Tariq Ramadan, Rick MacArthur and Art Spiegelman Discuss Freedom of Expression After Charlie Hebdo

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jan 9, 2015 The European scholar of Islam, the publisher of Harper's Magazine and the renowned American graphic novelist discuss the meaning of freedom of speech in the aftermath of the slaughter of 12 people at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Promoting Hillary, The New York Times Once Again Marginalizes the Left

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Nov 30, 2014 Harper's Magazine Publisher Rick MacArthur bewailed the paper's failure to run anything but the most establishment liberal view in its pages when it deemed the Republican victory in the November midterm elections an open opportunity for Hillary Clinton to "resurrect the Democratic Party." Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Would You Refrain From Having Children to Save the Planet?

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 30, 2014 The thought is repulsive to many people, especially among the religious. But experts acknowledge that cutting back on births is a sure-fire way to mitigate the consumption-fueled destruction of the environment. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

World Cup: The Globalized Game

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jun 16, 2014 In the July issue of Harper's Magazine, sports writer Simon Kuper tracks the World Cup's transformation from a postwar proxy for establishing claims to national supremacy to an expression of the border dissolving tendencies of globalization. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Statistics: The Real Lost Generation

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Nov 26, 2013 "American teens and young adults have never, since record-keeping began, done worse in the job market than in the past decade," writes economist Jeff Madrick in Harper's Magazine. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Truthdiggers of the Week: Laurent Beccaria and Patrick Saint-Exupéry

BLANK Sep 29, 2013 The editor and publisher of the French journal XXI show that in France and America, journalism is not dead -- though the common wisdom is trying to kill it.The editor and publisher of the French journal XXI show that in France and America, journalism is not dead—though the common wisdom is trying to kill it. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Truthdigger of the Week: Andrew Cockburn

BLANK Sep 15, 2013 In reporting on decades of U.S. sanctions against Iran, Harper’s Magazine’s Washington editor fully uncovers a mass destruction and murder scheme on a Napoleonic scale. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

‘How the Mass Killing of Egyptian Islamists Is Being Justified in America’

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Aug 9, 2013 Supporters of Egypt's recent military coup from America's left and right are performing "intellectual contortions" to justify "the mass killings of Islamists in the name of democracy," Ken Silverstein writes at Harper's Magazine. And "[t]he common denominator is that the killers were seen as pro-Western." Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Digital Attack on Fellow-Feeling

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jul 20, 2013 A philosopher's keynote speech on the subject of reading delivered at the annual meeting of the Writers' Union of Canada in May and republished in the August issue of Harper's Magazine contains startling figures that connect a rise in society-wide online activity with a drop in empathy and a rise in "narcissistic-personality disorder" in younger generations. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Our God of Imagination

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig May 22, 2013 In his latest "Easy Chair" column, Harper's Magazine contributor Thomas Frank sarcastically eviscerates the business class' most prized literary genre: creativity. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

How the Media’s Experts Became Better Than You

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Mar 23, 2013 The job of corporate news pundits is to appear to say true and important things without attaching those views to themselves or their employers, writes Thomas Frank in the April issue of Harper's Magazine. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Why We Still Fear Vaccines

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jan 9, 2013 Writing in Harper’s Magazine, author and mother Eula Biss places the common American fear of vaccination within a history of religion and midwifery, the anxieties of social class, “debates over the integrity of science” and the decision whether to vaccinate her own son. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )