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Illustration of Amusing Ourselves to Death book cover with a magnifying glass

How Entertainment Mangled Public Discourse

Neil Postman’s jeremiad against TV seems rather quaint today—and not just because he was shouting into the wind and knew it.

Illustration of a book cover for The Mask of Sanity with a magnifying glass

Camille Bromley

The Man Who Invented the “Psychopath”

Hervey Cleckley wanted to treat the most overlooked psychiatric patients. Instead his work was used to demonize them.

Jessica Mitford’s Escape From Fascism

Illustration of Hons and Rebels book cover with a magnifying glass

Jessica Mitford’s Escape From Fascism

Books & the Arts

Portrait of author Dinaw Mengestu

Grief and Dislocation in the D.C. Suburbs

Dinaw Mengestu’s novels, layered with crisis and heartbreak, show a different side of the nation’s capital.

An image from the movie RUMOURS of actors Roy Dupuis and Alicia Vikander

Guy Maddin’s Surreal Summit at the End of the World

“Rumours” imagines a version of the G7 where world leaders descend into absurdity.