Afghan Idol: Can a Talent Competition Save a Nation?
An interview with the director of Afghan Star, a documentary that follows a tense but cathartic talent competition.
Far-Right Evangelicals And The Campaign Against Obama
From the media influence of the “birthers” to suggestions that the president wants to euthanize the elderly, a propaganda campaign against Obama is in full swing. Who, exactly, is behind it?
Undemocratic Republic of Iran: How Did the Hardliners Pull Off a Coup?
What we are witnessing in Iran is a coup against elements of the establishment deemed insufficiently committed to a radical reading of Islam. Unable to handle the messy outcome of democracy is the regime in serious trouble?
A professor of religious studies, challenged to write a patriotic song that isn’t militaristic, is inspired by texts on our democratic project.
Baseball is an exhausting thing to care about, a continual source of heartbreak, an elaborate choreography of loss, and a sentimental education in what such losing means.
The tragicomic Napoleonic Era reveals eerie similarities to the Bush Doctrine...