Some Impersonal NewsSocial media has radically transformed pregnancy announcements, and our entire private lives....LAUREN CARROLL HARRISCULTURAL STUDIES
We’ll Cede Our Rights to Make It Stop: A Conversation with Cathy O’NeilElizabeth DeWolf interviews mathematician Cathy O’Neil about her latest book on the shame industrial complex....ELIZABETH DEWOLFCULTURAL STUDIES
Cultural DopesThe postmodernists had it right: all culture is the product of capitalism....GD DESSCULTURAL STUDIES
How Dictionaries Define Us: Margaret Boyle and Ilan Stavans in ConversationWhat can dictionaries tell us about cultural crises and the politics of nationality?...ILAN STAVANS, MARGARET BOYLECULTURAL STUDIES
Biohacking Pain: On Leigh Cowart’s “Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose”Why do some of us embrace — even pursue — painful experiences?...RHODA FENGCULTURAL STUDIES
On Cat PicturesThe innate wildness of cats makes them rich fodder for internet memes....TEOW LIM GOHCULTURAL STUDIES
The Jewish Decadence or the Decadence of Jews?Natan M. Meir reviews the recently published book by Jonathan Freedman, “The Jewish Decadence: Jews and the Aesthetics of Modernity.”...NATAN M. MEIRCULTURAL STUDIES
Imagining a More Habitable Present: On Grafton Tanner’s “The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia”Tanner’s new book examines how nostalgia circulates in our culture both innocuously and destructively....EMMALEA RUSSOCULTURAL STUDIES
Explicit and Confounding Books: On Christopher Hilliard’s “A Matter of Obscenity”A lucid and engaging cultural history of censorship debates in Britain from 1857 to 1979....THOMAS J. SOJKACULTURAL STUDIES
Learning in Being Lonely: On Jay Caspian Kang’s “The Loneliest Americans”Summer Kim Lee reviews “The Loneliest Americans,” the new book by Jay Caspian Kang....SUMMER KIM LEECULTURAL STUDIES
Semipublic Intellectual Sessions: “Where’s ‘the Discourse’?”A transcript of the panel discussion “Where’s ‘the Discourse’?” – a conversation in the Semipublic Intellectual Sessions, which took place on October 7....LILI LOOFBOUROW, DAPHNE A. BROOKS, JESSE MCCARTHY, SARAH MARSHALL, LEXIS-OLIVIER RAYCULTURAL STUDIES
Say the Word: On Amanda Montell’s “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism”Words and their power are at the heart of Amanda Montell’s new book....OLIVIA GERBERCULTURAL STUDIES
Scandal on the Dance FloorThe allure of mixed-sex dancing in Jewish literature and contemporary popular culture....SONIA GOLLANCECULTURAL STUDIES
Waves of Transformation: Five Women of the Chicago Avant-GardeLARB presents an excerpt from “Chicago Avant-Garde: Five Women Ahead of Their Time.”...LIESL OLSONCULTURAL STUDIES
The Publishing Ecosystem in the Digital Era: On John B. Thompson’s “Book Wars”A new book maps how the publishing ecosystem has persisted and morphed in the digital environment....JENNIFER HOWARDCULTURAL STUDIES
Corpse Capitalism: On John Troyer’s “Technologies of the Human Corpse”A curiously optimistic new study of the commercial exploitation of dead bodies....DEBORAH STREAHLECULTURAL STUDIES
If It Isn’t Broken: A Conversation with Justine BatemanJustine Bateman discusses her new book, “Face,” which examines the lengths many women go to in order to “fix” their aging faces....FRANCESCA BELLCULTURAL STUDIES
Strategic Audio: Podcasts, Propaganda, and the Fairy Tales of Data MiningMichelle Chihara explores the podcast form as a vehicle for corporate puffery masquerading as journalistic inquiry....MICHELLE CHIHARACULTURAL STUDIES
Antiseptic Glass StreamSun-ha Hong deconstructs the “paradox of intimacy and disconnection” at the heart of the Peloton fitness brand....SUN-HA HONGCULTURAL STUDIES
Patriotic Obscenity: Aaron Poochigian and the Comedy of AristophanesMark Haskell Smith talks Athenian rudeness with Aaron Poochigian, translator of “Aristophanes: Four Plays: Clouds, Birds, Lysistrata, Women of the Assembly.”...MARK HASKELL SMITHCULTURAL STUDIES
Behind Closed Doors: America’s Couple Therapy Entertainment ComplexEvery generation gets the iconic couples therapist it deserves....HANNAH ZEAVINCULTURAL STUDIES
The Comedian in PainIf our great comics have all been martyrs, maybe the great martyrs were also comics....JASON CRAWFORDCULTURAL STUDIES
At Shul, We Drink Single Malt: On “A Fortress in Brooklyn”An inquiry into a fierce culture war shines light on an insular sect of Judaism....LAURA E. ADKINSCULTURAL STUDIES
Academic Affects: A Conversation on Guilty PleasuresSarah Mesle talks with Arielle Zibrak, Ana Quiring, and Kyla Wazana Tompkins about the “bad” feelings of aesthetic experience....SARAH MESLECULTURAL STUDIES