This Summer’s Do’s, Don’ts, and Things That Will Inevitably End Up Happening
Do: Explore a new warm-weather hobby, like kayaking, gardening, or hiking. Don’t: Invest a lot of money in accessories for your hobby before trying it out. Thing That Will Inevitably End Up Happening: You purchase gardening shears, a single oar, and cute hiking boots, only to spend the bulk of your free time watching a…
Is America Ready to Make Reparations?
Listen with: iTunes WNYC Stitcher TuneIn Late in the Civil War, the Union general William T. Sherman confiscated four hundred thousand acres of land from Confederate planters and ordered it redistributed, in forty-acre lots, to formerly enslaved people—a promise revoked by President Andrew Johnson almost as soon as it was made. More than a hundred…
What to Stream This Weekend: The Third Season of Joe Swanberg’s “Easy”
The third season of Joe Swanberg’s Chicago-based series “Easy,” which dropped on Netflix two weeks ago, is anchored by an idea that’s as much a matter of aesthetic form as of dramatic substance. The nine episodes are centered on crucial conversations on which the very stuff of life—love and money, work and family, long-held dreams…
How Nancy Pelosi’s Tactics Affirm the Trumpian Style of Politics
The President of the United States is erratic, illiterate, and doesn’t want to know what he doesn’t know. The President has alienated former allies, befriended or courted murderous dictators, and has repeatedly brought the country to the brink of nuclear confrontation. The President lies constantly, knows that he is lying, and demands that Administration officials…
The Case to Impeach Trump for Bigotry
On May 16th, Representative Al Green, as he has many times since 2017, stood on the House floor to implore his colleagues to initiate impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, this time with a copy of the Mueller report in hand and an American-flag tie on his collar. “Since [the report’s] release, we have had…
Sunday Reading: School Drama
In 1970, Roger Angell wrote an essay for The New Yorker on the courage and resolve of young students in the aftermath of the Kent State University shootings. “Only the very young are capable of such a quick and deep swing of emotions,” he wrote. Angell recognized that campus life, even absent tragedy, often unfolds…
The Victims of Larry Nassar Who Dared to Come Forward First
In the summer of 2016, Rachael Denhollander was scrolling through Facebook at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, when she happened upon the cover story of the day’s Indianapolis Star. It was an investigation into U.S.A. Gymnastics, one of the nation’s most prominent Olympic organizations, concluding that for years the federation’s top officials had mishandled allegations…
Charging Julian Assange Under the Espionage Act Is an Attack on the First Amendment
It’s a sad day in America when the most appropriate thing to say is the line often misattributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” When basic rights are under attack from the government, the arguments that are called for are neither…
Can Data Be Human? The Work of Giorgia Lupi
The designer Giorgia Lupi was born in 1981 and believes that she is part of a special bridge generation. “I was raised in a completely analog environment,” she says. “I was a teen-ager when all of the awkward connection and human connection needed to be made in real life. But, at the same time, because…