April 4, 2025

Preventing the Military’s Slide from Critical Thinking to Anticipatory Compliance

Thomas Crosbie

Thomas Crosbie critiques the Department of Defense’s shift from critical thinking to anticipatory compliance under Trump.

April 2, 2025

Hollywood’s Climate Crisis

A Very Short History

Brian Jacobson

Brian Jacobson highlights how Hollywood’s financialization and resource dependency have exacerbated ecological crises.

October 21, 2024

13 Must-Read Books for Understanding U.S. Policies and Media Relations

Raina Mansfield

Continuing our recommendations for books to read as the election cycle heats up, we curated a list of books about U.S. domestic concerns, such as climate activism, policing, immigration, and race relations, as well as books that provide insights on...

August 21, 2024

Are You Avoiding the News These Days? You’re Not Alone.

How to Stay Informed Without Losing Your Sanity

Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

It is hardly news that many see reporting on current events as anxiety-inducing, soul-crushingly depressing, or worse. What is new are the growing numbers who now say they are actively avoiding it. Nearly four in ten people now say they...

April 15, 2024

Changing the Media Environment to Protect Climate Activists

Adrienne Russell

Activism serves as an essential channel of communication from the public to policy makers, corporations, and other powerful actors. It is precisely because of its essential ro­­le in governance (and even capitalist arrangements, such as so-called voting with your pocketbook)...

March 20, 2024

The Untold History of Women’s Death by Laughter

Maggie Hennefeld

“Those who do not remember the joke are doomed to continue laughing at it.” —An unidentified feminist philosopher. What is the funniest joke you’ve ever heard? And have you ever laughed so hard you thought you might explode? In 1907,...

March 8, 2024

International Women’s Day:

Remembering Mary C. McCall Jr. and the Unfinished Battle for Women’s Rights

J. E. Smyth

It’s International Women’s Day, and women’s rights are being rolled back all over the world, perhaps, mostly notably, in the country that hosted the first International Women’s Day in 1909—the United States. Globally, women still make less money per hour...

February 1, 2024

Behind the Lines:

How Plagiarism Popularized the Harlem Renaissance

Adam McKible

The Harlem Renaissance made an early splash with millions of Americans through a blatant act of plagiarism. In March 1925, Alain Locke announced the flourishing of the New Negro in Harlem by guest editing “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro,”...

January 17, 2023

Q&A: David Bordwell on Perplexing Plots

The art of storytelling is an ever-evolving relationship between writers and their audiences that gets more complex over time. For instance, nonlinear story lines, once considered complex, are now part of mainstream films and mystery and suspense thrillers. David Bordwell,...

December 20, 2022

Ten Tips on How to Make a Great Podcast

Siobhán McHugh

Academics and educators are increasingly turning to podcasts to disseminate research and advance teaching and learning. Although it’s relatively easy to make a podcast compared to other media formats, it’s much harder to make a great one! There are over...

October 28, 2022

Look Away: Instinct as Deterministic Force in Jordan Peele’s Nope

Thomas M. Puhr

Note: This piece contains spoilers. In a series of one-sheets released for Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022), the horror film’s characters stare skyward, expressions of wide-eyed fear dominating their faces. They almost appear hypnotized. What, we wonder, is eliciting this response?...

October 18, 2022

Bernard Shaw, the Tiananmen Crackdown, and the CNN Effect

Mike Chinoy

Bernard Shaw, who for twenty years was CNN’s top anchor, died on September 8, his death largely overshadowed by the passing of Queen Elizabeth the same day. Shaw is best remembered for his live reporting of the start of the...