TED Talks and the History of Public Speaking
Episode 395
In Episode 395, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss the rise—and fall?—of the TED Talk....
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When Diane Arbus Came to Central Park
The New York City story of a latchkey kid and a trailblazing photographer
For me as a city kid, Central Park was a forbidden Eden. Even though I grew up a stone’s throw from the park, my parents forbade me to walk there, even chaperoned, even in broad daylight. And so, it’s all the more astounding that I recently found myself trotting—no, tearing over—to see ...
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Broom Swept
Failure tells a tale about capitalism too
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What closes and then darkness, what opens and then bright?Before the horn has risen,where hides the lord of light? —Tian Wen, A Chinese Book of Origins
How you frame something is a moral decision. —Babette Mangolte
On Mercer Street, on the island of Manhattan, and just before the city paused, walking in a southerly direction ...
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Public Space, Public Art, and Public Memory
Responding to the Neo-Nazi Trial Verdict in Jena
Jeffrey C. Goldfarb is off today. He has selected this piece on the complexities of public memory as this week's Gray Friday post.
On Wednesday, July 11, 2018 the verdict of five of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) members was given in the Higher Regional Court in Munich. Beate Zschäpe, the ...
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Irony and Historical Detachment
Analysis/discussion of pastiche in social media
This second interpretation is what I want to focus on. I want to show that instead of being a form of humor the graffiti in this image is representative of a strain of urbane, ironic detachment that has become pervasive in Anglophone cultures over the past decades. I want to ...
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Episode 28: Bathroom Politics, Spring Break, and the Heroin Crisis
In this week's episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki debate the politics of public bathrooms, the history of Spring Break, and the origins of the American heroin crisis.
Read more at Past and Present
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Rolezinho: Politics in Brazil’s Shopping Malls?
Since last December, Brazilian shopping malls have become the stage for a new style of youth gathering: the rolezinho. Roughly translated as “little excursions” or outings, the rolezinhos can be characterized as planned meetings (via social network) of a large group of youth from poor neighborhoods, with the intent of seeing each other, flirting, eating ...
