America’s Orwell

We’re between breakdown and breakup, or maybe between the AI monster and human extinction. Those are the rough choices that the all-purpose American writer Kurt Andersen is offering us in his vast portrait of a ... The post The Breakup appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re savoring a glorious story we thought we knew in the long ordeal of racial justice in America. It was the singer Marian Anderson’s moment in 1939, after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred ... The post Voice of a Century appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re at sea this time on our own Odyssey, a voyage between the ancient epic that refuses to die and Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie version for us in this summer of 2026. It’s the story ... The post Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re high as a kite on World Cup football. The final test, coming Sunday, is down to Spain and Argentina. My question is whether this frenzied global contest might actually be rescuing our species from ... The post The World’s Sport appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re still in the Fourth of July spirit around the 250th birthday of our nation, hooked in particular by one grand American historian’s question to it: is the United States on the road to a ... The post After the Fireworks appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re in a sort of watch party for a season when World Cup soccer, championship basketball, sports of every kind, all seem to run deeper, more believable, much better played than the rest of our ... The post The Boston Watch Party appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re unearthing a model writer for an anxious America. Dwight Macdonald was his own eccentric voice through the Cold War politics and culture of the 1950s and 60s. He was a peacenik at heart, otherwise ... The post America’s Orwell appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re entranced in Molly Crabapple’s reanimation of the Jewish Labour Bund in Europe and Russia, of a century ago. Yiddish Socialism was a nickname. You could plausibly describe that old Bund as forgotten but not ... The post Here Where We Live Is Our Country appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re talking about the new magic of money, or Musk-ism, as our guests call it. Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff are historians of different sorts—historians of the future. Oddly enough, their hair-raising new book is ... The post Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re tuning in on the Pope and the President in what can sound like a historic showdown. Are we in the first rounds of an epic struggle between church and empire? Are we perhaps looking ... The post The Pope and the President appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.