The New York Times, 2024, 20:20… Here, we reflect on the question of work and what’s supposed to be normal. Despite the game’s turn-of-the-century setting, the labor routines, activity patterns — as well as bugs and malfunctions — paint a vivid analogy for how workers today toil under capitalism. Can we, the nonplayer characters of a political economy that controls, exploits and alienates us, find a way to rebel against the absurdity of our own activities?
The New York Times, 2024, 8:37... Should your insurance company be allowed to stop you from getting a treatment — even if your doctor says it’s necessary? Doctors are often required to get insurance permission before providing medical care. This process is called prior authorization and it can be used by profit-seeking insurance companies to create intentional barriers between patients and the health care they need. At best, it’s just a minor bureaucratic headache. At worst, people have died.
Jawline (2019) is an intimate look into young men aspiring to social media fame. Profiling a number of “influencers,” the film focuses on a teenage boy as he attempts to grow his social media followers. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok mean that celebrity is no longer institutionalized in Hollywood but rather available to anyone with a camera and Internet connection. While this has democratized celebrity to some degree, it has also opened the door to self-professed “experts” who seek to exploit those hoping to go viral.
Inside Edition, 2023, 1:48… Taylor Swift's sold-out Eras tour added $4.6 billion to the local economies of the cities she performed in. Her impact on the economy is being called "Swiftonomics." Many of her fans traveled long distances to spend lots of money to make her concert a night to remember. The so-called “Taylor Swift tourists” spend an average of $1,300 per person. Those purchases include tickets, hotels, car rentals, restaurants, merchandise and hair stylists.
CBS Sunday Morning, 2021, 3:39… Martin Riese is America's first certified water sommelier, who studies the subtle flavors of bottled water, and prepares menus pairing specific brands with foods. Correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti sits down with Riese to discuss his unique palate, and his thirst for spreading the word on water.
WIRED, 2021, 9:39… Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist who was formerly a part of a left-wing cult, talks about the cult-like nature of many online conspiracy theory groups. Dr. Lalich explains how people get caught up in groups like this, and what can be done to help those who have fallen further and further down the rabbit hole.
NYT, 2019, 12:15… The surveillance state is the stuff of dystopian novels and futuristic thrillers. Or, as revealed in the Video Op-Ed above, it’s here now. With ad trackers on our phones, facial recognition cameras on our streets and N.S.A. agents listening in on our phone calls, Big Brother is watching. Throughout 2019, The New York Times Opinion department’s Privacy Project has been trying to make the conversation about privacy a little less boring, a little less complicated and a lot more real. We keep hearing, “I’ve got nothing to hide” or “I can’t actually do anything about it.” But when the government fails to protect your privacy, it’s up to you to set your limits. It’s time to decide: Are you really O.K. with being watched?
Vice, 2021, 6:46… The internet has been accused of wrecking many things over the years – print media, Blockbuster and privacy, for instance. One thing it definitely hasn’t killed, though, is the antisemitic conspiracy theory. In fact, the internet is breathing new life into ideas that have been doing the rounds – sometimes causing mass murder – for centuries. In this episode of Truth Hurts, we look at how today’s biggest conspiracy movements are just recycling the same old, evil lies.
8-Bit Philosophy, 2015, 4:18… Gender is a script that society expects us to act, and this includes the expectations that accompany masculinity and femininity. This includes things such as mannerism, speech, and thoughts. Gender is essentially the narrative we ascribe to anatomy. Moreover, when we do not want to want to act according to these social scripts, the neat binary between men and women starts to fall apart. This brings up the question of should there be gender categories in the first place.
Vice, 2021, 7:03… It’s been well established that belief in conspiracy theories is related to a disbelief in actual science. The whole toxic frustration of conspiracy theorists is that they can never be proven wrong – all evidence against their ideas just becomes part of the conspiracy. This is largely why, even though they seem obsessed with science, they always get actual science so wrong. From the moon landing to flat earth to 5G, there has been a constant battle in modern times between science and conspiracy.
8-Bit Philosophy, 2014, 3:51… Consider a world without money, without class divisions, where everyone gives according to their abilities and takes according to their needs. This sounds like a great world to live in, right? To Karl Marx, this communist utopia was not only possible, it was inevitable.
The New York Times, 2020, 4:20… Introducing the credibility bookcase, a background that lends authority to your video interview. From a dramaturgical perspective, it can be seen as a form of sign equipment we display to others to enhance our front stage self. In other words, books and bookcases are intellectual accessories. But it’s not just books, though—Joe Biden’s carefully placed football delivers an all-American vibe, and the material of the bookcases can indicate socioeconomic status as seen with the fancy woods endemic in celebrity homes.
Implicitly Pretentious, 2020, 10:05… This video essay examines how the film Jojo Rabbit (2019) displays sociological concepts related to the construction of nations, communities, myth-making, and the self. Other sociological concepts include national mythscapes, cultural appropriation, and discursive space.
The Thought Theater, 2020, 8:35… The character of Batman and the stories that revolve around him have always seemed to be substantiated on the symbiotic relationship between an individual, and the elements that encapsulate them. How do the ideas of society and the balance of good and evil mixed in with a little bit of chaos tell the story? Today we try to dissect and figure that out.
AJ+, 2019, 12:00… Dolly Parton is an American icon. But she stands, perhaps most importantly, as a timeless ode to the foundation of this country: the working class. In the inaugural episode of Pop Americana, Sana Saeed explores the radical politics of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” - the song, the film and the album. We threw in some Marxist theory too.
Ozark, 2017, 2:20… In the popular Netflix show Ozark, Marty, played by Jason Bateman, is forced into a life of crime, laundering money for drug lords. His family knows about this and wrestles with the morality of this lifestyle. When Marty's son Jonah goes to school, he’s asked to sign a pledge that he will not use drugs. Jonah confronts the teacher with economic contributions or latent functions that the drug trade has for society.
The Atlantic, 2019, 5:33… Should a job provide a paycheck or a purpose? Traditional religion lends some people meaning, community, and self-actualization. For many Americans, work has stepped in to fill that role. But this all-encompassing worship of work is setting us up for mass anxiety and inevitable burnout, says Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson.
Vox, 2019, 8:37… Carlson’s show is meant to distract Fox News viewers from Republican economics, channeling their frustration and anger at groups that don’t deserve it. That kind of misdirection produces what Marxist theorists call “false consciousness”: when workers are tricked into accepting their own exploitation.
