The Albums That Defined Their Decade
Nevermind by Nirvana did not merely define the 1990s — it detonated the decade's arrival.
Daniel Hurst · 2026-05-09
Culture
Art, film, music, literature, and cultural commentary.
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Showing 121–140 of 168 articles
How to Talk About Art Without Sounding Pretentious
The fear of sounding pretentious about art is itself pretentious — it assumes that your opinion requires a credential.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-09
The Case for Slow Media in an Attention-Deficit World
The average American adult now consumes over twelve hours of media daily, according to research from eMarketer, yet reports feeling less informed than a decade ago.
Marcus Wei · 2026-05-09
What Hitchcock Films Reveal About Human Nature
Alfred Hitchcock understood something about his audiences that most filmmakers avoid acknowledging: we enjoy watching people suffer, and we feel guilty about that enjoyment.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-09
The Novelists Who Built Entire Worlds
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James Alderton · 2026-05-09
Why Public Radio Is Still Worth Your Time
In an era of hyperpartisan media, the editorial model of public radio — listener-supported, editorially independent, allergic to sensationalism — represents something increasingly rare: journalism that respects its audience's intelligence.
Sebastian Cole · 2026-05-09
Why Every Man Should Visit a Museum Alone
The solitary museum visit is one of the most enriching and underappreciated activities available to a modern man.
Daniel Hurst · 2026-05-08
The Films That Defined Modern Masculinity
The cinematic models of masculinity available to men born after 1980 differ radically from those their fathers inherited.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-08
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How Architecture Shapes the Way We Think
Winston Churchill observed that we shape our buildings and thereafter our buildings shape us.
William Ashford · 2026-05-08
The Case for Learning a Second Language After 30
At thirty-two, Gabriel García Márquez began studying French in Paris, a decision he later credited with reshaping the rhythmic structure of his prose.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-08
Why Jazz Still Matters in the Age of Streaming
When Spotify's algorithm serves you a jazz playlist, it typically defaults to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue or Dave Brubeck's Take Five — monuments that deserve their status but represent a fraction of the genre's living pulse.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-08
The Writers Who Changed How Men See Themselves
When Raymond Carver published What We Talk About When We Talk About Love in 1981, he gave American men a literary mirror that reflected not heroism but quiet desperation — the unspoken tensions of working-class marriages, the beer cans accumulating on kitchen tables, the conversations that never quite arrived at honesty.
Sebastian Cole · 2026-05-08
How to Build a Personal Library That Means Something
The personal library of Umberto Eco reportedly contained thirty thousand volumes, and the Italian novelist was fond of pointing out that visitors invariably asked whether he had read them all.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-08
The Forgotten Art of Letter Writing
In 1944, a twenty-three-year-old soldier named Chris Barker wrote to his future wife Bessie Moore from a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy.
Oliver Ramsey · 2026-05-08
Why Travel Photography Matters More Than Travel Selfies
Steve McCurry's 1984 portrait of Sharbat Gula, the Afghan girl whose green eyes became the most recognisable photograph in National Geographic's history, succeeded because McCurry was looking outward.
William Ashford · 2026-05-08
The Paintings Every Man Should See in Person
No reproduction of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring prepares you for the painting's modest size — barely seventeen inches tall — or the way her gaze follows you across the room at the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
James Alderton · 2026-05-08
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How Literature Can Make You a Better Conversationalist
The most reliably interesting people at any gathering share a common trait: they read widely.
Daniel Hurst · 2026-05-08
What Steve McQueen Understood About Effortless Cool
Steve McQueen understood something that stylists, fashion houses, and menswear brands have spent decades trying to bottle: cool is not a look.
Marcus Wei · 2026-05-07
What Paul Newman Understood About Understated Confidence
Paul Newman was one of the most handsome men in the history of cinema, and he spent much of his career trying to make people forget it.
Marcus Wei · 2026-05-07
What Cary Grant Understood About Modern Elegance
Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England, in 1904, the son of a garment presser.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-07