Where Have All the Preppies Gone? with Avery Trufelman
Put on your Docksiders for a stroll through history with Avery Trufelman, who shows us how Ivy style became “preppy,” and how preppy fashion escaped the campus and took over…
True Crime Fairy Tale
Was the tale of Hansel and Gretel inspired by a real crime in German history? It would make for a great story, if it were true. This week’s episode comes…
Episode 213: Monsters in the Static
In the subgenre of analog horror, there’s something sinister or supernatural lurking in the horizontal lines and vertical holds in those old VHS tapes. Filmmaker Chris LaMartina explains why he…
The Buffoonery of White Supremacy Trying to Disguise Itself as Literature
Critics were quick to comment on the spectacle’s surreal atmosphere of cosplay. New York Times fashion correspondent Vanessa Friedman observed of the insurrectionists’ sartorial choices that they smacked of a…
So You Think You’re the Main Character – Electric Literature
It makes perfect sense that, at the height of quarantine, teenagers began inserting themselves into other, more compelling narratives. For the past year and more, as coronavirus cases waxed and…
A Trite Dramatization of the Oslo Peace Accords
An adaptation of the Tony-winning play, Oslo‘s apolitical take on the Israel-Palestine conflict is of little use to anyone.
“A Clockwork Orange” Made Me Long to Be a Monster, But It Only Saw Me as a Victim
In the epic battle between good and evil for the fate of the soul, I had never been the soul in question; I had always been the stumbling block on…
Sexing up history: how to study and tell the history of sex
Cultural historian Dr Fern Riddell appears regularly on tv and radio as an expert in Victorian sex and suffrage, and if anyone knows their history in this area, it’s Fern.…
I Think You Should Leave’s Hot Dog Guy Is More Than Just a Meme
The sketch, which isn’t on YouTube but you can watch on Netflix, starts after a hot dog–shaped car has crashed into a menswear shop. As the stunned onlookers emerge from…
Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos
All the stories in humanity’s history that have had a lasting impact on us, from the Bible to Greek myths to the X-Men franchise, have been rich in meaning beyond…