Information is power. Our mission at Portside is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material. Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help.

 

Archives

For posts before June 2012, please follow these links to our archives.

What Will Humans Eat on Mars?

Andrea Michelson Smithsonian Magazinem
Scientists at the University of Central Florida have modeled a path toward self-sufficiency for one million settlers of Mars over the course of 100 Earth years.
Planetary scientist Kevin Cannon talks about the logistics of feeding a population of one million on the Red Planet.

Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen Is A Reckoning Worth Waiting For

Danette Chavez AV Club
HBO's Watchmen's writing presents through-lines from slavery to Reconstruction to the so-called “alt-right”; from, as Rage Against The Machine once put it, those who work forces to those who burn crosses.

Three Flats

Philip C. Kolin
Mississippi poet Philip C. Kolin traces the evolution of his childhood neighborhood in Chicago that went from Czech to Hispanic.

Insular, Controversial Picks for Nobel Literature Laureates

Jennifer Wilson The Nation
Next year, says the reviewer, the Nobel Committee for Literature should look beyond Europe. Despite the differences between awardees Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke, they both reflect a divided Europe as viewed only from within its borders.

'The Irishman": The Ghost of Jimmy Hoffa Won’t Go Away

Steve Early Jacobin
Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman continues Hollywood’s obsession with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. We’re more concerned with what happened to Teamster working conditions under his son, James P. Hoffa.

Noon in a three star restaurant

Marge Piercy Chiron Review
“He does not represent us,” writes poet Marge Piercy about the misogynist Senator, but knows the “clichés that light up brains.”

Top 10 Books About Black Radicalism

Kehinde Andrews The Guardian
In honoring Black History Month, the author lists 10 superlative books by radical voices instrumental in cohering modern black thought.