Unprepossessed: Zanele Muholi’s self-ownership
In the photobook Somnyama Ngonyama, South African visual activist Zanele Muholi creates an identity, performs an identity, dismantles an identity, confronts with identity.
Review
Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Amplification of Our Errors Through AI A review of The AI Delusion by Gary Smith
In his new book The AI Delusion, Gary Smith argues that we need to disabuse ourselves of the blind faith we put in Artificial Intelligence: machines are not, and cannot be, more “intelligent” than we are.
Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming A review of Agnes Callard's book Aspiration
In a recent article on aspirational living for the New York Times, How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million, Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes: “I thought about the word ‘aspiration,’ how to aspire seems so noble, but how aspiration is always infused with a kind of suffering, and I...
Let Me Fall Again A review of Julia Borissova's photobook Let Me Fall Again
In her most recent photobook, Let Me Fall Again, photographer and bookmaker Julia Borissova presents a part-factual, part-imagined construction of the life of Charles Leroux, a professional jumper.
Why Be Something When You Can Be Everything? A review of How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick
Does the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" feel too limiting? In Emilie Wapnick's book How to Be Everything, she lays out models for a sustainable life and career for those who don't want to have to choose.
Building the Bridge Beneath Our Feet A review of Knowing Emotions by Rick Anthony Furtak
For all the great strides we've made in rationalism and reason, as a species we seem to be irrevocably ruled by our emotions. Is this a flaw for us to overcome with science, or can our emotions reveal to us the truth? Rick Anthony Furtak digs deep in his book Knowing Emotions.
Bullshit Jobs: David Graeber’s Theory on the Open Secret of Work
In his new book Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber pulls apart the open secret of modern-day work and wages: many of us know that our jobs are completely made up.
How to Write a Meaningful Future from the Contentment of an Imperfect Present
What do I want to do with my life? is one of the most basic questions of our time on Earth, as well as among the most heavyweight. Philosophy professor Cheshire Calhoun makes her case for how to break it down in her new book, Doing Valuable Time.
Nevertheless Unable to Escape Ourselves
“We, human beings, are a species that’s not only capable of acting on hidden motives—we’re designed to do it,” write Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson in their new book The Elephant in the Brain.
#Blessed: On False Gratitude
In her new book Everything Happens for a Reason, divinity professor Kate Bowler writes openly about her own confrontation with death, and how this fits in with the prosperity gospel.