Alex Burns

When the press tour for Madame Web began at the start of the year, lead actress Dakota Johnson was placed under such scrutiny that it became an absurdist tale of how clicks and engagement are farmed. One of the earliest examples is a quote she gave to Entertainment Weekly about working in front of a bluescreen, in which she said, “I’ve never really... See more

Obviously you can pick books that fit your interests, but if you’re looking to read to be a better writer, setting goals to read books that will improve your range of knowledge, even if they aren’t as fun as Harry Potter or whoever, is vital. You might not love every second of The Magic Mountain or The Unconsoled , but you will have absorbed someth... See more

50 years ago today, Cleveland hosted 'Ten-Cent Beer Night' against the Texas Rangers. About 60,000 beers were consumed by 25,134 fans, seven people were sent to the hospital, and the game was stopped due to drunken rioting. The Rangers were declared winners via forfeit. https://t.co/2nMnhYB7N9

Over the last decade, Silver, whom owners recently rewarded with a long-term contract extension, has more than doubled the NBA’s annual revenue to $12 billion from $4.8 billion. With 22,538,518 fans attending games, the league set an all-time regular-season record this year, and the average NBA franchise is now worth $3.85 billion, according to For... See more

Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

India had fewer than 10 billionaires two decades ago, when Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother first appeared on the Forbes billionaire list after their father, company founder Dhirubhai Ambani, died. Now, the country is the world’s third-biggest source of billionaires after China and the U.S.

India’s 200 billionaires have a combined net worth of... See more

If you’re a young woman who wants to write fiction, it’s useful to read zeitgeist-y contemporary writers like Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, Elena Ferrante, and Mary Gaitskill—but you’d be missing a great deal by not reading Clarice Lispector and Edith Wharton.

How did an oddball pop song versed in queer theory get on the Billboard Hot 100? Specifically, how did Chappell Roan, a rising lesbian pop star, get on the Hot 100 for the first time and break the “gay famous” ceiling (as SNL puts it) seemingly preventing likeminded acts MUNA and Girl in Red from crossing over to the main chart?