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The Pair Of Episodes That Marked A Turning Point For “This American Life”

Revisiting the long-running series’s biggest misstep: the January 6, 2012, episode, “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” and its sequel, “Retraction,” which aired two months later. - Literary Hub

Are Books — Finally — Obsolete?

More and more I have the sense of dealing with a technology that’s finished, that’s out of keeping with the times, by which I don’t mean only the short form video proliferation of our era but that, even within writing, books aren’t really in line with the specific requirements of the digital age. - Sam Khan

BMG Music Earned $1 Billion In 2024, Spent $263 Million On Buying Catalogs

BMG generated EUR €963 million (USD $1.04bn) in annual revenues in 2024, up 6.4% YoY or up 8.1% YoY on an organic basis. - Music Business Worldwide

Pianist András Schiff On Cancelling All His U.S. Engagements

“What has been lost is a sense of decency. It’s a new system of values or rather of a lack of values. We no longer seem to know what is right or wrong. For example, being a liar used to be considered a vice.” - Classical Voice North America

The Kennedy Center’s Social Impact Initiatives Aren’t Just DEI, They’re About Figuring Out The Future

I’d argue that the reason might have gone beyond a commitment to equity, diversity and social justice. It might have been an investment in the future of art forms championed by the center that have long seen a decline in new audiences and were becoming known for attracting older white crowds. - Los Angeles Times

Hugh Jackman Signs Up For Affordable Theatre

Audible Theater is teaming up with Together, a new accessible-theater initiative led by megastar Hugh Jackman and superproducer Sonia Friedman, for an eight-week series of programming at Off Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre this spring. - TimeOut

Gigil, Videoke, Alamak: The Latest Additions To The OED

The most recent crop of words added to the Oxford English Dictionary is notable for terms from Southeast Asia: from the Philippines, gigil (that feeling when something is so adorable you want to squeeze it hard) and videoke (video karaoke), and from Malaysia and Singapore, alamak (something like WTF). - The Guardian

Trump Signs Executive Order On Concert Tickets

The order directs the Federal Trade Commission to more rigorously enforce existing law governing the use of bots that help scalpers scoop up hot tickets, including by issuing fines. Trump said the FTC, along with the Treasury and Justice departments, will deliver a report within 180 days summarizing what they have done. - The Wall Street Journal

What Would Happen To NPR And PBS If Republicans Cut Their Funding?

NPR can weather the funding cut, its document predicts, thanks in part to aggrieved listeners: Executives predict a sudden boom in donations if Congress defunds it, as listeners rush to defend their favorite programs. But they will likely give more in big-city markets. - The New York Times

The Unpredictable Power Balance Between Othello And Iago, And How Actors Have Pulled It Off

“Othello is Shakespeare’s only major work in which the hero and antihero are given equal weight. … As the Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom summed up the dichotomy: It is Othello’s tragedy, but it is Iago’s play.” Ben Brantley considers 13 Othello-Iago pairs, going back nearly a century. - The New York Times

The Historic Buildings Lost In The LA Fires

It's been almost two months since the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, including several noted historic and cultural landmarks like this one, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. - NPR

UK TV Exec Warns That AI Companies Are Extracting £125bn From Creative Industries

Alex Mahon told MPs that if the government pursues its proposed plan to give AI companies access to creative works unless the copyright holder opts out, it would put the UK creative industries in a “dangerous position”. - The Guardian

Small Nebraska Museum Says It Has Discovered Five Edvard Munches

Much like Munch’s iconic painting, this suite of five “never-before-seen” works made around 1893 all depict the main figure on a bridge alongside a pair in the background. In this case, the central character displays a range of emotions, from happiness to anger and boredom. - Hyperallergic

BBC To Cut Spending On Content By Almost $200 Million

A plummet in international co-productions is one major factor that led to an expected surplus for the past year becoming a £33 million ($42.5 million) deficit. (That followed a £492 million/$634 million deficit the previous year.) So the BBC’s content budget has been reduced by £150 million to £2.5 billion ($3.222 billion). - Deadline

Historic Landmarks Damaged In Myanmar Earthquake

“The most significant damage to cultural heritage sites appears to have occurred in and around Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city and the home of many ancient monasteries and palaces.” - ARTnews

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