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Stories

How ‘Free’ Is The Press In The United States?

Turns out, for those who live in the country, their opinion about this question depends almost fully on their political party identification. (But there are also, you know, some facts.) - Nieman Lab

Hollywood Asks For Government Help

“The lobbying effort has led to unusual alliances, particularly in the wake of the strikes, with both studios and Hollywood unions rallying on the same side.” Will California show the studios the money? - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

Minnesota’s Hmong Community Uses Textiles To Tell All Of The Backstory

But the tale is bigger than tapestries, or story cloths: "In the Twin Cities, Hmong culture isn’t just present in the tapestries. It’s everywhere, including the first Hmong judges and state elected officials, the culinary scene, farmers markets, and the arts.” - The New York Times

Amazon Claims It Unintentionally Set A Massive Sale On Indie Bookstore Day

Zero humans believe that claim, of course. One bookstore owner: “I just rolled my eyes and thought, Of course they did. We can’t even have one day where it’s just us — Amazon has to swoop in.” - Vulture

Benin Wanted Its Bronzes Back From Boston’s Museum Of Fine Arts. Instead, The Collector Yanked Them All.

The MFA’s director, Matthew Teitelbaum: "This was not the outcome anyone wanted.” - The New York Times

We’re All Living In ‘The Studio’ Now

“Barbie was self-aware and auteur-driven, and demonstrated that there was a way to slightly elevate miserable brand properties. So now we live in a world where JJ Abrams is making a ‘grounded and gritty’ Hot Wheels movie.” - The Guardian (UK)

Folk Music Of The 19th Century Is Being Pressed Into Service For Oppressed Folk Of The 21st Century

“Everything feels so precarious, … and suddenly there’s these songs that put you in dialogue with people going back over hundreds of years. That’s a really beautiful antidote to the precarity and uncertainty.” - The New York Times

In Canada, First Nations Peoples Asked A Judge Not To Let Hudson Bay Company Auction Off Potential Sacred Heirlooms

But the judge seems OK with it, with a caveat. “Osborne ordered Hudson's Bay to provide him and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs with a catalogue at the soonest opportunity.” - CBC

How Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre Became A Launching Pad For New Musicals

“Something that always has to be true is: Will this story make the world a better place in some way? It’s a big question—but why tell a story if it isn’t going to move the audience forward?” - American Theatre

Bunheads Walked So The New Series Etoile Could Leap

Or at least, that’s what creator Amy Sherman-Palladino (the force behind The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) wants to see. “Ballet isn’t something for someone else. It’s storytelling; it’s athletic; it’s powerful, emotional, transporting. It’s a great, dynamic art form.” - The New York Times

What You Learned About Jane Austen Was Completely Incomplete

No, she wasn’t “the first great woman novelist.” There were so many great ones before her - but somehow they’re missing in our general knowledge base. Hm, wonder why! - Happy Dancing

Two Scholars Argue Over The Number of Penises In The Bayeux Tapestry

Oxford professor George Garnett announced in 2019 that he had counted 93 penises stitched into the embroidered account of the Norman conquest of England — 88 belonging to horses and five to humans. Historian Christopher Monk now argues that there is a 94th appendage; Garnett insists that that one is a scabbard. - The Guardian

Government Funding Is Not Public Media’s Most Pressing Problem

"Too many stations simply serve as passthrough distributors for national content. That model was the only way to distribute content in the 1970s. Today, that model is dated — honestly irrelevant. Most consumers can access what they want whenever and wherever they desire." - Editor & Publisher

Revisiting The World’s First Advice Column, Which Debuted In 1691

London printer John Dunton created the Athenian Gazette, or Casuistical Mercury as a broadsheet answering questions and providing topics for patrons to discuss at coffeehouses. The questions submitted were initially about science, law, or philosophy, but it took only a few weeks for readers to start asking about personal relationships. - Literary Hub

When The Machines Think Of Things We Never Would Have

For better and for worse, science today is shaped by strongly human factors: economic value, political priorities, career prospects, cultural trends, and a range of human biases and beliefs. Imagine the science if all that baggage could be abandoned. - Aeon

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