How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare
A young Richard Nixon started asking studio executives why they didn't produce anti-Communist movies. The studios quickly responded with anti-Red films.
Radical Questions: Am I My Memories?
"White Bear," an episode of the television show Black Mirror, documents the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on the protagonist, an amnesiac.
Do We Have Moral Obligations to Robots?
The recent film Blade Runner 2049 engages with questions raised by Karel Čapek and Isaac Asimov: What do we owe our creations (and what do they owe us)?
The Truth About Sherlock Holmes: He’s Actually Henry David Thoreau
A tongue in cheek comparison between the British fictional sleuth and the American Transcendentalist author, just because.
Is Don Quixote to Blame for Modern Movie Reboots?
The culture industry has long repackaged content from the past for the present. Just look at Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
What Rum and Cokes Have to do With War
What could be more American than a sugary soda mixed with a liquor made from sugar? The origins of rum and Coke is more problematic than you might expect.
How the American Civil War Shaped Marxism
Although Karl Marx never saw the U.S., he thought long and hard about how it fit into his theory, especially during the Civil War.
How Ancient Peoples Fed the Dead
4,000 years ago in what is now Jerusalem, someone was buried with a jar of headless toads. In fact, many ancient graves included food for the afterlife.
Alice Roosevelt: The Original First Kid
Alice Roosevelt set the tone for a more public first kid and laid the foundation for post-White-House activism like Chelsea Clinton’s.