On Cults, Part 2: Follow the Leader
Jim Jones preaching at the Peoples Temple What’s the loneliest you’ve ever felt? The most scared? The most despairing? Was it a period of depression, or...
Hollywood: The Oral Histories
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #99: Kabuli Burger
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I drag my long-suffering editor David Swanson through the bizarro, shifting sands of Wikipedia’s List of...
On Cults: Let's Talk About Sects
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #98: Katsu Sando
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I drag my long-suffering editor David Swanson through the bizarro, shifting sands of Wikipedia’s List of...
On Cults, Part 1
This week, Donald Trump led a rally in my city. In the South Bronx, to be precise—it was a frenzied affair, the crowd reflecting a diversity that, if not...
TLDS May Culture Klatch
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #97: Jucy Lucy
By David Swanson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where Talia and I stumble our way through the strange and mutable document that is...
Supreme Injustices
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #96: Jibarito
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I and my longsuffering editor David Swanson stumble our way through the strange and mutable document...
Small Vices
I’m lucky enough to have a tiny garden in the middle of New York City, where space is at a premium and outdoor space even more so. It’s a patch of concrete...
Tales of the Fantastic
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwich Tribute to Steve Albini
By David Swanson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where Talia and I stumble our way through the strange and mutable document that is...
The Tempest: Stormy Daniels Revisited
Inspired by the testimony of Stormy Daniels in court today, we’re re-publishing a pair of stories that Talia wrote for the Village Voice six years ago, when...
Culture Club: Grab Bag
Welcome back my own most beautiful darlings! I want to thank you for being paid subscribers—you’re helping me keep the lights on and keep doing what I love...
Notable Sandwiches #95: Jesuita
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I and my longsuffering editor David Swanson stumble our way through the strange and mutable document...
History Repeats Itself at Columbia
By David Swanson Columbia’s Low Memorial Library in 1968, and in 2024 Last night, as a group of activists took over Hamilton Hall just hours after Columbia...
TLDS Culture Klatch
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches Passover Edition: The Hillel
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where we trip merrily through the bizarre and mutable document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...
Ten Poems for April
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...