Video Killed the Podcasting Star
Everything, it seems, is becoming a video podcast these days, but perhaps not everything was meant to be seen.
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Dickon Edwards of the Dandy Underground Surfaces
Dandy diarist extraordinaire Dickon Edwards talks about how his diary writing is a queer, articulate, and pointed retort to the pressures of conformity.
When Celebrity Spouses Go Off-Script
Fan obsession over celebrity spouses mirrors anxieties about our performative selves in the age of influencers.
‘RachelOrmont’ Is Peter Vack’s Candy-Colored Feel Bad Shock Cinema
Peter Vack’s candy-colored RachelOrmont dares the squeamish to reckon with the schizoid darkness happening on cellphones all around them.
TikTok and the Murder of Long-Form Music Writing
When it comes to music criticism, which version is real? The serious opus or the TikTok goofy snippet?
The Pornification of Everything
In this attention economy, where shock pays dividends and subtlety is a liability, the stripper is a cultural archetype, the influencer a high priest of exposure.
Kanye West’s Fandom Navigates the Crisis
Fans are struggling with how to separate Kanye West’s groundbreaking artistry from his troubling descent into white nationalism and hate speech.
Language Is a Virus, and People Could Die
The COVID pandemic seemed to accelerate the spread of new viral media, but viruses mutate, pop culture replicates, and everything’s a cover song.
The Russo-Ukraine War Is a Mediated War – Not Just a War on the Media
How the Russo-Ukraine War generated a media dimension of its own and how it linked the myths of the past century to the challenges of our own.
The Future Is Funked by Future Funk
The “future” in future funk is removed from any historical sense of time, existing in a digital future that can be forever extended – and always out of reach.
Punk Wouldn’t Have Spread So Far Without the Sh*t Media
Simultaneously inside and outside by either choice or circumstance, punk has always had paradoxical – sometimes hostile – relations with TV, radio, and the internet.
Bo Burnham’s Pandemic Comedy Special ‘Inside’ Is the Krapp’s Last Tape of Our Times
Like Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Bo Burnham’s Inside offers rich insights into how our psyches and sense of self get warped by ever-advancing technologies.