A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

If you remember when Howard DJ'd like a mad c*nt...this story is for you.

By popular demand we are releasing last month's Patreon bonus episode on the main feed! We chart the transformation of the lab leak from an unfounded theory promoted by right-wing cranks to an unfounded theory promoted by liberal journalists.Where to find us: Peter's newsletterPeter's other ...

The 2025 Australian federal election could be the first in decades where Rupert Murdoch's News Corp doesn't have much influence.

When a US officer shot Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi with a rubber bullet in LA, it was big news. But why is the coverage so passive?

Why is it so hard to write about being a widow? My story has no redemptive arc. No community rallied, no family came together, no strength was discovered. Just sudden loss and ongoing adaptation without resolution. These are the widowhood stories we don't want to hear but need to tell.

di Jock Gardiner1. Within a week of each other, Australia and Canada held federal elections that produced remarkably similar results: the incumbent parties of the centre-left winning power; their Trump-curious conservative opponents not only losing the elections, but also seeing their leaders lose their parliamentary seats. In what has been a pretty gloomy period for this Blog’s European audience – the electoral situation in Romania, recent Reform wins in UK local elections...

Millions of girls were aborted for being girls. Now parents often lean towards them | Leaders

A growing group of scientists think so, and are asking whether antivirals could treat the disease | Science & technology

Horizontalism and its discontents

The rhetoric and logic of the abuse of power operates similarly at all scales, which is why I've found feminism such useful equipment for understanding authoritarians in public and political life. Because no matter what abusers take from their victims, they don't want to take the blame. And one of

Birth rates are crashing around the world. Should we be worried? Gideon Lewis-Kraus reports.

A thrilling collection of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance trilogy, including a...

A loose private network on Signal and WhatsApp helped usher in the new alliance between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s new right.