Review: The Florida Novels of Charles Willeford
“Just tell the truth, and they’ll accuse you of writing black humor.”
Reviews
Genre-Bending Anime Spy x Family Tackles Cold War Espionage
State power and oppressive surveillance serve as the backdrop for this animated spy comedy.
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.
Review: Shiny Happy People Charts the Downfall of the Duggar Family
The Amazon miniseries examines the Institute in Basic Life Principles, focusing on the Duggar family and its multiple sex abuse scandals.
Review: White House Plumbers Delivers an Amusing Take on Watergate
This retelling of the Nixon scandal is more in the style of Leslie Nielsen than Robert Redford.
Free Market Book Misstates the History of Free Market Thought
Author Jacob Soll's commitment to an untenable historical thesis distorts the facts.
Review: In The Bear, a Restaurateur Battles Government Bureaucracy
A Chicago sandwich shop's survival depends on cutting through red tape.
Review: Alphabet Boys Explores Federal Cops' Manufactured Crimes
A new podcast asks whether federal agents are catching bad guys or creating them.
What's in Your Bug-Out Bag?
Your ideal bug-out bag depends on your needs. Here's what J.D. Tuccille puts in his.
Review: The Big Break Documents Trump's Washington
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris offers a fair treatment to both conservative and liberal activists in the Trump era.
Review: Wonder Boy Chronicles the Life and Death of Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
A new book handles the ill-fated CEO's story with respect.
Review: The Covenant Dramatizes the Plight of Afghan Interpreters
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in a film that criticizes the U.S. immigration system.
'Private Tyranny' Is Less Private Than You Think
Sohrab Ahmari inadvertently gives even more reasons to reduce the power of the state.
Review: The Peculiar Politics of Killer Mike
The rapper is a Bernie Sanders supporter who speaks out about gun rights and free speech.
We Don't Need a War on Screen Time
Unwired makes an unconvincing argument for heavy-handed tech regulation.
Review: Did the Waco Siege Inspire More Violence? Showtime Series Explores the Question
The assault on Mount Carmel was meant to bolster the ATF's reputation. It failed.
Review: In Baby J, John Mulaney Contends With His Post-Rehab Image
What happens when a "wife guy" divorces his wife?
The Chicago Boys' Deal With the Devil
The Chile Project surveys neoliberalism's most polarizing experiment.
Review: Jury Duty Offers a (Fake) Look Inside the Justice System
A supposedly sacred duty devolves into much ado about ordering lunch.
Review: Choose Your Own Adventure in American Futures
The author, whose libertarian leanings are evident, makes readers consider the impact of the choices they make in the voting booth.
Review: Ithaka Chronicles the Fight To Save Julian Assange
"If he goes down, so will journalism," Assange's father John Shipton says in the documentary.
Review: How Tetris Escaped the Iron Curtain
The Apple TV+ film tells the story of an entrepreneur who helped bring a Soviet designer's game to the world.
Thank Dutch Merchants, Not a Strong State, for Capitalism
Pioneers of Capitalism chronicles centuries of bottom-up economic evolution in the Netherlands.
Review: Computer-Generated Art, Decades Before Midjourney
Futuristically thrilling but aesthetically limited
Review: Ash Ketchum Was a Free-Range Kid
In the Pokemon universe, there's no central government and vital social services are provided by informal clubs.
How Pirates in Madagascar Spread Enlightenment Ideas
Pirate Enlightenment documents an interracial experiment in stateless self-governance.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Celebrated Selfishness as a Virtue
The show's final season boldly declared that success requires putting yourself first and accepting the trade-offs.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Does Cinematic Diversity Right
The Little Mermaid was a dull exercise in box-checking. Spider-Verse uses its diverse cast as an opportunity for narrative delights.
