Culture

A Bathroom of One’s Own

In a Kenyan slum, pocket privies offer women safety, autonomy and a way to make a living.

John Collins

Silk Road Rage

Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin is a grotesque portrayal of modern-day China's struggle with corruption.

Michael Atkinson

Saints and Sinners

Stephen Jimenez's new book, The Book of Matt, aims to de-mythologize Matthew Shepard.

Yasmin Nair

Experts Needed; Knowledge Optional

How the Beltway media embraced a fake Syria expert.

Chris Lehmann

The Seamus Heaney I Knew

In memory of a Nobelist and a dear friend.

Jane Miller

The Zombie Economist

Alan Greenspan is baa-ack.

Chris Lehmann

Are We Fabulous Yet?

The tyranny of queer beauty.

Yasmin Nair

Uh-oh, We F**ked Our Mother

Our Oedipal relationship with Mother Earth.

Theo Anderson

This Can’t Be Paradise

Dante gets an update in Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's provocative new films.

Michael Atkinson

Jonathan Lethem’s New Muse

A failed socialist utopia in Queens stands in for the disarray of American progressivism.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Hard Times, the Sequel

George Packer on the disappearance of the American Dream.

Catherine Tumber

China’s One-Child Tyranny

In his new novel, Chinese author Ma Jian vividly excoriates his native country's population control.

Jane Miller

Back to the Orchard

Restoring a farm on Lake Superior with hard work and hard cider.

John Collins

Orange Is the New Black Roundtable, Part 1: Why, Despite Ourselves, We’re Watching

Our panel of experts on how they got sucked into OITNB, and whether the show gets race right.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Dystopia, for the ‘Lulz’

In MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood explores fundamental questions and mutant pigs.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Rats in the Laboratory of Democracy

State legislatures are gaining power, but not for the people.

Chris Lehmann

Orange Is the New Black, Episode 3: Trans Women and Mentally Ill Cartoons

In OITNB's most-talked-about episode, Sophia Burset explodes transgender stereotypes, and Crazy Eyes gets thrown under the bus.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

P.J. Harvey Gets Unmistakably Political

Harvey's new track pays homage to Shaker Aamer, who has spent 13 years in Guantanamo.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle