On Social Distancing
California poet Jacki Rigoni responds to the phrase social distancing, just added to the dictionary in March, and how much we were doing without naming it.
poetry
Hydroxychloroquine
Pete Seidman, Florida activist, has his own version of the moral arc of history.
books
The Corrupt Bargain: Inequities of the Electoral College, Past and Present
London Review of Books
The U.S is ostensibly a democracy, yet past presidential elections, most recently in 2016, saw the loser of the popular vote elected. Two authors look at the convoluted Electoral College system, singular among advanced nations, and propose remedies.
books
Unstable Histories
Radical Philosophy
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, radical psychologists and psychoanalysts sought to transform their profession. This book shows how those efforts intersected with the radical cultural and political movements of the day.
film
Spike Lee and the Battlefield of American History
The New York Times
Spike Lee has spent nearly four decades and more than 30 films reckoning with the jagged and brutal course of history. Now, in the middle of a global calamity, and with a new film, “Da 5 Bloods", he revisits the Vietnam War.
food
America’s First Connoisseur
The Paris Review
Jefferson brought James Hemings to France and gave him a first-rate culinary education with some of Europe's most illustrious chefs. His legacy thrives today in kitchens across America.
tv
The Netflix Show The Pentagon Can’t Stop Talking About
Politico
The U.S. Space Force is about to be eclipsed by Netflix’s upcoming parody—and that might be a good thing.
books
How Capitalist Economics Structures Inequality
Portside
The world economy, to the degree it still works at all, serves to benefit the few at the expense of the many. The author of the book under review does an economic deep dive into ways that can reverse that antidemocratic equation.
books
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pandemics In 'The End Of October'
NPR
Journalist Lawrence Wright brings his considerable skills to bear in this novel about a pandemic, written before our current crisis erupted.
film
Never Rarely Sometimes Always - Profoundly Moving Abortion Drama
The Guardian
Elliza Hittman’s coming-of-age story about a teenager seeking an abortion is heartbreaking and painfully authentic. Hittman has described her film as “a narrative about a girl carrying around a lot of pain and burden, and the lonliness of it all".
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