Culture & Religion

A federal court has ruled that cheerleading cannot properly be called a sport because it does not provide for equal opportunities and participation in sports. Has the court gone too far?

Has the rise of celebrity architects over the past couple of decades been good or bad for the design of buildings, generally? New Yorker architecture critic Paul Golberger says that […]

Ta-Nehisi Coates asks, “How does one deal with finding out that one of your most beloved artworks was created by a man or woman whose personal behavior is (or was) odious?”

While appreciating music does stimulate the brain, “It will be a sad day when the only way to persuade educationalists to embrace music is via its side effects on cognition and intelligence.”

“What’s wrong with praising our troops to the rafters and adding them to our pantheon of heroes? A lot.” A retired lieutenant colonel laments the blanket praise heaped on our troops.

Big news for publishers and bookish types: the number of electronic books sold on Amazon’s Kindle has exceeded the number of hardcover books sold through Amazon’s website, and by quite […]

Novelist Bret Easton Ellis is used to people asking him about the numb, disconnectedness of his characters—and whether that’s a reflection of his own worldview. Not so much, he says: […]

Paul Di Filippo on, “How a long-dead Frenchman became one of the most important science fiction writers in current American culture.” Join the Jules Verne revival at Salon.com.

“Thanks to period-music evangelists, breathtaking virtuosity, and millions of listeners, the art form remains vibrant.” The City Journal on the relevance of classical music today.

“You had better shove this in the stove,” wrote Mark Twain in a 1865 letter, adding, “I don’t want any absurd ‘literary remains’ and ‘unpublished letters of Mark Twain’ published […]

Charles Simic recalls the excuses he offered the first time he watched his native Yugoslavia lose at the World Cup. The poet lists the four universal excuses given when a soccer team loses.

In a series of tweets Sunday, Sarah Palin first “invented” the word “refudiate” (while, perhaps, trying to come up with “repudiate”), and then defended her word choice in another tweet […]

Screenwriter Danny Rubin says that he came up with the idea for the classic comedy “Groundhog Day” while thinking about the idea of immortality—and, specifically, how a person might change […]

“After a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s regulations on indecency, network television will have license to depict more violence, use more profanity and get a whole lot sexier.”

“What Egypt needs is a durable social movement that decades from now can influence politicians and decision-makers.” Osama Diab at The Guardian is nostalgic for flower power.

Mark Twain’s posthumous autobiography reveals the author’s darker side, but will we bother to notice? Or will we prefer the “Disneyfied” history of the man as avuncular satirist?

“France has no interest in becoming a multicultural society—or, to put it traditionally, a mosaic society or a tapestry of loosely bound communities,” writes Jane Kramer. “It is not the Ottoman empire.”

Today marks the first time anyone has ever brought an axe to an interview here at Big Think! The Reverend Dr. David Adamovich, a.k.a. The Great Throwdini, just stopped by […]

“Biography may have little to tell us about why a novelist writes well, but it can sometimes be helpful in understanding why a novelist writes badly.” TNR discusses E.M. Forster’s sexual naiveté.

“The country’s new wave of directors are rejecting Bollywood’s glitz for grittier, real-life themes.” The Independent looks at the new social-political consciousness in post-Bollywood films.

Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker looks on the bright side of life: despite unprecedented world problems, the author appreciates the good food and good cooking culture in America.

Women who stay at home to raise children abdicate responsibility to themselves and therefore to their children, says Nancy Hirschmann, a professor of political science and women’s studies.

“For conservative hold-outs, soccer may be the most capitalist game going.” The xenophobia that fears soccer as a socialist export is unfounded, says The Christian Science Monitor.

Monday, June 12th, is judgment day for Yuri Samodurov, former director of Moscow’s Sakharov Museum, and Andrei Yerofeyev, a former curator of the Tretyakov Gallery. They face the possibility of […]

“One of the most widely quoted and dissected public intellectuals on the planet is also one of the most inscrutable.” A colleague of Christopher Hitchens on the author’s personal reticence.

“Today’s communes are a far cry from the free-loving, dope-smoking hippy havens of the Sixties. But can they really solve the problems of the modern world?”

“Though Iranian officials have only just now designated the mullet as a form of ‘Western cultural invasion,’ the haircut has always been with us.” Slate gives a history of the hairdo.

Violinist and humanitarian Midori Goto stopped by the Big Think offices today. She played show and tell with her priceless violin, made in 1734, which she said she thinks of […]

Is Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” sexist, as a recent post from Jezebel’s Irin Carmon suggests? A collection of female staffers from the program have publicly disagreed, and Slate’s Emily […]

“We all know that real men don’t eat quiche,” says Miller McCune. “New research suggests men opt for foods associated with a masculine identity — even if it means passing up something they prefer”