“The Mind Squad and editorial staff like theirs—people who understood and loved the music—would create a new, vibrant, and deeply informed style of cultural journalism that defined an era.”
Peter Rubin
Posted inEditor's Pick
Buckle Up for Bumpier Skies
“With climate change, the skies are becoming more turbulent. Can today’s planes still keep us safe?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Ballad of Ollie Jackson
“How the baddest man int he St. Louis underworld failed to become a folk hero.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Man Who Stole Infinity
“In an 1874 paper, Georg Cantor proved that there are different sizes of infinity and changed math forever. A trove of newly unearthed letters shows that it was also an act of plagiarism.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either
“Researchers at the company are trying to understand their A.I. system’s mind—examining its neurons, running it through psychology experiments, and putting it on the therapy couch.”
Posted inUncategorized
Why the Future of Movies Lives on Letterboxd
“If Rotten Tomatoes has become a tool of Hollywood’s homogenizing marketing machinery, Letterboxd is something else: a cinephilic hive buzzing with authentic enthusiasm and heterogeneous tastes.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Pie and Mash Crisis: Can the Original Fast Food Be Saved?
“There used to be hundreds of pie and mash shops in London. Now there are barely more than 30. Can social media attention and a push for protected status ensure their survival?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Carpenter Media’s Ominous Takeover of Local News
“In just a few years, a publisher based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has become the country’s fourth-largest newspaper operator. Some reporters wonder if it isn’t the cruelest.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
It Was the Most Violent Prison in America. Then the Guards Went on Strike
“What happens when a group of men, incarcerated under bleak conditions, are left to govern themselves? In Walpole State Prison in 1973, ‘peace reigned’ for weeks—until the guards were sent back in.”