerald Ford
The Rip Current podcast is a good reminder that political division and even violence are not new in America.
Review: Drug Prohibition Leads to Violence in The Penguin
An HBO series set in the Batman universe reminds us that when a substance is outlawed, the market will provide one way or another.
Review: UFO 50 Pays Homage to '80s Video Games
Playing this digital collection of new retro-style games is like rediscovering a box of old cartridges.
Review: Why Are Federal Buildings So Ugly?
Our capital's brutalist architecture is on display at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
Review: Watching Megalopolis Through a Randian Lens
Francis Ford Coppola's new film has traces of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Review: Are Teen Girls Suffering From Hysteria?
A new podcast explores a mysterious case of teens developing Tourette syndrome–like tics and other cases of suspected mass psychogenic illness.
Are Humans Abandoning the Physical World in Favor of Smartphones?
The Extinction of Experience condemns digital technology but the book is full of contradictions and cherry-picked examples.
Review: A True Crime Podcast About a Massacre in Iraq
Season three of the In the Dark podcast divulges new details about U.S. Marines' killings of 24 Iraqis in 2005.
Review: Like Friday Night Lights, But For High School Mariachi
A documentary on Netflix follows a team of young musicians vying for competition wins in Texas.
Review: A New York Times Reporter Explores Psychedelic Therapy
Trippy author Ernesto Londoño points out that supposedly ancient psychedelic rituals don't always lead to great outcomes.
Review: Evil on Trial Seeks To Reach A Younger Audience
WWII correspondent William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich comes to life in this Netflix docuseries.
Review: An Action Movie About Civil Asset Forfeiture
Netflix's Rebel Ridge is a thrilling tale about an ordinary man wronged by an unjust system.
Review: A Rap Trio Fights the Power In Gaelic
Kneecap is a semi-dramatized biopic of the Belfast music group of the same name.
Review: In Ren Faire a Tyrant King Tries To Find a Successor
George Coulam didn't just create the Texas Renaissance Festival. He built a utopia and crowned himself king.
Review: A Medieval Black Comedy With No Monarch
The state is almost completely absent in 'The Decameron. The characters don't exactly handle this responsibility well.
Review: Bullet Vending Machines Debut in U.S. Grocery Stores
The company claims its machines are more effective than store shelves at preventing shoplifters or underage purchases.
