Review: Why Does the CIA Need a Podcast?
The director worries that the public doesn't trust his spy agency.
Reviews
Review: D.C.'s Planet Word Museum Celebrates Language
Libertarians should recognize language as a quintessential example of spontaneous order.
Review: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation on The Great British Baking Show
For the first time, The Great British Baking Show's three best bakers are immigrants to the U.K.
Review: When Americans Turned Their Backs on Holocaust Refugees
The U.S. and the Holocaust condemns anti-refugee policies of the World War II era.
Review: Is Andor the Most Political Live-Action Star Wars Release?
Star Wars remains an epic tale of good vs. evil, but underneath the myth are ordinary human motivations.
Review: Buckminster Fuller Helped Inspire Our Future
The new book Inventor of the Future prefers to show him as a credit hog.
Dwarf Fortress, the Deepest, Most Insane Computer Simulation Game Ever, Just Got a Shiny New Makeover
The game is one of the greatest pieces of outsider art created in the 21st century, and it just got a lot easier to play.
The End of Astronauts: Should We Send Robots to Space Instead?
Robots don't get cabin fever, develop cancer from cosmic radiation, miss their families, or go insane.
What We Owe the Future Is Liberalism
What does "longtermism" offer those of us who favor limited government and free markets?
Review: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Is Good, Actually
The millennial generation has had enough anti-prequel propaganda.
Review: Be Your Own Boss in Space With 1993's Wing Commander: Privateer
The video game merges free market trading with exciting space combat, and your ethics and goals are up to you.
Review: The Libertarianism of Firefly
What if our interplanetary future involved train heists, legal sex work, and a lot of running from the feds?
Review: When Homer Simpson Went to Space
"Deep Space Homer" aired only eight years after the real-life Challenger disaster.
Review: The Cat Video Game That Public Health Authoritarians Will Love
Stray began development in 2015, so it's not intended to be an allegory about COVID-19 lockdowns, but it sure seems like one.
Review: Better Call Saul Could Only Happen Under Drug Prohibition
The black market for drugs empowers bad actors while imposing serious burdens on innocents.
Review: Corporate Rock Sucks Covers the Slow Decline of Punk's Most Important Label
Perhaps boutique businesses with hip tastes can be as bad for bands as the biggest corporation.
Review: Can Legal Weed Win? Yes, but Only Through Deregulation
Extreme taxes and regulations are hampering legal marijuana markets.
Review: The Sandman and the Joys of Being Human
The series deals with themes of fate, freedom, and choice.
America's Biggest Political Division Isn't Left vs. Right
It's the superpolitical vs. everyone else.
Review: The AnCap Revolution Goes to Mexico in The Anarchists
Activists were divided about whether to professionalize the political community or keep it ideologically pure. Sound familiar?
Review: Antero Alli's Low-Budget Psychedelic Naturalism
Tracer takes mind control to a new level.
Review: Barack Obama and Adam Conover Want To Shift the Blame for Government Failures
Netflix's The G Word tries and fails to restore faith in big government.
Review: Is Prison for Rehabilitation or Punishment?
High recidivism rates are not surprising when life in prison features the same factors that drive crime.
Are We Past 'Peak Petrostate'?
It's the economics of energy production that make petrostates more trigger-happy, Emma Ashford argues in Oil, the State, and War.
Review: With Depictions of Politician Beheadings and Plunger Abortions, How Has GWAR Not Been Canceled Yet?
Joe Biden, MAGA fans, and Xi Jinping all fall victim to the band's violent displays on its current tour.
How Faithful Is The Rings of Power to J.R.R. Tolkien's Anti-Statism?
Between the books and the new TV series, we see two different visions of freedom.
Review: Slow Horses Thriller Displays the Dangers of Bureaucracy
The British spy series shows the lengths to which government overseers will go to protect themselves.
Review: The Brutality of British Empire on Display in Legacy of Violence
Caroline Elkins' book raises an important question for people today, particularly liberals—an issue that Elkins herself sidesteps.
Review: Prohibition Makes for Good TV but Bad Government Policy
Peaky Blinders reminds us that when the government bans or artificially limits a resource, control of that resource often gets decided through violence.
Review: HeidiWorld Wants You To Rethink Prostitution
Podcaster Molly Lambert's gambit to get listeners to critically examine the conflation of sex work is mostly successful.
Review: After Cult Leader Was Convicted, His Compound Was Raided by Child Protective Services
The Netflix docu-thriller Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey shows the downfall of Warren Jeffs and the unjustified taking of 450 children inside his religious community.
A Belated Vindication for School Reopeners
The Stolen Year acknowledges the public schools' COVID failures but refuses to hold anyone responsible.
Review: When Britain Banned Home Sales of The Exorcist
Even as it gained fans around the world, home sales of the film remained illegal in the U.K. until 1999.
Review: Marta Kubišová Challenged Czechoslovak Communism
Her 1969 Songy a Balady (Songs and Ballads) was yanked from shelves, only to reappear after the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Review: How Melatonin-Filled 'Lazy Cakes' Became the Subject of a Moral Panic
Senators asked for an investigation since the "sweet, chocolaty taste may encourage consumers to eat well over a recommended quantity of melatonin."
The Ipcress File Abandons Its Satirical Roots for Spy Thriller Hijinks
The drama is engaging, but fans of the book should prepare for a wildly different story.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Isn't Strange or Mad Enough
A Sam Raimi fun house burdened by the Marvel universe's not-so-glorious purpose
Minx Is a Witty Treatise on Early Feminism
The new comedy explores women's liberation, the world of publishing, and sex.
The Best of Cold War Culture
Books, films, and more related to the dissolution of the Soviet Union
No Time To Die Gives Us a Not-Quite-Woke James Bond
Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007 is a reckoning with everything that made Bond who he is.
The Family Firm
Context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter—both in parenting and outside of it.
HBO's Catherine The Great Is All Glamour, Little Substance
Screenwriter Nigel Williams seems to have thought he was working on Fast Times At Moscow High.
The Politician Trashes All Sociopathic Office-Seekers, Even High School Ones
Rigged elections, sham marriages, and a faked cancer diagnosis make Ryan Murphy's new series worth a watch.
New Woodstock Documentary Should Make Boomers Question Their Accomplishments
If a chaotic concert that nearly failed "defined a generation," what does that actually mean?
