The Rise of CliffsNotes Cinema
Oversimplified literary remakes miss the point of the works they are adapting.
Culture
Why Justin Bieber Played YouTube Onstage for Thousands of People
The pop star transformed the normal act of browsing your laptop into something interesting—and unsettling.
The New Age of Performance Anxiety
With the rise of screen culture, all the world has stage fright.
Where Did ‘Let Them’ Come From?
Years before Mel Robbins published her best-selling self-help book, a struggling writer posted a poem with a similar message.
Infant Longing
A poem
The Golden Age of the Fried-Chicken Sandwich
The sun is setting on burger dominance.
What to Read to Understand Your Mom
These stories offer a starting point—and perhaps some insights—for those seeking perspective on their parent.
The Not-at-All-Funny Life of Mark Twain
Ron Chernow’s biography dwells more on the wreck of a man than on his sublimely comic work.
Gregg Popovich’s Life Lessons
The San Antonio Spurs coach built a thoughtful team culture that spread far beyond his own players.
We’re All Living in a Carl Hiaasen Novel
In the mangroves with Florida’s poet of excess and grift
The Oddball British Comedy Show I Thought I’d Hate (And Learned to Love)
The cult favorite Taskmaster has a nonsensical premise that slowly bowled me over.
The Catharsis in Re-Creating One of the Worst Days of Your Life
Making the film Warfare was an exercise in exposure therapy for the veterans whose memories it reconstructs.
What Kind of Questions Did 17th-Century Daters Have?
Advice columns have always appealed to people’s perennial confusion about love and marriage.
Dear James: When My Husband Speaks, My Brain Turns to Mush
Is this a normal marriage thing?