When Philip Roth published his novel The Plot Against America it was 2004, shortly before George W. Bush’s re-election. The novel tells the story of an alternate history in which famed aviator and Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh was elected President in 1940 and took America to the brink of its…

Martin Urbano is the most miraculously uncancelled man in comedy. Every week, he goes live on Twitch and talks about his fondness for the works of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, his good friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and Allen Dershowitz, his assorted criminal enterprises, and of course his interest in…

The Anti-Politics of Joe Biden There is a certain stink which losing US presidential candidates give off. They are typically senior figures within their party, people who have put in their time and have a long list of credentials. They likely won the primary after the party establishment rallied together…

In Mur Lafferty’s Heaven, protagonist Kate dies and finds herself in heaven along with her best friend Daniel. Daniel, who she always had an unrequited crush on in life, tells her he loves her and they set about spending their after afterlife together. However, Kate gradually realizes that this is…

Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite has proven to be that rarest of objects: a foreign language film that crosses over to mainstream success in the English-speaking world. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and has received a round of plaudits not just from the usual credentialed critics…

In what may have been a moment of madness, I decided to watch the most recent (fourteenth) season of America’s Got Talent, the US’s favourite (?) summer-season performance competition show. Now, normally I’m a pretty elitist guy when it comes to my TV watching, preferring dour cable dramas and bizarre…

When I was eight, I was selected for my school board’s gifted program. I would spend the next nine years of my life taking early-morning buses across town, undertaking weird projects with a small group of other precocious kids. It set me on a winding track through university, grad school…

An article by Andrea Denhold critiquing the recent popularity of the true crime genre, using the example of the popular podcast My Favorite Murder, made the rounds on social media lately. Denhold seems to have struck a chord with many progressives suspicious of the genre’s rise. …

For the past six months I’ve immersed myself in the world of Stardew Valley, the popular farming simulator. The game deposits you on a weed-choked plot in the small Pelican Town and invites you to transform it into a functioning farm. Along the way you can make friends with the…