popular culture

I wept on Friday evening when I heard the news of the death of Coach John Wooden. I had seen him the day before at UCLA looking frail and tired after 99 good years—as long and rewarding a life as one could hope. Coach Wooden was ready for a good death, surrounded by family and friends…

The story told by Agora is supposed to stand as a beacon—like the lighthouse that towered over Hypatia’s Alexandria—of the danger that religious passions pose to all that is wise and tolerant about the human spirit.

The most vocal advocate of sweeping conservative changes to Texas’ American History curriculum is happy about the changes, but tells RD that it’s only a part of the agenda.

Comedy Central proposes show about Jesus moving to New York to get out from under his father’s shadow.

Both in the first wave of press in 2002 about abuse in the Catholic Church and now during this second wave, we’ve talked very little about girls, and even less about stalking and the other kinds of abuse that people in power, in particular religious authorities, enact on the unsuspecting and the young. While we have a lot of journalists covering the scandal and talking to victims, we have very little in the way of “personal narrative” of what this experience is like. I hope my novel, This Gorgeous Game, and its protagonist’s first-person voice will offer a new perspective on the conversation.

Suresnes American Cemetery was unsealed in the early 1950s to welcome twenty-four unknown dead of World War II. But these dead did not join the row-on-row ranks of the knowns of World War I. Instead, they were buried between two sections of the graves area and arranged in the shape of a Latin cross.

Episode 6: Vampires of Venice

A new book by an iconic rapper, the Wu Tang Clan’s RZA, told in the voice of a street sage, tells the story of his ascent from the mean streets of Brooklyn to the pinnacle of success, and shows him to be the quintessential postmodern American spiritual seeker.

Is it simply good fortune that humans have so many food options that are both non-sentient and delicious?

Is TV’s Favorite Desert Island Thriller the Ultimate Reality Show?