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Friday, February 13

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Listening to Joe Rogan

How a gift for shooting the shit turned into an online empire—and a political force.

What’s a Big-Budget Filmmaker Without the Budget?

Gore Verbinski once helmed the most expensive movies ever made—now he’s eschewing the studio system altogether. Is this a viable path for blockbuster directors too weird for Hollywood?

What Three Films Tell Us About 2025
Sam Jennings, The Metropolitan Review
The Work of Automating Human Thought
Oliver Bateman, Oliver Bateman Does the Work
Literature of the Non-Self
The Literarian Gazette, The Republic of Letters
Algorithm Nation
Christian Lorentzen, Bookforum
High Fashion Wasn’t Easy in Imperial Spain
Brian T. Allen, National Review
The Failure to Be Interesting
Daniel Oppenheimer, Eminent Americans
Motherhood in Bits and Pieces
Hollis Robbins, The Republic of Letters
Gore Verbinski Sounds Off on AI
Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter
Doctor and Detective
Lovia Gyarkye, The Nation
The Sexbot Revolution Is Already Here
Debra Soh, The Free Press
Valentine's Day
Dave Barry, Dave Barry’s Substack
On Krisztina Tóth’s “Eye of the Monkey”
Joe Coward, Cleveland Review of Books
The Foundation Controlling the Humanities
Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic
Planned Man's Links of the Day
Podcast: The Mandarins, Their Virtues and Vices by Eminent Americans
Available this week: "Writer's Diary" by Matthew Gasda
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American Civics

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Essential Reading

America’s Civic Values Outweigh its Divisions
Americans of all backgrounds overwhelmingly support a core set of legal and constitutional obligations.
David McCullough and the Study of History
One of the greatest weeks of my life was the week David McCullough came to teach a one-credit course at Hillsdale College in 2006.

In the News

Multimedia

Why Civics Education Is America’s New Flashpoin
The Long Road to Juneteenth
Lincoln’s Prophetic Statesmanship with Edward Erler

Censorship

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Essential Reading

May Aliens Be Deported Based on Their Speech?
The answer, oddly, isn't settled.
The COVID-era Smearing—and Resurrection—of Trump NIH Appointee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Bhattacharya’s path from health policy scholar to NIH director nominee is pockmarked with craters from missiles launched to destroy his scientific credibility by NIH leaders and their minions in academia.

In the News

Multimedia

Zuckerberg Ending Censorship on Facebook: "The Fact-Checkers Have Just Been Too Politically Biased"
John Kerry Tells WEF: Our First Amendment Stands As A Major Block Against Hammering Disinformation Out of Existence
House Committee Rips State Department Over Censorship

More From Real Clear

Myths from the Earth's Edge
DJ Casper's 'Cha Cha Slide'
The Bridge Scene from William Friedkin's "Sorcerer"
"The French Connection" Car Chase

RealClearBooks Thursday

Why Do We Like Music?

People with musical anhedonia, a rare inability to enjoy music, are teaching scientists how the brain processes songs.

John Oliver Keeps Pushing the Rock Up the Hill

As ‘Last Week Tonight’ launches its 13th season into an atmosphere of division and anti-information, its host explains how the show has changed—and why they keep making it 

How Bad Bunny Mogged George Bush
Germán S. Díaz del Castillo, First Things
Get Married Young
Brad Wilcox, Compact
On the Clock
Lora Kelley, Kismet
Selling the Sex Recession
Magdalene J. Taylor, Many Such Cases
Thomas Pynchon’s America
Benjamin Kunkel, The Nation
Olympics Should Stop Pretending to Be What They’re Not
Ilya Shapiro, City Journal
Wild Facts
Robert Rubsam, The Baffler
Hard Boiled
Lizzy Harding , Bookforum
Can We Escape AI Slavery?
Yanis Varoufakis, UnHerd
We Were a Breaking News Team
Bart Schaneman, The Republic of Letters
At the Winter Olympics With George Clooney
Michael Sebastian, Esquire

Listening to Joe Rogan

How a gift for shooting the shit turned into an online empire—and a political force.

What’s a Big-Budget Filmmaker Without the Budget?

Gore Verbinski once helmed the most expensive movies ever made—now he’s eschewing the studio system altogether. Is this a viable path for blockbuster directors too weird for Hollywood?

What Three Films Tell Us About 2025

Sam Jennings, The Metropolitan Review

I want to take advantage of the ramp-up to Oscar season — a wonderful time, during which my inner child will always be excited, no... Read More

The Work of Automating Human Thought

Oliver Bateman, Oliver Bateman Does the Work

In 1979, a linguist named Michael Reddy published a paper about a fundamental problem in human communication. That paper... Read More

Literature of the Non-Self

The Literarian Gazette, The Republic of Letters

In 2018, English writer Rachel Cusk announced the death of character. It was only a matter of time, of course. Nominally killing off... Read More

Algorithm Nation

Christian Lorentzen, Bookforum

IN DECEMBER, A. S. Hamrah released two books: Algorithm of the Night: Film Writing, 2019–2025, his second collection of movie... Read More

High Fashion Wasn’t Easy in Imperial Spain

Brian T. Allen, National Review

One thing that enquiring minds don’t ask anymore is whether the Hispanic Society is worth a visit. Those in the know understand... Read More

The Failure to Be Interesting

Daniel Oppenheimer, Eminent Americans

About halfway through Marc Maron’s recent interview with Barack Obama, the final episode in Maron’s extraordinary 16... Read More

Motherhood in Bits and Pieces

Hollis Robbins, The Republic of Letters

The other day on Substack, a comment about no works of literature about motherhood. Can anyone think of any novels/films/stories about... Read More

Gore Verbinski Sounds Off on AI

Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter

The Pirates of the Caribbean helmer hasn’t put out a film since early 2017, and to say that the world has changed in the time... Read More

Doctor and Detective

Lovia Gyarkye, The Nation

Since her breakout role in Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster has been known for delivering steely performances of impenetrable women. From the... Read More

The Sexbot Revolution Is Already Here

Debra Soh, The Free Press

I first encountered an early prototype of a sex robot when I was completing my PhD in neuroscience in 2017, and a friend sent me a viral... Read More

Valentine's Day

Dave Barry, Dave Barry’s Substack

Listen up, men: Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I realize that some of you — maybe most of you — did not see it coming.... Read More

On Krisztina Tóth’s “Eye of the Monkey”

Joe Coward, Cleveland Review of Books

I had never read a Krisztina Tóth novel before, and, unless you read Hungarian, German, Chinese, Macedonian, or Czech, neither had... Read More

The Foundation Controlling the Humanities

Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic

In 1964, an influential report identified a disquieting trend in academia. “Increasingly during the past few years,” it... Read More

American Civics

Sponsored Curation Powered By:

Essential Reading

America’s Civic Values Outweigh its Divisions
Americans of all backgrounds overwhelmingly support a core set of legal and constitutional obligations.
David McCullough and the Study of History
One of the greatest weeks of my life was the week David McCullough came to teach a one-credit course at Hillsdale College in 2006.

In the News

Multimedia

Why Civics Education Is America’s New Flashpoin
The Long Road to Juneteenth
Lincoln’s Prophetic Statesmanship with Edward Erler

Censorship

Sponsored Curation Powered By:

Essential Reading

May Aliens Be Deported Based on Their Speech?
The answer, oddly, isn't settled.
The COVID-era Smearing—and Resurrection—of Trump NIH Appointee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Bhattacharya’s path from health policy scholar to NIH director nominee is pockmarked with craters from missiles launched to destroy his scientific credibility by NIH leaders and their minions in academia.

In the News

Multimedia

Zuckerberg Ending Censorship on Facebook: "The Fact-Checkers Have Just Been Too Politically Biased"
John Kerry Tells WEF: Our First Amendment Stands As A Major Block Against Hammering Disinformation Out of Existence
House Committee Rips State Department Over Censorship

More From Real Clear

Myths from the Earth's Edge
DJ Casper's 'Cha Cha Slide'
The Bridge Scene from William Friedkin's "Sorcerer"
"The French Connection" Car Chase

RealClearBooks Thursday

Why Do We Like Music?

People with musical anhedonia, a rare inability to enjoy music, are teaching scientists how the brain processes songs.

John Oliver Keeps Pushing the Rock Up the Hill

As ‘Last Week Tonight’ launches its 13th season into an atmosphere of division and anti-information, its host explains how the show has changed—and why they keep making it 

How Bad Bunny Mogged George Bush

Germán S. Díaz del Castillo, First Things

On Sunday night, Americans had two options for the Super Bowl halftime show. The official NFL show was headlined by Puerto Rican artist... Read More

Get Married Young

Brad Wilcox, Compact

Lillian, a senior at the University of Virginia, is taking a step that has scandalized her parents, peers, and professors. It has nothing to... Read More

On the Clock

Lora Kelley, Kismet

There is an idea, promulgated notably in Derek Thompson’s 2019 Atlantic article “Workism Is Making Americans... Read More

Selling the Sex Recession

Magdalene J. Taylor, Many Such Cases

Surely you’re aware that Valentine’s Day is four days away. I love Valentine’s Day. Yes, sure, it is a commercialization... Read More

Thomas Pynchon’s America

Benjamin Kunkel, The Nation

If God had a personality, what would it be like? The two most obvious answers—God is benevolent and merciful; God is wrathful and... Read More

Olympics Should Stop Pretending to Be What They’re Not

Ilya Shapiro, City Journal

The 2026 Winter Olympics have arrived in Milano-Cortina with the usual pomp: flags, anthems, flashy choreography, and the insistence that,... Read More

Wild Facts

Robert Rubsam, The Baffler

“The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and... Read More

Hard Boiled

Lizzy Harding , Bookforum

IN 1999, AT THE AGE OF FORTY-THREE, ANTHONY BOURDAIN had all but given up hope that he would ever be recognized as a major talent in... Read More

Can We Escape AI Slavery?

Yanis Varoufakis, UnHerd

Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings, did not have two separate heads, but rather was two faces bound together into one divine... Read More

We Were a Breaking News Team

Bart Schaneman, The Republic of Letters

SEOUL — The Washington Post shut down its news operation here, where I’ve been working as an assignment editor for the... Read More

At the Winter Olympics With George Clooney

Michael Sebastian, Esquire

Photos of George and Amal Clooney in Milan this past weekend cascaded across social media and celebrity news sites. They looked elegant... Read More

Movies

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

The New Yorker

There are no guilty pleasures in childhood. It is only as an adult that I feel a certain sheepishness when recalling one of my favorite picture books, “Ann Likes Red,” by Dorothy Z. Seymour, which was originally published in 1965. Wedged between the vaunted volumes of Gorey and Scarry, “Ann Likes Red” stuck out both literally, for its squat stature, and literarily, for its hazy lesson in s... Read More

more from Movies

Music

Haim Sets Off on a Rampage

The New Yorker

This month, Haim—a three-piece rock band from Los Angeles, featuring the sisters Danielle, Alana, and Este Haim—will release “I Quit,” its fourth album and a carnal, sure-footed rebuttal of the idea that our lives should orbit around some eternal romantic commitment. Haim has always been interested in the ways that relationships transform, burn out, or begin anew; the band’s best songs a... Read More

more from Music

Television

AI Anxiety Is Plaguing Our TV Shows

Esquire

Greetings from Copenhagen! I’m currently visiting my sister, who moved out here a little over two years ago—right around when The Bear sent Marcus the pastry chef (Lionel Boyce) to travel around the city and learn about fancy pastries. After I interviewed Boyce that season, he pointed me to a hole-in-the-wall fried chicken joint called Poulette that he filmed a scene in for the show—and it... Read More

Television

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