“What do we want from our mothers when we are children?” asks the female narrator of Zadie Smith’s 2016 novel Swing Time. I’ve often thought back to this line since reading the book six years ago. Usually, I’m pondering the question in the context of being a mother myself. Frankly…

Your sole relationship that’s not transactional “is sleeping in that room.” The viewer will picture beautiful little Petra, dreaming with her stuffed felt animals tucked under her chin, but “Tár” director Todd Field doesn’t show Petra here. The camera stays right with Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) and her wife Sharon…

For aspiring authors feeling the intimidation that often accompanies beginning a new project, novelist E.L. Doctrow offered the following advice: “Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.” This little tidbit came to…

My favorite scene from Workin’ Moms comes at the close of Episode One. Kate Foster (Catherine Reitman, charming and reliably funny) is out jogging with her baby through a wooded park when she almost runs into a giant grizzly bear. An earlier news snippet cautioned of bear sightings (the show…

American culture is mostly oblivious to motherhood, but the vague ideas it manages to occasionally put forth are usually bad. The reasons for this are myriad and could fill a book, a bookshelf, a library: the sort of person who tended to immigrate here (risk-taker, individualist, and in the West…

It needs saying here at the start that I recommend Cobra Kai. I like this show. I like its sunny sheen, its ludicrous plot-lines, its full embrace of camp, and I’d frankly like to see William Zabka win an Emmy for his role as adult Johnny, because nothing about this…

When Third Eye Blind’s debut album dropped in 1997, the band’s mega-hit single “Semi-Charmed Life” became that year’s defining summer anthem. To those outside the 3EB fan core (condolences), it would also become the defining song of Third Eye Blind itself. I used to think this unfortunate, but with time…

Politics and pills will be the only outlet left for millions of young Americans who have been tallied up—from the Ivy League to the annals of Pitchfork—and found wanting. Perhaps you were a fan of Matchbox 20 back in their late-90s heyday. Plenty of company in that boat — the…

To say that I have watched Game of Thrones is not exactly true. For the first seven years of its Sunday night dominion, I nurtured a dedicated, intentional denial of the dragon show. Articles, tweets, talk from the families and friends, conversational snippets on the elevator — to all, a…