In August alone, the Trump administration laid out plans to make it more difficult for legal immigrants to use social services, eliminate limits on how long families can be detained at the border, and stop providing flu vaccines to migrants held in border detention facilitiesThe administration was proud enough of …
Read More »The Long Journey of 'The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance'
Once upon a time, Jim Henson found himself stranded in the middle of a snowstorm. To pass the time, the Muppet Show creator began to dream up an elaborate story of mystics, monsters, and two different races — a vulturelike aristocracy called the Skeksis and a kindhearted, elfin people known …
Read More »Why Some Men Are Obsessed With Inseminating as Many Women as Possible
In 2011, a woman shopping at the Sunflower Market in Albuquerque, New Mexico was offered a yogurt sample by Anthony Garcia, a grocery store employee. When she tasted the sample, she noticed it tasted strange, and spit it out on the floor. After testing her spit against a DNA sample, …
Read More »Is Bernie Sanders the New Climate Candidate?
Climate advocate Jay Inslee may have dropped out of the Democratic primary, but it doesn’t appear like the controversial issue of [checks notes] saving humanity from an environmental apocalypse is going to fall out of focus. On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released arguably the most ambitious proposal yet to …
Read More »John Oliver: 'Of Course' President Trump Wants to Buy Greenland
John Oliver isn’t surprised that President Trump wants to buy Greenland. On Sunday, Trump confirmed reports that he tasked administration officials with inquiring about purchasing the autonomous Danish country, and on Last Week Tonight, Oliver picked a hilarious way to frame that news: “Of course he fucking did. Of coursehe …
Read More »'Abbey Road' vs. 'Let It Be': Which Was the Beatles' Last Album?
So what’s the final Beatles album? Abbey Road or Let It Be? If you’re a Beatles fan, you’ve had at least one chemically-assisted late-night argument about this (because that’s what we do). Abbey Road was the last they recorded, but Let It Be was the last they released. So did …
Read More »Omar Apollo Wants to Inspire Young Latinx Musicians to 'Go Crazy'
Two years ago, Omar Apollo was sitting in the attic where he was living in the small town of Hobart, Indiana, with his guitar and laptop. He recorded a two-minute marvel of achingly tender R&B called “Ugotme,” which a friend persuaded him to upload to Spotify. The next day, the …
Read More »What Is Nikki Haley's Angle?
President Trump on Friday morning gloated that the Baltimore home of House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) had been burglarized. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who in December stepped down as Trump’s U.N. ambassador, did not approve. “This is so unnecessary,” she tweeted, along with a rolling-eyes …
Read More »The 'Forever Business': Smithsonian Folkways' Quest to Preserve Music's Past
In the middle of January, with temperatures hovering around zero degrees, John Smith and his colleagues at Smithsonian Folkways drove a truck up to a 19th century homestead in Sharon, Connecticut to pick up a record label. For over 50 years, the remolded barn and carriage house had been the …
Read More »Dan Auerbach on How the Black Keys Came Back
Dan Auerbach spent the years between Black Keys’ new album, Let’s Rock, and 2012’s Turn Blue recording album after album in his Nashville studio, most of them far more rootsy, layered and restrained than much of his band’s catalog. But to return to the Black Keys‘ sound — and a …
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