culture
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Infinite TV
From Here You Can See Everything
Our current era of on-demand television series does more than facilitate binge-watching—it encourages it. David Foster Wallace already told us what happens next.
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The Global Desk
Everything in This City Must
After six months in Leipzig, a German reporter asks the novelist what he’ll miss. But it’s back here in the United States where more dangerous questions take shape, none easily answered with good beer.
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Chord and Discord
Six Strings
Growing up in Ohio, far from the homeland of her parents, a girl puzzles over her identity, until the strings of a sitar create a connection.
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Exit Strategy
New York Elsewhere
New Yorkers don’t fade away—they just move. But to where? From Miami to Austin to Berlin, detailed maps of nearly every other significant city’s neighborhoods show ex-pats exactly where to emigrate.
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Naming Today
Like a Lead Balloon
As anyone who’s struggled to start a band, get shows, record music, and become a certified rock star knows, coming up with a name is half the challenge. A linguistic take on how we name bands today.
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Guides
She Nukes Me, She Nukes Me Not
Pyongyang’s frequent threats toward the United States appear to be ratcheting up in intensity. How did we get to this point? An illustrated guide to the relationship’s recent romance, and why you should be nervous about North Korea.
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News From America
Odd People Here
The United States is a huge country, much too big for the nightly news. Our series continues where one of our editors randomly calls people in small towns around America to find out what’s really going on.
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Divine Comedy
I Shall Be Heard
Andy Kaufman performed for more than just laughs—in fact, his goal often seemed to be something entirely different. A budding comic chases Andy’s ineffable comedy.
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Roundtables
Here’s the Thing About Silver Linings
The Oscars are consistently irrational, but we wanted more for David O. Russell’s fantastic Silver Linings Playbook. Film critics David Haglund, Pasha Malla, and Michelle Orange discuss why the movie so divided critical opinion, and became such a hit with audiences.
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Letters From London
Home on the Thames
London’s evolution is measured in centuries, not years. But when half of the city’s new abodes go to foreign buyers—frequently as third or fourth homes—who’s steering the design? Assessing Battersea’s return from 30 years in the desert, just in time for a brand new American embassy.
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The Travel Desk
Rainy Night in Georgia
Even in the most forsaken corners of the Caucasus, daily life can boil down to domestic turmoil, hip-hop videos, and arguing over Bryan Adams’s nationality.
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Soundbox
Les Ambassadeurs du Mali
Timbuktu’s annual Festival in the Desert was ready to rock as a “Festival in Exile.” Now, with liberation, it is a festival in limbo. A listening guide to what should be heard outside Timbuktu when the fighting is over.