Author: James Porter
James Porter
James writes about culture at the edge of what's mainstream — the films, shows, and ideas that haven't been explained to death yet.
The New Yorker asked luminaries to name their favorite American. The answers — scientists, playwrights, pop stars, bureaucrats, one cartoon — reveal more than any ranked list could.
Tim Pughsley built a sports-betting site that moved billions before the IRS shut it down. His case exposes how thin the line is between criminal bookmaking and FanDuel.
Colson Whitehead closes his Harlem crime trilogy with “Cool Machine,” a reckoning with the city that shaped him and the private pressures behind his restless reinventions.
Steven Spielberg returns to blockbuster filmmaking with Disclosure Day, fifty years after Jaws created the commercial template Hollywood still uses.
Scott McTominay’s acrobatic goal against Denmark sent Scotland to its first World Cup in 27 years, ending a drought that shaped a generation of fans.
A question hangs over the Commonwealth Short Story Prize: did AI write a winning entry? The real issue is what it reveals about how we judge fiction.
In 1988, Scorsese’s *The Last Temptation of Christ* became the test case for a new conservative playbook — one that still shapes culture wars today.
Julia Alvarez joins Kevin Young on The New Yorker’s poetry podcast to read Judy Page Heitzman’s poem and her own “Mami at Her Vanity.”
Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” argues moral concerns must lead AI development — not profit, efficiency, or competitive advantage.
The U.S. nears an Iran deal, but Tehran’s Hormuz leverage has only strengthened hard-liners. Any agreement will likely fall short of what maximum pressure promised.