Everybody Stays at the Party Says Podcaster and Comedian Tom Scharpling
The Best Show creator Tom Scharpling talks with PopMatters about his memoir It Never Ends and how he reached the greatest phase of his radio/podcasting career.
culture
What’s So Funny About Tragic Things?
Scepanski’s Tragedy Plus Time takes a serious look at how comedy and satire in American media make light of dark matters.
Eurovision 2020: Staging Political Identity
Eurovision contestants subvert the events' apolitical ethos simply with their identity, which is then subverted by performer and audience subjectivity. So who, ultimately, wins?
Walking the Tightrope Between History and Memory in Japan: On Harootunian’s ‘Uneven Moments’
Harry Harootunian's essays on modern Japanese history, collected in Uneven Moments from Columbia University Press, reflect a lifetime of intellectual contributions and span a wide range of topics in Japanese history. The tension between the historical and the everyday is a recurrent and vital theme in his work.
Debut Essay Collection ‘Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now’ Takes a Slice from the Americana Songbook
Although Andre Perry's essays in his debut, Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now, traverse various geographical journeys, they are, overall, ballads, images from the self, the man isolated and marginalized in other countries and in his own land.
#PopMatters20: Tech Is Evil and TechKnow Kinda Told You So
How deluded we were about our devices being labor-saving, productivity-increasing cure-alls! And other realizations of how the rise of technology has affected our lives.
John Berger was a Lifelong Cultural Agitator with a Valuable Point of View
Joshua Sperling’s biography of John Berger is more of an art history text that’s focused on specific social and political elements as they are connected through Berger’s perspective.
‘Blanket’ Virtually Covers It All
Kara Thompson's Blanket provides an excellent, warm, and informed history in the Bloomsbury Academic Object Lessons series.
Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Nanette’ Makes Us Realize the Present Tense
Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette is a cultural milestone not only because it demands a better future, but also teaches the present moment and where we might go next.
‘Devil’s Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies’ Joins the Debate on the Origins of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Devil’s Music delves into the murky world of rock ‘n’ roll history and the genre’s convoluted origins, resulting in a concise analysis of how the music came to be.
How Fragile Relationships and Plans Can Be in Cara Hoffman’s Running
Running is a disconcerting, moving, and ultimately treasurable novel whose rich, lived-in world and remarkably complex and empathetic protagonists remain alluring from start to finish.
Migos: C U L T U R E (take 2)
Migos’ second studio album, Culture, is a victory lap and a statement of intent.