Category Culture

A Dangerous Moment in the Hollywood Economy

Though many excellent movies were released in theatres in 2022, most of them hardly registered on the Hollywood economic scale. In the current environment, few good movies are likely to make money the old-fashioned way, in theatres; meanwhile, the new-fashioned…

A Board-Game Auteur Makes His Next Move

Isaac Childres was thirty-two years old when he started designing what is widely considered the best board game in the world. In 2015, he was living in Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife, Kristyn. Childres, who has a slight and somewhat…

Harvey Karp Knows How to Make Babies Happy

The pediatrician and entrepreneur Harvey Karp is the most famous baby calmer in the world. To new parents, he is something between a sage and a magician, offering insight into the opaque miseries and motivations of the tiny humans newly…

A.I. Pop Culture Is Already Here

Last month, a YouTube user named demonflyingfox uploaded a video titled “Harry Potter by Balenciaga.” It showed characters from the Harry Potter films—Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, Snape, McGonagall, Dobby—as gaunt models with aggressive cheekbones (slightly yassified), dressed in gothic capes and…