Culture

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

Tricky Dick’s Flicks

Before going to prison, three giddy Nixon staffers took reels of White House footage.

Michael Atkinson

In the Dark About Light

Our streetlight problem.

Elizabeth Sanders and Seth Bensel

A Brief History of Squatting

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space chronicles decades of Lower East Side occupations.

Arun Gupta

The Myth of the Hardhat Hawk

Was the working class really the biggest proponent of the Vietnam War?

Bhaskar Sunkara

Ecce Homo Sorkinia

The Newsroom is back, and it's as condescending (and, yes, sexist) as ever.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Gaga for Google

The Internship: a study in the psychology of mass digital conformity.

Chris Lehmann

Psychonesia

Mass murderers reenact their crimes for fun in Joshua Oppenheimer's new documentary, The Act of Killing.

Michael Atkinson

Extra Time

What to do with those 'golden years' after 80?

Jane Miller