The internet is full of resources for self-directed learning: for any subject, you can easily find blog posts about essential texts, links to university syllabi, and hours of YouTube lectures. When I attempted to make use of these guides, however, I often found myself disengaged and unfocused. - Psyche

Because data, and how we present it, tells a story, it’s important to transform results responsibly into visuals. A good visualization can show you really interesting patterns in your data; however, a bad visualization, like truncating the Y-axis or choosing the wrong type of plot, can lead you or your audience to the wrong conclusions. - The Scientist

Where billionaires in the past operated in the physical world, ushered in societal change as a byproduct of their innovation, and used their sizable largesses to try uplifting lives, today’s billionaires stretch the limits of technological reality (and law) with sheer glee, with a meagre spirit of altruism. - The Walrus

In 2025, academics worldwide published about 7 million scholarly articles ­– that’s more than 19,000 each day. On the surface, that might seem like a number to celebrate, but it also poses a problem. As the volume of research balloons, it can be hard to discern what these millions of papers actually tell us.  - Aeon

Of all the priorities that governed ancient-Egyptian life, perhaps the hardest for us to fathom is the expenditure on the afterlife, not merely as a place of immaterial spiritual reward, but as a world of material goods.  - The Atlantic

Call them legacy users, or upgrade holdouts. They’ve clung to iPhones with home buttons, Bush-era computers, and headphones older than some tech CEOs, even when doing so impedes their ability to complete everyday tasks like emailing or navigation. - The Atlantic

The Bicentennial offered everyday people in the middle of the map novel opportunities to appreciate and deliberate what America was, and it succeeded in this because it conducted more than a history lesson: Art was surprisingly paramount in this event of collective self-identification, historical commemoration, and political convocation. - ARTnews

In 1516, the Venetian Senate voted to create the world’s first ‘ghetto’. All Jews then living in the city – as well as any others who might come later – were ordered to move immediately to a small island in the northeastern sestiere of Cannaregio. It was anything but appealing. - Aeon

“Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has revealed that her party plans to cut budgets extensively if it wins the next election, including slashing £1bn from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.” - The Stage (UK)

After 26 years at the helm of Yaddo, the storied artist retreat currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, Elaina Richardson is moving on. She will be succeeded by Cyra Levenson, deputy director of Learning and Engagement at the Guggenheim Museum, as announced last week. - Hyperallergic

A motion from Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH), a member of the Center’s board who’s suing to prevent its closure, is requesting financial and other records as part of discovery. As Trump is chairman of the Kennedy Center board, the Justice Department argues that these records are protected by executive privilege. - Forbes

"I was a vice president at that arts center in Washington, and I can tell you that maintenance is almost certainly not why it closed its doors last month." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

He had created “hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs,” then dispersed billions of automated streams among them so that the bots could avoid raising any red flags by all targeting the same song at once. All together, the fake songs generated substantially more streams than some of the most popular artists today. - Ars...

“So far, none of the musicians have encountered collapsing concrete garage decks, falling 2,500-pound roof sections or ‘electrical explosions’ — risks the center’s management says lurk everywhere.” - The New York Times

An Erato release, headed up by harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, of the complete works of Louis Couperin has won the top prize at the 2026 Gramophone Awards. Among other honorees were Imogen Cooper (Lifetime Achievement), the Bamberg Symphony (Orchestra of the Year), and violinist Isabelle Faust (Artist of the Year). - Gramophone

She is now artistic director of the Webern Kammerphilharmonie, the training orchestra of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts. Currently, she is also artistic director of the Polish National Radio Symphony, chief conductor of the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, and principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. - Gramophone

Harmonium, founded by pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane after he stepped down as the Philharmonic’s music director earlier this year, begins its orchestral life Friday at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. Its emergence poses an unusual question: when an orchestra disappears, who — if anyone — inherits it? - San Antonio Current

Harmonium of Texas — made up largely of musicians from the long-defunct San Antonio Symphony and the now-probably-defunct San Antonio Philharmonic, and co-founded by former SA Phil music director Jeffrey Kahane — gave its first performance on Friday, three days after what’s left of the Philharmonic sued Harmonium. - San Antonio Express-News (Yahoo!)

One might subtitle the embroidered narrative “The Importance of Respecting an Oath.” Or, perhaps, simply "FAFO." - Prospect (UK)

Pickard China in Antioch, Illinois is the last remaining manufacturer of high-end porcelain in the US — and with a shrinking market, aging and deteriorating equipment, and the retirement of the last Pickard family owner, the factory’s future seemed grim. Then Gates decided to make Pickard China part of his artistic practice. - NPR

As part of the £1.5 million research partnership, Humanise said it wants to "challenge the 'blandemic' of dull, soulless development" and improve the way the UK designs and builds its urban environments. - Dezeen

The large bronze plate, inlaid with precious stones and seashells, was taken from the Centre d'art contemporain in Issoire in south-central France. The piece is the cover of the Livre de l'Apocalypse, a joint project of 14 painters and writers including Dalí, Cocteau, and Cioran, calligraphed and illuminated on parchment. - The Telegraph (UK)...

The Victoria and Albert Museum is “planning to launch a voluntary exit scheme … open to staff across the museum. … (The plan) does not reveal how many employees will apply or be accepted. No savings target, opening date, closing date, departmental allocation, or exit terms have been published.” - Art in Context

The striking, €45m project in which Foster + Partners has worked with the eminent Basque architect Luis María Uriarte, has been described as a “floating pavilion” and will double the current exhibition space in the museum, to around 6,000 sq. m, and will also remodel 8,000 sq. m of existing galleries. - The Art...

Many still dispute the validity and accuracy of AI detection tools. The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong wrote that “while Pangram is accumulating the power to end reputations and careers, the tool does make mistakes, perhaps to a greater extent than is currently understood”. - Bookseller

She deserved the prize, first of all, as the major practitioner of literary nonfiction. The committee has historically overlooked this genre. - 3 Quarks Daily

Audiobook walking clubs are now emerging around the country, turning an activity typically enjoyed solo into a low-pressure social event. For about an hour, everyone listens to a book of their choosing as they walk, then gathers afterward to compare notes, trade recommendations, and—in many cases—make plans to see each other again. - Time

The Canadian poet, essayist, and translator of ancient Greek drama was cited “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.” - AP

The Swedish Academy does not discuss the criteria it uses for selecting Nobel laureates, but here are the basics of how the process works. - Deutsche Welle

The former wife of a man who built a notorious empire by making other people’s books ever easier to buy and, eventually, ever easier to produce has herself produced a novel that seems to have stepped directly into the literary territory that Amazon helped make so fertile. - The New Yorker

Over the last quarter-century, with the rise of streaming and the offshoring of production, the U.S. share of major-studio spending on TV episodes has fallen from 94% to 64%, according to a report commissioned by seven entertainment industry unions. - Los Angeles Times

“The 46-minute feature film (Till the Bells Ring), featuring spoken parts and synchronised sound throughout, premiered in Edinburgh in October 1926, a year before The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, hit New York’s screens to widespread fanfare and took its place in the history books.” - The Guardian

“It’s been more than a year since the Trump administration dismantled Voice of America, the largest U.S. international broadcaster, saying ‘taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.’ Yet the agency is costing the government millions even as it stopped operations.” - Fortune

Disney lawyers asked a judge in U.S. District Court in Washington to bar the F.C.C. from undertaking an unusual, early review of the broadcast licenses of the eight stations the company owns and operates. - The New York Times

While the lawsuits differ, they all claim the smear campaigns were carried out through anonymous websites, fabricated social media posts or promotion of unflattering articles and posts on the internet.  - The New York Times

You paid for the building with your bonds. You paid for the programming with your pledge drives. You paid the $447,529 salary with your donations. What you got: a 2.0 share, phantom metrics, and eleven million in programming money nobody can itemize. - Gregg Lewis

In 2012, superstar pianist Lang Lang contacted choreographer Stanton Welch hoping to collaborate. The result was Sons de l’âme, an evening-length ballet in which the onstage pianist plays Chopin while the dancers execute their steps in time with whatever tempos the pianist chooses. Here Welch talks about how the piece has developed. - Gramilano

“In the 1980s Margot Fonteyn told me her technique as Britain’s most celebrated ballerina was far inferior to that of any young dancer starting out in the Eighties. ‘And today the technical accomplishment is far greater than it was 40 years ago,’ (Royal Ballet School artistic director Iain) Mackay tells me.” - The Times...

DDP’s latest data set shows half of the creative teams commissioned for new dance works are entirely male. Less than 10 percent have an equal proportion of men and women. All-women teams are rare. “It basically proves what people have known for a long time,” says DDP founder Elizabeth “Liza” Yntema.  - Dance Magazine

“This is absolutely the city — audiences, presenters, critics — that knows me best” he said. “And there is no denying that eyes will be on how I have guided and how I am presenting the company that I have directed for six years.” - The New York Times

One man is trying to change that.  "You can come down with your blankets, your tablets, your headphones. You don’t have to be in regalia. You can have your caregivers with you. You can have your parents with you, a support person or persons." - OPB

“This year’s Dance Magazine Awards will honor Germaine Acogny; Ayodele Casel; Final Bow for Yellowface; Cleo Parker Robinson; and Alice Sheppard. The Lydia Joel Award — recognizing behind-the-scenes dance leaders — will go to Alicia Adams, formerly of the Kennedy Center.” - Dance Magazine

“What I am doing,” says music supervisor Or Matias of Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, now in previews on Broadway, “is putting the puzzle pieces together in a way that best serves the evolution that (we need) during previews.” Says book writer Leah Nanako Winkler, “I feel like I’m trying to finish this painting.” -...

“Elizabeth Williamson, … 47, currently serves as artistic director of Geva Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., and previously held leadership positions at Hartford Stage in Connecticut and Pioneer Theatre Company in Utah.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

“Staging that key three minutes of the show's meticulously choreographed, highly anticipated climax is a technical feat involving more than 100 gallons of water and unwavering physical acumen on the part of the cast.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

But Hamilton plays differently now. "The show was written in a time where hope was what we were striving for, holding on to, and the pandemic did a lot to diminish that and exhaust people and scare people." - The New York Times

"Theater is so hard to do for so many reasons," says one actor in the renovated Olney Theatre. He's pleased "to see an actual new facility come up out of the ground, and to see talent and audience members come into this space and relish in the experience.”  - Washington Post

She was laughing, but the X-Files (and current Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) star told her fans, "It's so distracting. You can't come 20 times and sit in the front row, it's driving me mad." - The Telegraph (Yahoo)

At a time when scholarship and creative writing are often treated as separate pursuits, Carson has shown how deeply they belong together. Her work is a reminder that thought and imagination don’t compete with one another, but continually enrich each other. - The Conversation

The move came less than a day after a particularly damning email message from Botstein to Jeffrey Epstein became public and a Congressman called for an investigation. Botstein had been president of the college for 51 years until last May and was still a professor and a mainstay of Bard’s music programs. - The...

Botstein, embattled and polarizing, has held on. He has continued to teach at Bard, the liberal arts college 100 miles north of New York City. (He is on sabbatical now to complete a book on Mahler.) He remains the artistic co-director of the Bard Music Festival and runs The Orchestra Now. - The New...

“A multifaceted actress, Ms. Saint combined the luminous dazzle of a fashion model with the subtle and textured depths of a seasoned dramatic performer. She drew the admiration of some of the biggest directors of the 1950s and 1960s, including Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, John Frankenheimer and Otto Preminger.” - The Washington Post (MSN)

“Often in repeated partnerships with directors such as Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, Nora Ephron, Richard Attenborough, Nicholas Hytner and Neil Jordan, Fenton amassed a large and remarkable body of work that stretched across more than 100 feature films, plus documentary, theatre, TV news and more.” - The Guardian

“Possessed of huge drive, vast wealth and immense personal charm, Archer bounced back from disaster and, more than once, rebuilt a shattered life. But for all his talents, he will be remembered as a man affected by a defective moral compass, whose public humiliation was entirely self-inflicted.” - BBC (MSN)