Reviews
‘Furious Minds’ charts the factions of the MAGA movement
Books had little to do with the populist uprising that swept Donald Trump into power in 2016 and 2024. But a cadre of right-wing writers and influencers have been constructing intellectual scaffolding around the MAGA…
Breaking Rust is an AI-generated country music artist
"Walk My Walk" topped Billboard's country chart for digital song sales in November. The song opens with a deep, soulful hum, followed by a mellow, slightly twangy voice telling listeners that he's been…
The Milken Center in D.C is a shrine to capitalism
The brand-new Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream is weirdly evasive about capitalism's messy entanglement with the state. One might have expected that topic to come up, given the museum's location:…
‘Death by Lightning’ dramatizes James Garfield’s forgettable assassination
Mike Makowsky opens Death by Lightning, a four-part miniseries he wrote and produced, with a chilling line: "This is a true story about two men the world forgot. One was the 20th president of the United States. The other…
This book shows why invading Greenland would be a dumb idea
Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic, by Kenneth R. Rosen, Simon & Schuster, 320 pages, $29 When he first started talking about it, President Donald Trump's desire to take over…
‘Muscle Man’ novel comments on men and weightlifting
In the years since the pandemic, weightlifting has frequently been associated with right-wing and even neofascist politics. In the media, guys—and it's always guys—who lift are regularly portrayed as authoritarian thugs,…
Review: Tron: Ares Reminds Us That Artificial Intelligence Is Not the Enemy
Will a hyperadvanced AI be a danger to humanity? That's nothing compared to the threat posed by military contractors. That's the implicit conclusion of Tron: Ares, the third installment in the series that began with…
‘The Sound of Music’ is an anti-authoritarian musical
The Kennedy Center hosted director Jack O'Brien's production of The Sound of Music from September to October. O'Brien's rendition left little to criticize: stunning sets, apt casting, and exquisite vocal…
Review: Wayward Spotlights the Dark Secrets of Troubled-Teen Programs
Netflix's Wayward follows Abbie and Leila, two best friends trying to escape Tall Pines Academy—a disciplinary boarding school in a small town—as well as Alex, a police officer who just moved to town with his wife. Abbie…
‘Project Mind Control’ book documents MKUltra project
Project Mind Control tells the lurid tale of the CIA's attempts to discover the scientific principles that would allow people to control subjects' thoughts and actions. The author, University of Texas historian John…
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