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It is difficult to watch the work of an artist who is not a genius, and Christopher Nolan is no exception. His Odyssey, which was released... Read More

Henry Oliver is an English writer who runs the popular Substack The Common Reader and a podcast with the same name. He is a Research Fellow... Read More

John Berger had one of the longest and richest lives among British writers, but he never quite made it to 100. In his absence, the centenary... Read More

Like most American sports fans, I find the very low scoring in soccer to be a bit vexing.1 Despite that, I had a ton of fun watching the... Read More

Your daughter’s smile is dearer to you than that of a stranger half a world away. Of course it is. Human life is situated and embodied,... Read More

Like we count our real friends on one hand, I have a very limited number of museums that are truly special, especially good at a focused... Read More

Forget the $10,000 tickets and the travel bans and the fact that the last three World Cups have been hosted in Russia, Qatar, and Donald... Read More

Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman did not necessarily know the extent to which their lives would change last summer when, at the start... Read More

IN FIFTH GRADE, I brought a stack of Nancy Drew books on a camping trip. I read one a day, hauling them on hikes and finishing them by... Read More

It’s around 12:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, and the doors have just opened at Bacara, a new “streamer-first” nightclub on 23rd... Read More

In late June, New York City Ballet returned to Los Angeles for the first time in twenty years and presented two dance programs at the Music... Read More

The Odyssey is a story of a world defined only by memory. If you leave for a distant war and are gone for 20 years, of course you would... Read More

When The Idea Machine came out last fall, Anna Gát invited me to Manhattan for an Interintellect salon to discuss it. Anna’s the... Read More

I feel Pharoah Sanders’s presence all around me at Montreal Jazz Festival. It’s more than just his photo lacquered in... Read More

These days, I feel a kind of paranoid protectiveness about reading, as though it were a pleasure that powerful interests wanted to deny me.... Read More

A recent Persuasion article by Andrea Miotti argues that “We Need an International Treaty to Ban Superintelligence.” His... Read More

In 1957 Stephen Sondheim made his Broadway debut at the age of twenty-seven as a lyricist for West Side Story, a retelling of William... Read More

On a black volcanic beach, Christopher Nolan peers into a wheeled contraption that looks like a portable air-conditioner. The IMAX camera,... Read More

This post is most profitably read as an addendum to Naomi Kanakia’s impressively comprehensive report on the influence of the Austrian... Read More

FOR A MOMENT before The Moment -- no, not that one; the other one, the one that started it all -- Sophie Cunningham considers exercising... Read More

On July 16th, I left Washington D.C. and returned to the American interior. It is likely I will only go back to retrieve my furniture from... Read More

Christopher Nolan’s new film is an absolute masterpiece.  Read More

A good New York City summer is filled with music. I sit backstage in the green room, supporting my closest friend as they prepare to go... Read More

Ohioan John Ream is an accomplished aerospace engineer and brewery owner. He would like to try his hand at making Bourbon. However, federal... Read More

Years ago, living in Washington, D.C., I spent much of my time waiting for the San Francisco Giants to come to town. In 2009, the team was... Read More

The “chudosphere” has had a very busy last few days. Ever tasked by Our Lord with his heaviest burdens, one depraved event has... Read More

I spent the spring and summer of 2025 on my phone. It was rarely far from my hand, this time-eating box I used to communicate with my loved... Read More

Ian Marcus Corbin’s new book, To Arrive Where We Started, offers a deep reflection on traditional wisdom, drawing on complexity theory... Read More

– You won’t change the world with what you do,And since this frankness seems to have such charms for you,I tell you, frankly,... Read More

Several months ago I asked Camille Bordas if I could interview her to mark the release of her debut story collection, One Sun Only. It took... Read More

Go slowly. This is goodbye. Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine concludes one of the richest portraits of New York — a suave trilogy... Read More

1991 was the last great season of America's pastime.  Now, before I get trashed on this, hear me out. At the beginning of the last... Read More

The Baffler is the prettiest magazine that I’ve reviewed so far. It is perfect-bound, 130ish pages in length, with matte covers,... Read More

I have been to the Backrooms, and the Backrooms have made me sad. Like every other artist on earth, I can’t keep from reflecting on... Read More

This was 2016. I was living in Portland. I got to know this young guy, Brett. He was a pretty sharp guy. He was active in the local literary... Read More

The Mojave Desert is in Claire Vaye Watkins’s DNA. She was born in Bishop, four hours away from Tecopa, the town in Death Valley where... Read More