AI can now generate songs, images, novels and artworks in seconds. Many of these works are already being streamed, licensed and sold. This raises an increasingly important question: should works produced without direct human authorship receive copyright protection? - The Conversation

How, then, could an automated oracle help? It cannot tell you what to feel, because feeling is not something you can summon by obedience. But neither can it settle the matter by telling you what to do. Reasons matter, and to be a morally responsible agent you must reason for yourself. - Humanist Review

Which change that happened 15 years ago was the real source of so much misery for children? “You can’t run experiments on history,” Haidt said, so we’ll never be able to prove that smartphones and social media caused the steep decline in youth mental health. - The Atlantic

In a nationally representative survey conducted by our team at the Archbridge Institute’s Human Flourishing Lab, 68% of Gen Z respondents reported feeling nostalgic for eras before their lifetime, and 73% said they are drawn to media, styles, hobbies, or traditions from earlier periods. - Big Think

We human beings remain stubbornly, beautifully starving for one another. More surprising — and heartening — we are looking upward and outward, and returning to one another after being tethered for so long to our screens. This all portends well for the entertainment business, no doubt. - The New York Times

We have found that although AI can enhance individual creativity, it reduces collective creativity. To explain why this occurs, we should first clarify what we mean by creativity. - MIT

People often joke about how Trumpism would like to return us to some version of the 1950s, when America supposedly was “great.” In this report, the administration has done just that. The report would prefer that nothing had ever happened since the ’50s to mar the White House’s polished, superficial, puerile version of America’s...

Twenty years ago, the school’s acceptance rate was 38%; now it’s under 5%, roughly equivalent to Yale’s, and its undergraduates are reportedly the happiest in the country. The change is the result of deliberate, planned effort by two successive presidents over 20 years. - New York Magazine (MSN)

When their homes came under threat, they instinctively reached for the tools they had to hand: their social and cultural capital. That’s how an apartment block in Madrid became a stage, broadcast on every news channel. - The Guardian

Art shows in apartments or offices, open to friends only, featuring artists forbidden to exhibit publicly. Philosophy clubs in people's kitchens and living rooms. Small theater companies careful to refer to sensitive topics (like the Ukraine war or Putin) obliquely or not at all.  A pervasive climate of fear. - The New York Times

“The original panels” — removed on Wednesday following a court decision — “were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.” - AP

The time it takes to process a visa has dramatically increased. The number of available interview slots at U.S. embassies is backlogged. Application costs have surged. And there's an added layer of uncertainty: paperwork can be perfect, fees can be paid, and yet artists still can be turned away at the border. - NPR

Jackson is currently music director of the Reno Philharmonic in Nevada — a position she’ll keep through 2028-29 — and will officially take up this post as of the 2027-28 season. She succeeds John DeMain, who retired in June after 32 years. - The Cap Times (Madison, WI)

“Cantrell’s appointment comes after a nationwide search sparked by the retirement of longtime Nashville Symphony leader Alan Valentine, who served in the role for 28 years. Cantrell, who will officially assume the position on Aug. 1., comes to Nashville Symphony from the Colorado Symphony in Denver.” - Nashville Post

The July 16 performance of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, with James Conlon conducting the Chicago Symphony and soloists including Katherine Lewek and Miles Mykkanen, was called off due to hazardous air quality caused by smoke from wildfires raging in Canada. - Ravinia Festival

It’s a story about many things, including music and money; excellence and equity; tradition and change. But mostly it’s about two questions: What should an orchestra be in a city like Boston in 2026? And even more important: Who gets to decide? - Boston Magazine

Vinyl record sales in the US have increased for 19 consecutive years, surpassing $1 billion in revenue in 2025. As vinyl’s popularity has surged, so has scrutiny of its environmental cost—and the music industry’s efforts to address it. - LongReads

“The Mozarteum Foundation on Wednesday unveiled 300 gold-colored statuettes of Mozart, which are barely 50 centimeters (less than 20 inches) tall. … To give the statues a human touch, (artist Ottmar) Hörl depicted the composer with his favorite dog, Pimperl.” - AP

“While Surrealism is figured as a style in popular imagination — trippy, dreamy, and escapist, detached from reality in every way — (the exhibition) ‘In the Very Bowels of Change: Surrealism and Antifascism’ reminds just how much the movement was formed in response to the politics of its time.” - Art in America

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art has tested positive for traces of the bacteria linked to a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, health officials announced Tuesday. The bacteria were previously detected at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as authorities continue searching for the source of the outbreak.” - ARTnews

MONA, owned and run (in famously quirky style) by gambling mogul David Walsh in Australia’s island state, is slated to open its first satellite museum on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in the Thai capital in 2029. - Artnet

Ono debuted the work at Carnegie Hall in 1964, sitting motionless onstage as people took turns cutting off her clothes with scissors. The Broad in Los Angeles is presenting Cut Piece twice this weekend across the street at REDCAT. The performer, known as MPA, is scared — but not of the scissors. - The...

The museum began work on “High Style: The Art of Cannabis Pipes” three years ago, thinking that increasing legalization and acceptance of marijuana made the timing good. Yet the show was cancelled this spring; museum management says it was for logistical reasons. The question: the logistics of what exactly? - The New York Times

The privately-owned Gelman Santander Collection, whose 68 pieces include 10 paintings by Frida Kahlo along with works by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and others, is scheduled to spend two years touring Europe. Some citizens, unconvinced that the art will come home, are suing to keep it in Mexico. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

One of the reasons TikTok’s book-review videos, known collectively as BookTok, have become so popular—and powerful in the publishing world—is that they offer a human-based, quasi-critical recommendation portal for fans and genre devotees to connect, commiserate, and promote their favorite work. - The New Yorker

In 2003, older Americans read on average just under an hour each day — 58.5 minutes. By last year, that had fallen nearly by half, to roughly 32.4 minutes each day, a drop that represents the lion’s share of overall reading declines. - The New York Times

“Hong Kong’s top security official said Thursday that booksellers should ensure the titles they sell do not harm national security, a day after five people linked to two bookstores were arrested. The police operation on Wednesday was the third round of arrests targeting independent bookstores within four months.” - AP

There is the book a writer writes, which is to say the actual words on the page, and then there is what I call its hologram—the shimmering, ethereal version of the book that the author must pitch to their publisher, and which their publisher then pitches to the public. - LitHub

"It reminded me of what happened when the internet came of age and you saw a difference in the texture of novels: something about the research process that had become expansive and yet somehow just a little more hollow than the pre-internet novel." - Yale Review

“The article, ‘A Silent Moratorium,’ explores the harassment and professional challenges that Israeli and Jewish authors have experienced since the (Gaza War). … The chief executives knew the article could be controversial, ... but the idea for it had come out of conversations with writers starting last year, and it felt ‘critical’ to pursue.” - The...

“Today, national programmers can distribute their programming to 100 percent of the country — either through their own streaming services or through deals they cut with nationwide ‘virtual cable companies,’ like YouTube TV. The cap no longer constrains their control over distribution in this respect,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote. - Variety

“According to filings seen by the FT, the US government told the court in Florida ‘that it is considering participating in this litigation’. … The ‘conflict of interest is clear and stark’, the BBC said in a filing responding to the US government’s submission.” - Financial Times

“Trump is demanding damages from the corporation, claiming a Panorama documentary defamed him because of an allegedly misleading edit of footage of one of his speeches. … However, while (he) is pressing on with the case as a whole, he has dismissed defamation claims against … the broadcaster's commercial and production arms.” - The Telegraph...

“It’s really been holding back local broadcasters from reaching the scale necessary to invest in local news and journalism reporting,” Brendan Carr said. - The Hill

Whether in the spirit of saving or eulogizing the industry, the question of its influence deserves serious thought. - The Atlantic

“Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison and his tech billionaire dad Larry Ellison have been sued by a Paramount shareholder who alleged they cut an ‘illegal’ deal with President Donald Trump to secure U.S. governmental approval for the takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.” - Variety

Though Dmitriy Popov, now 20, was acquitted of murder, he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges for attacking Sibley — a Black and visibly gay man — with a knife and puncturing his heart while Sibley and friends were dancing outside a Brooklyn gas station in 2023. -...

Nobody has definitive data, but Anne Green Gilbert has reached thousands of people during her career as the creator of, and advocate for, something she calls Brain-Compatible Dance Education. - Seattle Times

“It’s not that I don’t have a strategy — I just don’t have one for my life. I don’t plan it. Some people define their next goal and know exactly what they want. I let things come. ... I have a vision about how I want to run the company.” - Hube

So claims Julian MacKay, who was a principal at the Bavarian State Ballet from 2022 until this week. He says he complained about unfair treatment and threatened to resign, then was dismissed without warning while on sick leave. The company says he was properly terminated in an in-person meeting. - The Violin Channel

Dance Guru is a virtual reality application in which a digital teacher, seen through your headset, walks you through the steps for salsa, waltzing, bachata or cha-cha — repeating as many times as you need, with no human there to make you self-conscious or to get impatient or bored. - NPR

The unnamed 17-year-old, who's been competing in girls’ youth divisions for several years, was enrolled as a contestant in last week's North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. She withdrew after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to pursue the competition’s governing bodies for violating state law. - Orlando Sentinel

Going all the way back to before 1600, the cantankerous, pompous, book-smart nincompoop has been a figure of mockery on European stages, a target for venting people’s dislike for know-it-all behavior. Some of the stereotypes associated with the character, however, were rather nasty. - The Public Domain Review

When director Indiana Lown-Collins, who’s half-Spanish, first worked at Shakespeare’s Globe, she decided that flamenco steps would sound terrific there, thundering on the wooden floor and resounding around the circular space. Now she’s settled on the perfect vehicle: Love’s Labours Lost. - The Guardian

“(Starting) in March 2025, (Rudy Mendoza) offered drop-in classes at Logan Square Improv to students who wanted to try playing in either (English or Spanish). The school has grown exponentially since. There are now three full levels of classes for bilingual students. He has a roster of seven other teachers.” - Chicago Tribune

Andrew Lloyd Webber has addressed the closing announcement of CATS: The Jellicle Ball, pleading for "theatre owners, unions and producers to come together urgently to address what is a crisis coming to a head." - Broadway World

“(The festival) promises experimental ‘performed readings’ of the playwright’s works in pockets of Ireland and Britain over the next 12 years. ... Events will unfold at locations of significance to Beckett’s life and legacy – from Enniskillen, Belfast and Dublin to Folkestone, Reading and Snodland – tracing his footsteps across Britain and Ireland.” -...

“The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) has reached a proposed three-year agreement with Equity covering pay and working conditions for performers and stage management working in the West End. The proposed deal runs from April 2026 to April 2029.” - WhatsOnStage (UK)

She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 for playing the mother of disabled painter/writer Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis) in My Left Foot. She’s remembered by a (mostly) different set of moviegoers as the Central Park Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. - The Hollywood Reporter

“In 1587, Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici and his wife, Bianca Cappello, died within hours of each other after days of agony. … Rumors of an assassination immediately spread, pointing to Francesco’s younger brother and rival, Ferdinando, as the perpetrator.” Or was it simply malaria? Here’s what DNA evidence reveals. - CNN (MSN)

“A revelatory new biography of the overlooked French Surrealist painter Jacqueline Lamba brings to light her long-rumored affair with Frida Kahlo — all thanks to a cache of newly-discovered love letters. Kahlo specialist Salomon Grimberg has long hoped to revive Lamba’s reputation, which he believes has been unfairly overshadowed by that of her husband, the Surrealist icon André Breton.” - Artnet

The stacks kept rising as Uminer added his hauls from thrift shops, book dealers and eBay deliveries. “I don’t think of myself as a hoarder,” he said, “but I guess my building did.” - The New York Times

“Across his six-decade career, he was just as likely to go after D.C. Mayor Marion Barry — whom Mr. Oliphant depicted as an Idi Amin-like, tea-addicted ‘King of Kolumbia’ — as he was President George H.W. Bush, whom he skewered as a purse-carrying wimp and a would-be Lawrence of Arabia.” - The Washington Post...

The actor was a warm internet presence and a proud producer of wine from his vineyard. “At 11, he changed his name to Sam, taking inspiration from characters in Western movies. It was, he added, ‘probably the best decision I made in my life.’” - The New York Times