Culture

“Who am I supposed to vote for? The Democrat who is going to blast me in the ass? Or the Republican who’s blasting my ass!” Over the course of more than a decade on the air, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has—deservedly—developed a reputation for dedicated crudeness, sweeping political incorrectness and gratuitous nihilism. Sometimes veiled … Read more

He zigs. He zags. He dodges. No, I’m not describing a running back for the New York Giants—this is Sean Spicer. Spicer’s midday press conferences have made for must-see television: The New York Times described the conferences as “daytime television’s new big hit.” While network executives cautioned reporters that ratings after the election would most … Read more

“We are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism,” Steve Bannon said in 2014, “and this war is, I think, metastasizing far quicker than governments can handle it.” Bannon made these remarks at a Vatican conference, where he argued “Islamic fascism” is in a civilizational struggle against the “Judeo-Christian West.” This belief did not … Read more

Katharine Hayhoe is a Texan, an evangelical Christian, and a climate scientist. She’s on a mission to convince skeptics, many of whom share her faith, that climate change is not a liberal hoax. “Global Weirding,” a PBS-produced web series that Hayhoe hosts, addresses everything from climate science to the Bible, arguing among other things that … Read more

Grasping the final balustrade of a staircase with the resoluteness of a captain at sea, Teddy Roosevelt emerges from John Singer Sargent’s portrait as an embodiment of the legacy he left behind: a tenacious leader who thundered from the bully pulpit, reshaping the country through conservation, militarization, and corporate reform. The preeminent portraitist of his … Read more

“He departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying… He does not appear intimidated by gravity’s divine suction or by what awaits him… Some people who … Read more

I went to see Moonlight alone, one weekend during reading period. The roads were iced and my hair was undone but I made a spontaneous decision to catch the 2:15 showing—I arrived at 2:30, sweating, opening credits rolling: every n*gga is a staaaaar… It was December and To Pimp a Butterfly had recently transformed me. … Read more