At the Crossroads of Pity and Revolt: Intensity and Time in Lino Brocka’s ‘Manila in the Claws of Light’
Lino Brocka's Manila in the Claws of Light seethes with rage against colonial oppression without ever becoming overt agitprop.
Economics
‘The American President’ and the Aesthetics of Rising NeoLiberalism
In the prescient The American President, the president and his love interest push the liberal agenda while simultaneously living in the lap of luxury. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too.
On Mankind’s Hubris and Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’
When promises of draining proverbial swamps have only blurred the distinction between legislation and capitalism, it is now the responsibility of individuals to advocate for Rachel Carson's environmental vision.
‘Talking to My Daughter About the Economy’, and Putting Economists In Their Place
Yanis Varoufakis treats with disdain the idea that economics is a real science – it's more like a contemporary form of religion, propped up by ruling elites to make gullible everyday people remain subservient and go along with the elites' bad and self-serving ideas, he says.
Nagata Kabi’s ‘My Solo Exchange Diary’ and the Alienated Self
The author of My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is pushing manga to new and intellectually provocative heights.
How to Rap with a Sword: milo, Rapitalism, and Feeding Hunger with Thingness
Few of us devote much time to thinking about what a lifetime of labor is, especially creative labor. Milo is the kind of artist who invites us to think about it.
Anthony Bourdain: Motor City Wannabe
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain traveled the world, but his heart was in Motown.
What Are You So Damned Happy About?
Daniel Horowitz's Happier? tells the story of how happiness became such a hot topic, and it shows us — at least in part — why that is such a problem.
Losing the Narrative of Your Life: On Alissa Quart’s ’Squeezed’
Alissa Quart’s perspective-driven reporting on the struggles of middle-class working families in Squeezed addresses the results of America’s utterly depraved neoliberal capitalist state.
The Rationality of Violence: The Kerner Commission and the Riots of 1967
Separate and Unequal provides a riveting account of a crucial moment in US history. It offers a penetrating insight into the manner in which good intentions and just causes necessarily confront the mechanisms of governmental bureaucracy.
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“Pounding Humility into You Permanently”: On Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain was loved not for his wit or charming temerity, but for confronting us with our own alienation and cultural isolation.
Why Arthur Miller and Saul Bellow’s Doomed American Heroes Are Timeless
Perpetual "losers" Willy Loman and Tommy Wilhelm bitterly struggle to survive amidst the same economic and social forces that continue to challenge their real-world counterparts today.