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Matthew Shen Goodman

Matthew Shen Goodman is the editor in chief of The Baffler.

A photograph depicts the creation of the front cover on a work desk—the paper sculptures of stanchions standing along a red sheet of paper that fades from red to pink. Printed sheets of the sculptures before assembly—in 2–D—are taped to the wall, and glue sticks and scraps of paper are scattered across the desk.

On the Clock

Choose your precipice. The grist that makes modern life will run out at some point—when will we tap the last barrel of crude, blow through the remaining stocks of helium, deplete those rare metals only getting rarer? More pressing than bismuth and boron as I write this in ...
Purple, cartoonish, bloodshot eyes peek out of a cloud of smoke.

Just Say Yes

You can trace the liberalizing contours of the American public’s relationship to drugs by way of the last few presidents’ consumption habits. Clinton famously didn’t inhale, only willing to admit to touching reefer in England. Before his religious reawakening at forty, ...
A photo of an intact mug spills coffee as it approaches a black and white tiled floor.

Nohow On

Failure abounds today, but also its recuperation. Who hasn’t been sold “resilience,” what with a vast industry of self-help hucksters and combination fitness-business influencers imploring you to grit your teeth and embrace the grind? Samuel Beckett’s call to fail again ...
An egg sits in an egg holder next to a cup and saucer.

Age of Onset

We’ve never been so old. There were 95,000 centenarians in 1990 and more than 450,000 in 2015, according to estimates from the United Nations. Global life expectancy doubled from 1920 to 2020; the pandemic saw a dip that was horrifying but comparatively minor in the scope of a ...
An oddly textured close up of the earth from space, wrinkly like a deflated plastic ball.

Aiding and Abetting

The first quarter of the twenty-first century fast approaches its end, and all is not well in human welfare. According to the UN secretary-general, some 360 million people worldwide are in need of humanitarian assistance. Beset by challenges of its own making (corruption, abuse, ...
A colorful, psychedelic illustration depicts various flora sitting on top of some grass.

Terroir Squad

TikTok chefs stir-frying and red-cooking in idyllic Sichuan countrysides, listicles of where to get not-your-nonna’s tagliatelle, YouTube channels featuring artery-busting barbecue smoked by men who seem, above all, engorged: What are we awash in today but endless food ...
An abstract digital collage features various Vegas-themed iconography as pixelated figures. They include: a white tiger, the ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign, playing cards, a portrait of Elvis, and sharply dressed Casino employees in tantalizing poses.

Glitter Gulch Global

It’s been twenty years since Las Vegas debuted “What happens here, stays here.” The slogan is a winking celebration of self-containment that has never quite been true. (Hence, perhaps, the marvelously redundant update three years ago: “What happens here, only happens ...