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What in God’s Name Happened to Ricky Gervais?

Brendan James

March 22, 2018

Somewhere over the last decade, Ricky Gervais lost it. His nosedive is fairly puzzling: in just a few years, the man who inaugurated a new era of TV with The Office went from one of the most original voices in comedy to a complete gasbag. His stand-up comedy is excruciating, his ...

The Cambridge Analytica Con

Yasha Levine

March 21, 2018

“The man with the proper imagination is able to conceive of any commodity in such a way that it becomes an object of emotion to him and to those to whom he imparts his picture, and hence creates desire rather than a mere feeling of ought.” —Walter Dill Scott, Influencing ...

Fucking the Patriarch

Jennifer Schaffer

March 21, 2018

In three new novels, women protagonists overturn the "sage older man seduces beautiful ingénue" trope.

The Techies Who Said Sorry

Jacob Silverman

March 20, 2018

Who will help us fix our broken internet? Who will free us from the tyranny of the smartphone?

As Stalin Lay Dying

John Ganz

March 20, 2018

Is The Death of Stalin too good to be true, or not true enough to be good?

Bankers’ Robberies

Chris Lehmann

March 19, 2018

The Blessed and the Brightest

How much shady dealing can one bank get away with? Take a look at the record of rolling heists at Wells Fargo.

Cold War Fever

Hannah Gais

March 19, 2018

"Red Sparrow" is another in a long line of Cold War spy stories that feature the Russians as our natural enemies.

Fresh Hell

The Baffler

March 16, 2018

As it turns out, enforcing structural inequality pays pretty damn well.

The Ex is Calling

Amber A’Lee Frost

March 15, 2018

Your Sorry Ass

Our advice columnist with a word of caution: sometimes remaining friends with an ex is not a good idea.

Stranger Than Fiction

Steve Almond

March 14, 2018

How Donald J. Trump's campaign ruined my outlandish political satire about a right-wing demagogue running for president.

The Man Who Knew Nothing at All

Josh Fruhlinger

March 13, 2018

Living in a liberal fantasy is complicated.

Peace as Armageddon

Tim Shorrock

March 12, 2018

What is behind the liberal freak-out over the possibility of talks with North Korea?