There aren’t a lack of #hottakes on the internet that attempt to fashion some sort of correlation between millennials and previous generations, and how much of an impact the youngest demographic of voters have had on our political climate. This period of our country’s history will be a popular form of anthropological study years from now, as researchers study the protests and other reactions from both the left and right to the ascendancy of President Donald Trump.
Our Picks
Where Europe Begins?
In our era of increasing geopolitical tensions between Europe, Russia and the US, one journalist is traveling the hazy, disputed border between Europe and Asia, searching for clues about where one ends and the other begins, and why we bother splitting the world into East and West. In this story, he travels from Bulgaria to Georgia, which claims to be and to have always been European, despite conflicting indicators, like not belonging to the EU.
It’s Goodbye Girls
Lena Dunham’s (often groundbreaking, often controversial) show gets its own oral history, days before its sixth and final season is about to start.
‘Fuck’-ing Around
The history of swearing is more than just an evolution of social mores — it’s also a politically charged narrative at the “intersection of anger and gaiety.”
Xenu’s Paradox: The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard and the Making of Scientology
Author Alec Nevala-Lee surveys the fiction of L. Ron Hubbard, gaining new insights into the life of the founder of dianetics and the origins and nature of Scientology itself.
The Bartleby Strategy
Civil disobedience, Herman Melville style.
Breaking Elgar’s Enigma
How a former insurance adjuster claims to have solved the 118-year-old cryptographic mystery of a hidden message in Edward Elgar’s infamous Enigma Variations.
The Forgotten History of Japanese-American Designers’ World War II Internment
Revisiting the link between detention and design history, 75 years after FDR’s executive order.
Does An Octopus Have A Soul? This Author Thinks So
In this interview, Sy Montgomery, author of the book “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness,” reflects on the uncanny intelligence, intuition, and surprising sex lives of octopuses.
Our 9,000-Year Love Affair With Booze
Alcohol isn’t just a mind-altering drink: It has been a prime mover of human culture from the beginning, fueling the development of arts, language, and religion.
One Man’s Quest to Hack His Own Genes
Biologist Brian Hanley is testing out gene therapy by injecting copies of a gene he has designed into his own body.