Comedy
Shane Mauss: Is the End of the Drug War Inevitable?
“I never pictured a world where marijuana would be anywhere close to legal, and it’s mind-blowing to me that mushrooms are being decriminalized everywhere,” says Shane Mauss, a comedian who tours the country discussing his psychedelic experiences. For the 2018 documentary Psychonautics, he consumed a wide variety of substances on camera, from ayahuasca to LSD to […]
How The Simpsons Strangled Itself Into Irrelevance
To paraphrase Marx, sitcoms repeat themselves, first as satire and then as farce. Or maybe just as self-parody. That’s the case with The Simpsons, America’s longest-running scripted TV series, longest-running animated show, and longest-running sitcom. Once an engagingly genial yet subversive part of American popular culture whose creator, Matt Groening, sharpened his talents in alternative […]
Great Moments in Unintended Consequences (Vol. 13): Gun Buybacks, Poppy Payday, CAFE Standards
Great moments in unintended consequences—when something that sounds like a great idea goes horribly wrong. Watch the whole series. Part One: Glock Management The year: 2008. The problem: Oakland has too many guns! The solution: Offer $250 for every gun turned in to the police, no questions asked. Sounds like a great idea, with the best […]