Interview
What We Still Get Wrong About Alexander Hamilton
Far from a partisan for free markets, the Founding Father insisted on the need for economic planning. We need more of that vision today.
Democracy Hangs in the Balance
Part two of a conversation on voter turnout, vote counting, and what we can expect now.
The Political Economy of Saving the Planet
An interview with Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin on the climate crisis, COVID-19, and the future of environmental politics.
The Problem Isn’t Just Police—It’s Politics
Sociologist Alex Vitale explains how the U.S. policing crisis begins with politics—the decision to embrace neoliberal austerity and to turn the social problems it creates over to police.
The Politics of the Mask
Today we face the paradox of states simultaneously criminalizing masks—because of protests—and mandating them because of COVID-19. In this interview, social theorist AK Thompson explores the history of masks in protests and why rioting is politically effective.
Deaths of Despair
Boston Review talks with Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton about COVID-19, the relationship between culture, financial hardship, and health, and why capitalism’s flaws are proving fatal for America’s working class.
Painting the New York Times
An interview with Nicky Nodjoumi—one of Iran’s greatest artists, in exile since 1980.
Missing Zinn
Cornel West opens up about his friendship with Howard Zinn and what he would have made of the last decade.
Elizabeth Hand’s Curious Toys
Celebrated novelists John Crowley and Elizabeth Hand discuss Hand’s new novel and the ways that historical fiction can and cannot answer our questions about the past.
The Radical Equality of Lives
Judith Butler talks with Brandon M. Terry about MLK, the grievability of black lives, and how to defend nonviolence today.
Ally: From Noun to Verb
Robin D. G. Kelley talks with musician Vijay Iyer about systems of oppression, the responsibility of artists, and how jazz sells proximity to blackness to white people.
The Revolutionary and the Historian
A historian and rapper reflect on their shared activism and the place they see for allies in the long struggle for racial justice.
The Conservative Black Nationalism of Clarence Thomas
Joshua Cohen and Corey Robin discuss the black nationalism at the heart of Thomas’s conservative jurisprudence—and what it means for those on the left who often dismiss the justice’s use of race.
Everyday Economists
The postwar generation understood why a prosperous working class is crucial to the economy. Can economics be accessible again to ordinary Americans?
Sleeping Through the Alarm
With virtually no democratic oversight and over 6,500 missiles in the United States alone, the use of nuclear weapons is almost inevitable.
Choosing Hope
Noam Chomsky and Scott Casleton discuss socialism, anarchism, and the fight for progress in U.S. politics today.
Speaking the Truth
Cornel West and Deborah Chasman discuss the disproportionately white publishing world, the responsibilities and burdens of public life, and the predicament of black intellectuals today.
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