Culture

The past few years have seen a slew of devastating style assaults on the English language known as “LinkedIn speak.” You know the type of word salad: “synergize” instead of “combine,” “ideated” instead of “thought of,” “holistic” instead of – well – looking at something as a whole. Alarmingly, there is now an app, Kagi Translate, that allows you to type any sentence and it will deliver it for you in this wretched patois. For instance, write “I went to the zoo,” and Kagi gives you: “I had an incredible opportunity to observe high-performing teams in a diverse ecosystem and reflect on the importance of adaptability and strategic positioning.” Go on, try it. Or rather: “Step out of your comfort zone and embrace

Stephen Colbert is many things – late-night host, perpetual thorn in the side of President Trump and, some would suggest, a comedian – but few have hitherto described him as a Hollywood screenwriter. Which is why it was some of the most jaw-dropping news that the entertainment industry has seen in recent months that it has been announced that Colbert will be co-writing the latest Lord of the Rings film, currently subtitled Shadows of the Past, and that his co-screenwriter will be none other than his son Peter McGee, along with regular Rings writer Philippa Boyens. Everything about the story is, to put it mildly, perplexing. Colbert has only ever

It has been a very long time since Saturday Night Live was in the headlines for a good reason (probably Nate Bargatze’s first hosting stint in October 2023), and those who have been wishing that the increasingly beleaguered show would be put out of its misery now finally have their opportunity to say so. In last weekend’s episode, one sketch in highly questionable taste revealed a gang of canceled celebrities – including Bill Cosby, Armie Hammer and Mel Gibson – as coming forward and explaining that their various controversial or criminal activities had been driven by their having Tourette’s. The reason for the skit, which was cut for time and

It’s a bit difficult to explain a Senate confirmation process to those who haven’t gone through it. It is, to put it in a single word, intense. Years ago, the first time I had a hit piece written about me, I wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground and die. During my confirmation hearing, my attitude was more, “Oh, Chuck Schumer is denouncing me from the Senate floor as a racist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist. It must be Monday.” I still haven’t even bothered to read the vast majority of press accounts or descriptions of me that have come out in the days since the hearing. It’s important in

I am 36, not six. Nevertheless, I arrive in New York with my favorite book, Eloise, packed carefully in my hand luggage. At the airport I hail a taxi, shove my bags in the back and ask the driver to take me to the Plaza Hotel. Talk about exciting. Eloise, for anyone who has not had the good fortune to encounter her, is a fictitious six-year-old girl who lives at the Plaza. In the books by Kay Thompson, Eloise’s mother is conspicuously absent (“she knows Coco Chanel”), her nanny permanently exhausted (“Nanny gets up feeling tired, tired, tired”), and Eloise spends her days terrorizing the long-suffering hotel staff (“I am

There’s something very religious about nihilism. For proof, look to the new capital of American nihilism, Minneapolis. A callousness toward death and danger has fallen over the city. Of the many disturbing videos to come out of Minnesota’s anti-ICE protests, one of the stranger examples shows a white man walking up to a line of heavily armed law-enforcement officers, shouting: “Shoot us in the fucking face! Shoot me in the fucking head!” What possesses someone to do that? I understand being against Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s blitzkrieg deportation policy. And it’s not irrational, in the viral age, to protest theatrically. But this is psychotic. It is the death drive

And now his watch is ended. Sir Will Lewis fell on his sword last night, resigning as CEO and publisher of the Washington Post. “After two years of transformation at the Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” Lewis said in an email to staff. In his note, Lewis thanked only the Post’s proprietor Jeff Bezos. Cockburn hears that least one journalist replied to Lewis’s email, “Bye, bitch.” Lewis had a troubled and confusing tenure. In his final week, the Post cut 30 percent of its staff, including the full books section and scores of foreign reporters. The publication also folded its vaunted sports section into features. “I believe the new tagline

On a cold January night in New York City, Chris Hayes walked off the set of CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert only to face a pressing ethical dilemma. As he left the Ed Sullivan Theater and walked on to Broadway, he got a text from a friend who covers technology for NPR with a screenshot of a Yes/No market that had been spun up on the prediction market Kalshi, based on what Hayes might say on the evening’s broadcast. What would he say about Donald Trump? Would he talk about affordability, Russia, China, Greenland or other topics? It was just a $22,000 market in volume, a minor amount. But

Long ago, in a different world, I edited a magazine called InStyle Weddings, which showcased the nuptial celebrations of the rich and famous. Melania Knauss Trump graced the cover of our spring 2005 issue, in her wedding gown, next to the headline “Behind the Scenes at the Trump Wedding.” My boss at the time had attended Donald and Melania’s January 2005 knot-tying at Mar-a-Lago, as an invited guest, alongside other Manhattan media machers, plus politicians, movie stars, famous athletes and… Jeffrey Epstein. The Trump Organization furnished the quotes for our article, and also approved all the photos. That the occasion was a precisely orchestrated publicity event as much as a wedding

When Billie Eilish declared, during her acceptance speech for song of the year with “Wildflower” at last night’s Grammy awards, that “I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter,” she was speaking in the approved register. “Fuck ICE,” she added but it was more of the same. In contrast to the Golden Globes, where the neutral tenor of the event was made up of tame jokes about the age of Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriends, the Grammys have turned into an opportunity for musicians to express political outrage. The awards themselves went as expected last night. Kendrick Lamar and Bad