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Nick Jonas as Danny and Paul Rudd as Rick in “Power Ballad”

In Power Ballad, a Stolen Song Unravels Two Musicians

In John Carney’s movies, music connects people where conversation cannot. But in his latest, it opens a wound.

Confessions of an Exploited Pop Star

Candice Wuehle’s novel Ultranatural lays bare the alienated labor behind the catchy hits and sequined costumes.

Eric Herschthal

The American Revolution Is Not Complete

An illustration of protesters from Revolutionary to current times all holding signs saying 'No Kings'

Eric Herschthal

The American Revolution Is Not Complete

Books & the Arts

An idealized 1950s illustration of a bride and groom with the brides face cut out and surrounded by unhappy emojis

Anna Louie Sussman

Can Marriage Survive the Manosphere?

The appeal of marriage is waning in an age of supercharged misogyny.

A tradwife, dressed in the typical early 1900s stuffy full skirt and apron reserved for rough domestic labor, stands trapped in a frontier-style cabin doorframe, which doubles as a smart phone screen prison. Mouth agape, her arms are pressed up against the glass of the phone screen in anguish whilst surrounded by farm livestock and tools, representing both the ironic harm and self-imprisonment perpetuated by the modern tradwife influencer, and the real harm done to women since the beginning of patriarchy.

Caro Claire Burke’s Thriller Captures a Tradwife’s Quiet Discontent

In Yesteryear, an influencer wakes up in the nineteenth century to find it’s nothing like Instagram.