All Stories
The quiet cost of scheduling every conversation
Since moving to Italy from the U.S., I’ve noticed how much more spontaneous social interactions are here. It’s common for me to run into someone I know and have them invite me to coffee on the spot. Instead of receiving…
Why Gen Z sees itself in “Primetime”
In “Primetime” — Lance Oppenheim’s psychological crime thriller about the rapid ascent and swift fall of the “Dateline NBC” segment “To Catch a Predator,” and its host, Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) — television is a complex ecosystem where hyperawareness is…
AI hype promises miracles. That’s as risky as doomsday talk
A version of this essay first appeared in Crash Course, Salon’s free morning newsletter. Sign up for early access to articles like this, plus more of Salon’s bold journalism on how policies, movements and culture wars affect real people. Last Wednesday, the…
Colin Kaepernick knows what kneeling cost — and he’d do it again
The Merikins are the descendants of formerly enslaved African Americans who fought alongside the British during the War of 1812. At the war’s end, the British granted these fighters and their families land in Trinidad and Tobago as part of…
Brad Pitt’s comeback act has faltered
Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures have quite a bit in common these days. Both Pitt and Paramount have leaned into machismo to appeal to a wider male demographic; both are trying to salvage their reputations after a string of tumultuous…
The new “Rubber Soul” box set lets us hear The Beatles becoming The Beatles
When it comes to The Beatles, “Rubber Soul” is the album. They may reach arguably loftier artistic heights with “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper,” “The White Album,” or “Abbey Road” — take your pick — but “Rubber Soul” embodies the group’s decisive…
In Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” two can be as lonely as one
When prolific filmmaker Werner Herzog first met the Chaplin twins, Freda and Greta, the internet as we know it did not exist. If it had, it’s likely that the mystifying story of these sisters — who had a brief flash…
For better soups, start in the oven
So, in honor of soup season, I’ve decided to spend the next few weeks of “The Bite,” Salon’s food newsletter, teaching what I’ve started referring to in my notebook at Soup School: a loose little series about the patterns that…
MLB’s next ballpark could be in a national park
Major League Baseball has played games in a cornfield, a NASCAR speedway and historic ballparks. Now, the league is apparently wondering whether it can add a national park to the list. MLB approached the Trump administration about holding a regular-season…
How Oprah Winfrey became America’s cultural Oppenheimer
Recently, I learned about a concept called atomic change. The term’s meaning depends on who’s employing it. One professional coach’s website describes it, in so many words, as making discrete adjustments to a business that, over time, lead to its…