How We Learn the World
Why are we humans so impatient with any way of learning the world that is not our own?
Dispatches
Platform Offers Documentaries on Photographers, Such as Josef Koudelka
In the 2019 documentary ‘Koudelka: Shooting Holy Land,’ directed by Gilad Baram we get to see a photographer with the perfectionism of a master and the patience of a saint. Koudelka has lived a life of discomfort and often danger for his art.
The Rage over “Adolescence”
What disgusted a handful of people about one of the best recent shows on television—and what that reveals about us
How a Propaganda Campaign Killed Our Trust in Science and Government
Market fundamentalism’s propaganda gave us climate destruction, a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, a lousy pandemic response...and, ironically, Trump.
Entering Other People’s Churches
A Dickensian outing with the ghost of Easters past.
Why April Really Is a Cruel Month
Spring, after all, is the supposed season of renewal after the darkness of winter. In fact, for millions of people who straddle the cause-and-effect of depression, allergies, and autoimmune disorders, it is the season of spiritual and physical struggle.
Rite of Spring
Even Earth spring cleans. And there is power in this dreaded ritual.
Documentary on Artist Art Spiegelman Worth a Watch
There is much of interest in the documentary “Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse” about technique, layout, framing, visual style, and the burden of guilt in storytelling, because these things cannot do enough.
What Buckminster Fuller Would Tell Us
He wanted to “make the world work, for 100 percent of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” Seems so quaint now.
Into the Tallow End
“Tallow.” Say it carefully even once or twice and we notice instantly its phonetic advantage over the word “lard,” which sounds suspiciously like “lord” but falls just one vowel short of such esteem because no one would like to think of using God’s name in vain, much less as something we might cook with.