
Economy And Society

The writer on her new novel, looking at the spectrum of privilege, and subverting female friendship tropes.

The writer on his new book about the toll debt took on his life and the universal reality of his experience.

Capitalism is fundamentally unsustainable. In the spring of 2020, the world began experiencing this fact more acutely than ever, as humankind struggled to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

The writer on when the short story becomes a novel, writing about the gig economy, and claiming new meanings for words.

“Life has a soundtrack. And certain music is a soundtrack to a certain type of identity or feeling. 50 Cent, the Game, and those kinds of guys—they made us feel like our lives were worth nothing, basically.”

Agnieszka Kurant’s interests include various forms of surplus, invisible entities, and the phantoms haunting capitalist production. Some of her projects involve crowdsourcing, others outsourcing to nonhuman species: think colonies of termites.

The second week in January, when I wrote this piece, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the war on poverty. More than forty-seven million people are currently living below the official poverty line.

Andrea Ray speaks to Matthew Buckingham about 19th century sexual freedom, the caring economy and her recent exhibition, Utopians Dance.
An Obstacle to Empathy
I am conducting an interview with a general who is in the process of authorizing an invasion of a country that borders both his and mine.

Pulitzer Prize–winner Rae Armantrout on her new book of poetry, Money Shot, and its dealings with value—in life, porn, and capitalism—through an email exchange with poet Ben Lerner.

Artist Rottenberg builds mini-factories for her video sets, where fetish workers produce elemental products such as lemon-scented sweat and maraschino cherries. Her work is up at Mary Boone through 12/18.

“Vocal Executive Chides Critics of Detroit” reads a recent New York Times headline, confirming a synecdoche firmly engrained in the American imagination substituting industry for place.