Technobabble
UK podcast star Helen Zaltzman of The Allusionist helps me figure out why one set of poorly understood pseudo-scientific terms can sink a scene, while another set can make a…
Postscript: Kate Millett’s Radical Spirit
Remembering the pioneering feminist author, who died this week, at the age of eighty-two.
Keeping ‘Insecure’ lit: HBO cinematographer Ava Berkofsky on properly lighting black faces
Any brown person who’s taken a selfie in the club can tell you cameras aren’t made for us. Yet in Insecure’s club scenes, dark-skinned protagonists like Yvonne Orji’s Molly continue…
A Black Food Historian Explores His Bittersweet Connection To Robert E. Lee
Michael Twitty's enslaved ancestors witnessed the Confederate general's surrender, the significance of which weaves through his new memoir as he seeks 'culinary justice' for African Americans. {read}
The Fall of The Simpsons: How it Happened
The Bizarre Modern Reality of The Simpsons
Night of the Living Dead – Horrors of Copyright
A quick look at George Romero's feature debut and the copyright issues that shaped the zombie genre.
33 Years Ago: Reagan Goes Union-Busting, Fires 11,000 Striking Air Traffic Controllers
Just days after members of the Professional Air Traffic Controls Organization (PATCO) went on strike, President Ronald Reagan declared the strike illegal under the Taft-Hartley act. Reagan ordered the 13,000…
The Adorkable Misogyny of The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory provides a perfect lens through which to deconstruct a popular media trope I like to call the Adorkable Misogynist. Adorkable Misogynists are male characters whose geeky…
Divine Trash Documentary 1998
The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters. Intercut with a 1972 interview of Waters are clips from his first films and recent interviews…
Portland’s 359 skinny house follows the sun like a sunflower
Ben Kaiser’s 359 house can be rotated by just one person- or two kids- pushing a bar and walking around it. It’s what he calls the logical union of the…