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

Culture

Silk Road Rage

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

Michael Atkinson

Culture

Saints and Sinners

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

Yasmin Nair

Culture

Experts Needed; Knowledge Optional

How the Beltway media embraced a fake Syria expert.

Chris Lehmann

Culture

The Seamus Heaney I Knew

In memory of a Nobelist and a dear friend.

Jane Miller

Culture

The Zombie Economist

Alan Greenspan is baa-ack.

Chris Lehmann

Culture

Are We Fabulous Yet?

The tyranny of queer beauty.

Yasmin Nair

Culture

Uh-oh, We F**ked Our Mother

Our Oedipal relationship with Mother Earth.

Theo Anderson

Culture

This Can’t Be Paradise

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

Michael Atkinson

Culture

Jonathan Lethem’s New Muse

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

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Culture

Hard Times, the Sequel

George Packer on the disappearance of the American Dream.

Catherine Tumber

Culture

China’s One-Child Tyranny

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

Jane Miller

Culture

Back to the Orchard

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

John Collins

Culture

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

Culture

Dystopia, for the ‘Lulz’

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

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Culture

Rats in the Laboratory of Democracy

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

Chris Lehmann

Culture

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

Culture

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

Culture

Tricky Dick’s Flicks

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

Michael Atkinson

Culture

In the Dark About Light

Our streetlight problem.

Elizabeth Sanders and Seth Bensel

Culture

A Brief History of Squatting

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

Arun Gupta

Culture

The Myth of the Hardhat Hawk

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

Bhaskar Sunkara

Culture

Ecce Homo Sorkinia

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

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Culture

Gaga for Google

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

Chris Lehmann