Quillette Narrated

Tarantino is quintessentially American. He lets us linger and watch Tate in all her Technicolor radiance. He lets us love her. What’s more, he lets her watch and love herself.

Van Morrison turns eighty.

A review of Jason Zengerle's biography of Tucker Carlson, tracing his fall from gifted journalist to antisemitic demagogue. By Graham Daseler. 00:00 — Carlson’s childhood debate (playing Carter vs Reagan) 01:16 — Introduction to Zengerle’s book Hated by All the Right People 01:52 — Lesson: attacking opponents vs defending ideas 02:15 — Early career as a strong, independent conservative writer 03:23 — Exposé of Grover Norquist 03:43 — Transition to television and rise as a pundit 04:05 — Joining CNN’s Crossfire 05:10 — Realisation: television > print for influence 05:31 — Washington elite social life and prominence 06:17 — Jon Stewart confrontation and fallout 07:33 — Career decline: PBS → MSNBC → failures 08:41 — Founding The Daily Caller 09:23 — Shift toward click-driven, sensational content 10:05 — “There is no line” — collapse of editorial standards 10:29 — Competition with Breitbart and hiring extremists 11:10 — Obsession with TV exposure 12:06 — Return to prominence with Fox News (2016) 12:49 — Embrace of Trump-era populism 13:06 — Private disdain vs public support for Trump 13:28 — Ratings peak and influence inside the White House 14:27 — Shift in ideology and embrace of conspiracies 15:08 — Patriot Purge and January 6 claims 15:36 — Dominion lawsuit and internal contradictions 16:06 — Exit from Fox News (2023) 16:28 — Move to Twitter/X and podcast dominance 17:00 — Increasing focus on antisemitic themes 17:46 — Controversial guests (e.g. Churchill revisionism) 18:00 — Interview with Nick Fuentes 18:16 — Selective questioning and double standards 19:00 — Personal continuity vs ideological transformation 19:22 — Reinvention as anti-elite populist 19:54 — Turn toward fringe conspiracy content 20:14 — Carlson as symbol of media degradation 20:37 — Comparison to historical demagogues 21:27 — Parallel with Joseph Sobran’s trajectory 21:47 — Ongoing political influence despite setbacks 22:00 — Conclusion: enduring opportunism and audience-first approach

Aaron Magid's biography examines how Jordan's King Abdullah has navigated 25 years of regional turmoil through Western alliances and survival. Written by Michael M. Rosen

Henry Kissinger’s policies influenced Cambodia’s fate, but they alone did not cause the rise of the Khmer Rouge.

This presentation is written and narrated by Dr Karleen Gribble, a researcher specialising in maternal and child health with particular expertise in breastfeeding and lactation policy. Dr Gribble argues that the replacement of sex-based language like "women," "mothers," and "breastfeeding" with gender-neutral terms like "pregnant people," "birthing bodies," and "chest feeding" in healthcare represents a failure of evidence-based medicine, cultural imperialism, and abuse of institutional power. She traces how this language shift originated in the United States around 2010–15 and spread globally through academic journals, publishers, health organisations, and funding bodies. She contends that these changes are being implemented without any research demonstrating benefits, while the limited existing studies show women find the language confusing, offensive, or dehumanising. Dr Gribble argues this is particularly problematic because it violates public health principles requiring clear communication, may harm vulnerable women with low health literacy, and imposes Western gender ideology on non-Western cultures. She documents how researchers and health professionals who question this shift face professional retaliation, and how her own research proposals to study the impact of desexed language were rejected as offensive. Dr Gribble calls for urgent research on the actual health impacts of this language change and a return to evidence-based practice that prioritises clear, dignified communication in women's healthcare.

Progressive discourse has become highly adept at identifying oppression, exclusion, and harm. But it is far less capable of understanding the basic conditions of political order. By Roohola Ramezani

The British establishment tends to deflect attention from the dangers of Islamism by attempting to silence those who point them out.

If leading media critics don’t expect much, filmmakers won’t deliver much.

How Margaret Mead’s romanticised account of Samoan life became the founding myth of cultural determinism—and why it endures despite having been thoroughly debunked.

Before Han Solo and Indiana Jones, there was another Harrison Ford, a star of silent cinema.

The article "Who Got the Camera?" by Dilan Esper recalls Los Angeles policing debates in the 1980s-90s: high crime (gangs, drugs, homelessness) versus claims of LAPD brutality under Chief Daryl Gates, who treated policing like war and used extreme tactics. It details the 1991 Rodney King incident: King, a felon intoxicated during a high-speed chase (up to 117 mph), was beaten by four LAPD officers with batons and a taser. Neighbor George Holliday's camcorder video—showing prolonged punishment, not defense—shifted public opinion. Tough-on-crime supporters rejected brutality; Gates was ousted, riots followed a state acquittal, and two officers got federal prison time. Author argues cameras (now ubiquitous, including bodycams) aid good cops by showcasing professionalism but expose bad ones, ending the "code of silence." Parallels to 2026: Trump's second-term ICE raids use masked agents in cities, arresting citizens/residents, beating immigrants, blocking filming, roughing protesters, and shooting two civilians dead in Minneapolis streets within weeks. Right-wing defenses (victim disobedience, threats) echo 1991 but fail against video evidence, evoking natural revulsion like family separations did in 2020. Polls confirm backlash: Trump's immigration approval fell from +9 (Aug 2025) to -20 (Jan 20, Rasmussen); YouGov shows more support than opposition for abolishing ICE; over 1/3 of Trump voters back deportation goals but not methods (Politico). Public wants secure borders without cruelty; midterms loom as reminder.

A new boxset edits out one of John Lennon’s most controversial songs.

Tasmania has all the majesty of other windswept high-latitude places, but it has always been less barren, more hospitable, more generous in its beauty.

Napoleon Chagnon documented a society in which violent men enjoyed greater reproductive and marital success. Some of his academic colleagues never forgave him for it.

Zohran Mamdani wants to institute “collectivist” governance, but NYC already has a collectivist problem—a coordinated veto system that blocks development and progress.

As radicals, we lived in what I call a paradigm of suspicion, one of the malignant ideas that emerge as a result of intellectual in-breeding.

Mishima’s reputation has grown in the new century and today there is more serious interest in his work than ever before.

The Bondi terrorist attack reveals how Australia's reluctance to discuss Islamic antisemitism and ideological motivations undermines cohesion. By Alan Davison.

Removal, expulsion, ethnic cleansing, erasure, even genocide. These are the fruits of the idea that the world can be made right again by undoing history.

Routinely reviled by contemporary critics as a celebration of misogyny, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ is among Shakespeare’s most misunderstood plays.

The cold allows me to feel alive.

We have ignored, enabled, downplayed, and pandered to vicious antisemitism for too long. The victims of the Bondi massacre paid the price. By Iona Italia.

The massacre at Bondi Beach was shocking—but after years of denial and equivocation about antisemitism, it was inevitable. By Jack Pinczewski

Generative AI, disinformation, and the dangerous temptation of benevolent censorship.

Modern trans activists reframed transsexualism/transgenderism as a political problem rather than a clinical problem.

While the nuclear breakout clock ticks, time may also be expiring on the Ayatollah regime’s grip on the region. The two countdowns are interconnected.

Evidence suggests that today’s common yoga practices were inspired by a popular 1924 Danish gymnastics manual.

Criminal-justice reformers like to say that it is better to be ‘smart on crime’ than ‘tough on crime.’ But sometimes being tough is the smart choice. By ⁠Andrew Bushnell⁠

Easy Rider is an important movie—much more important than a simple measure of its quality would suggest—which is probably why the American Film Institute, among others, continues to rate it so highly.

⁠Jukka Savolainen⁠ 's article "The Murder of Iryna Zarutska — Why did this particular crime cut through the daily background noise of American violence?" on Quillette explores the reasons behind the heightened attention the murder of Iryna Zarutska received in conservative circles and the muted response from mainstream media. Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian refugee, was killed in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a crime caught on CCTV, sparking outrage primarily among conservatives. The article posits that this response is due to three interrelated concerns: media bias, urban disorder, and the victim's characteristics. It argues that mainstream media often report crimes through a racial lens that can distort public perception, amplifying cases where victims are from minority communities while neglecting others. The murder was seen as emblematic of urban disorder in the post-George Floyd era, highlighting issues of leniency and the decline in policing standards. Zarutska's story resonated because she was perceived as an innocent, industrious immigrant whose murder by a repeat offender epitomized a failure of the judicial and social system. The article contrasts media and societal responses to different victim profiles based on ideological lines, highlighting differences in moral priorities between conservatives and progressives. It suggests that the coverage of Zarutska's murder exposes broader cultural divides, with conservatives emphasizing fairness and justice, while progressives focus more on care and liberation, often for marginalized groups.

The Voyage of the Beagle is a literary masterpiece, as well as a scientific one.

The list of violent criminals who imagine they were ‘born in the wrong body’ is growing. By Forest Romm, Kevin Waldman

The situation of South African “whites” is worse than Donald Trump's critics are willing to acknowledge.

2022 marked the bicentennial of the pseudonym’s transformation from literary dabbler into one of the greatest novelists of the modern age.

The ideological capture of college writing programs has ushered in an age of didactic, anodyne, and tedious books. By ⁠Adam Szetela⁠

Healthcare for menopause and perimenopause is the single most patient-betraying area of medicine—but it has plenty of company. By Amy Alkon.

The climate activist’s simplistic slogans and hectoring style proved effective when she was still a child. But now that she’s an adult, the act is losing its shine.

The Jewish state has secured its borders, recovered all living hostages, and put its enemies on notice as to what awaits them if they attempt a reprise of 7 October. By ⁠The Quillette Editorial Board⁠.

Amir and I had very different ideas about which side had committed a ‘genocide.’ But it didn’t stop us from being civil. By David Christopher Kaufman.

Greta Thunberg’s sailing trip to Gaza was a confused piece of activist theatre of a kind that is sadly very much in vogue.

Disney’s awful new Snow White adaptation fails to recreate or even understand the story it is trying to tell.

My sense is that Nietzsche is best understood as a radical individualist; one who insists passionately that our duty in life is to become what we are. But what kind of person is that?

When we construe normal feeling as illness, we offer people an understanding of themselves as disordered. This encourages people to be stuck in a limiting narrative.

Polygamy is a criminal offense throughout the Western world. Would making it legal be progress?

Like Miller, Orwell didn’t just focus on the “dirty-handkerchief side of life”—he repeatedly confessed to the dirty-handkerchief side of his own personality.

A nuclear engineer reviews the blockbuster film.

Like it or not, hidden within those influential texts are the bizarre jargon and lunatic assertions of a mendacious madman.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk shows how Discord, memes, and “online brainrot” may motivate disaffected youth like Tyler Robinson more than ideology.