Skip to main content

How Music Got Free

Chris Molanphy Barnes & Noble Review
Since the year 2000, Chris Molanphy reminds us in his review of this history of digital music by Stephen Witt, "the recording industry’s revenue has more than halved and music consumption has undergone a definitive realignment." How did this happen? At least part of the story has to do with the story Witt tells. It's a story of how music traders, engineers, rogue industry executives, and music hobbyists all came together to create massive disruption.

Something to Offer

William P. Jones Jacobin
Unlike many in his party, Eugene V. Debs believed the struggle for black equality was critical to realizing the promise of socialism.

Film Review: 'The Wolfpack' and 'The Tribe' - Boys in the Cage

J. Hoberman The New York Review of Books
'The Wolfpack' concerns a large family that, self-isolated for years in a New York City housing project, developed its own tribal culture largely based on Hollywood blockbusters. 'The Tribe', is a fiction film set mainly within the dog-eat-dog confines of a Kiev boarding school for hearing-impaired adolescents and played out entirely in sign language by amateur, similarly impaired actor.

Imagining a Progressive South

Chisolm Allenlundy TalkPoverty.org
There has long existed a passionate and driven community of Southern progressives who have pushed not only the region but the entire country toward the realization of racial justice and true economic opportunity. When the nation lent its ear and sword to these individuals and organizations, they fundamentally altered history.

How the Iran Deal Could Reshape the Middle East

Benjamin Tua Foreign Policy in Focus
In the days immediately preceding and following the conclusion of the nuclear agreement, both the United States and, to some degree, Iran emphasized its narrow nature and the intractable character of the many differences between the two countries. Soon, however, both sides began to speak of possibilities for more cooperative relationships in the region.

Meet ALEC's (Hoped For) Man in Washington: Scott Walker

Brian Murphy Talking Points Memo
One of the group’s most high profile alumni is Scott Walker. It’s possible that no American politician who holds office today has worked harder to successfully advance ALEC’s agenda than Walker. And no previous candidate for the White House has ever owed so much to ALEC at the outset of his campaign.Walker’s longstanding association with the group dates back to his first days as a state legislator in the early 1990s.

Silicon Valley Meets America's Salad Bowl

ARIEL SCHWARTZ fastcoexisit.com
Though just down the road from each other, the country's tech capital and one of the country's largest farming regions are only now starting to work together—with only a little culture clash. If farmers and tech entrepreneurs can find common ground, our food supply will benefit.

The Amazonization of Everything

David Golumbia Jacobin
Amazon’s success lies in worker exploitation and intrusions into consumers’ private lives.