• The Activist Humanist w/ Caroline Levine
    The Activist Humanist w/ Caroline Levine

    We speak with Caroline Levine, Ryan Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University, about her important book The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press, 2023). Building on the theory developed in her award-winning book, Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network, Levine’s The Activist Humanist redirects the critical capacities of formalist literary study to discover and mobilize the democratic potential of political forms thought by many on the left to be irredeemably exclusive, violent, and anti-democratic.

    Nikolai Gogol’s Department of Government Efficiency
    Nikolai Gogol’s Department of Government Efficiency

    Almost two centuries after its opening night, Gogol’s five-act satirical play The Government Inspector continues to create a stir with every performance, seemingly no matter where. Maybe because corruption and self-serving double-talk aren’t just familiar features of 19th-century Russia, but have become ingrained facets of all systems of government and officialdom, making them recognizable to […]

    The Soviet Union and the Palestinian Liberation Struggle
    The Soviet Union and the Palestinian Liberation Struggle

    On October 8, 2023, the Israeli war machine, armed and financed by Washington, launched the first genocide in history to be broadcast live before the eyes of the world. As we enter October 2025, the second year of this open genocide, neighborhoods in Gaza continue to be leveled, hospitals bombed, and children condemned to death […]

    AI and education: The kids are in danger
    AI and education: The kids are in danger

    Big tech, ever on the hunt for new markets for their generative AI systems, are pushing hard to get them into U.S. public schools as well as colleges and universities. Their interest goes beyond short term profits—it is also about “grooming” a new generation to accept, if not embrace, the world big tech seeks to […]

    The Case for Fiscal Insurgency
    The Case for Fiscal Insurgency

    A common refrain keeps surfacing among prominent journalists- and commentators-in-digital-exile on BlueSky. Commenting on the emergence of yet another shadowy centrist think tank, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie observes: “Trump’s numbers are tanking and there is a palpable desire in the electorate for a real alternative and yet the only money in democratic politics is […]

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