Popular Culture
A selection of recent articles on this topic
How Happiness Studies Lets Us Down
Demand elicits supply. The demand I have in mind is the demand for happiness: Suicide rates are…
Neil Gaiman and the Failure of Modern Sexual Ethics
A recent Vulture article reporting on the sexual proclivities and alleged abusive activities of fantasy author Neil…
Ralph Lauren, American Patriot
On January 4, President Joe Biden honored nineteen individuals with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.…
To Hell with Notre Dame?
I first visited the University of Notre Dame du Lac (to use its proper inflated style) in…
The Mercurial Bob Dylan
There’s a version of Bob Dylan for everyone: small-town boy from Duluth, Minnesota; scrappy folk troubadour of…
An Unmerry Hitchmas
On December 14, Atheism UK and the Origins Project Foundation hosted a “Merry Hitchmas” event at the…
From Doubting Thomas to Doubting Peter?
Ralph Fiennes is a remarkable actor. And if he wins an Academy Award for his brilliant performance…
Wickedness
Though they probably don’t realize it, many Americans spent the tail end of 2024 engaged in a…
Medal of Freedom Recommendations for Trump
President Biden recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to nineteen worthies, celebrities, activists, and politicians (some…
One Cheer for Red One
Kevin Maher, chief film critic of the Times, pulls no punches in his review of the recently…
2024: Our Year in Film and Television
We asked some of our editors and writers to contribute a paragraph about the most memorable films…
Blue Bloods and the Power of Fatherhood
The long-running CBS series Blue Bloods had its series finale on December 13, after fourteen seasons on…
Luigi Mangione and the Glamour of Evil
On December 4, twenty-six-year-old Luigi Mangione allegedly fired a fatal shot into the back of Brian Thompson,…
Make Villains Wicked Again
In recent years, Hollywood has produced movies that cast once irredeemable villains, such as Maleficent, Cruella de…
Wifejak, Icon of the Normal
Social-media sites are dark places. Bigotry in every direction, footage of random ultra-violence, porn and OnlyFans content—all…
