A Video Player interface with a tv rating in its center

Film and TV Ratings in the Streaming Age

We've got Netflix, AppleTV, YouTube, and Prime literally in the palms of our hands. Do conventional movie and television rating systems matter to us?
Frank P. Zeidler

Race-baiting the Last Big City Socialist

When business interests tried to use red-baiting to take down a socialist mayor of Milwaukee in the Fifties, it didn't work, so they used race-baiting instead.
An illustration depicting a face made out of circuits that dissolves into a cloud filled with screenshots of streaming television and movie title images

Are You Still Watching?

The work of cinema in the age of streaming services.
OK Soda can

Sells Like Teen Spirit

OK Soda disappeared from the store shelves of the 1990s shortly after its debut. But did its wink-wink marketing to Gen X actually work?
Robert Mitchum aiming gun over car in a scene from the film 'Farewell, My Lovely', 1975.

QAnon as Neo-Noir

The popular conspiracy theory has intriguing parallels with classic noir by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
The sheet music booklet for I'm Just Wild About Harry

When the Truman Campaign Used a Song from an All-Black Show

"I'm Just Wild about Harry" originated with the songwriting team of Sissle and Blake and first appeared in the Broadway musical Shuffle Along.
Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury on War, Recycling, and Artificial Intelligence

As the 21st century unravels, Ray Bradbury remains a fundamental figure of the sci-fi genre.
Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein: We Are Sleepwalking toward Apocalypse

Klein talks about her new book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, and the youth movement for climate action.
David Berman

David Berman

Three poems by writer and musician David Berman.
A woman looking annoyed with something on her smartphone

On Brands’ Bad Social Media

The phenomena of brands trying to tweet like teenagers might be new, but brands have been trying to seem cool for decades.