Articles By: Lauren Myracle

The Suprising Spread of “Idol” TV in the Middle East- Lunch w/TED

Reality TV in the United States has a poor reputation. And frankly, it often deserves it. After all, some of this year’s biggest reality hits include raunchy, mindless fare like “Jersey Shore,” “The Real Housewives” franchise, and “The Hills.” As for less smutty, more family-friendly shows...
March 11th, 2010 | Lunch with TED | Read More

J.J. Abrams on Story, Technology, and “Mystery Boxes” – Lunch w/ TED

Our “Lunch with TED” feature is back—and here to stay. (For the uninitiated, see Dustin’s original TED post here.) To commemorate this momentous occasion (and, frankly, the return of Lost, now in its sixth season) I chose to highlight a TED Talk by one of my favorite filmmakers—J.J. Abrams,...
February 25th, 2010 | Lunch with TED | Read More

On Overcoming Writer’s Block

After staring idly at the white screen for a few moments, your brows furrow. You type out a sentence. It is terrible; you must erase it. You notice your palms have begun to moisten and your intestines are all in knots. Disconcertingly, this process repeats itself until the worst has happened. You have...
February 22nd, 2010 | Art & Literature, Blogging | Read More

On Reading the Bible

In an essay at Modern Reformation, David Nienhuis presents the rather bleak case that Americans are biblically illiterate. What’s worse, their Evangelical counterparts are little better. A professor of New Testament Studies at Seattle Pacific, Nienhuis begins his survey of the Christian Scriptures...
February 15th, 2010 | Evangelicals | Read More

Finding Flannery

Flannery O’Connor famously claimed that “there won’t be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.” Happily, Brad Gooch has begged to differ.
January 28th, 2010 | Art & Literature, Book Reviews | Read More

Rural Studies and the Death of Main Street

The small towns of America’s heartland are becoming an endangered species, argue researchers Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas in Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America—a lengthy title for a slim and troubling ethnography. In a nation where urban studies...
January 6th, 2010 | Book Reviews, Culture, Domestic Policy, Education, Family Issues, Heritage & History | Read More

It’s a Mad (Men) World

Spoiler Warning: If you haven’t seen the Season 3 finale and still want to, read no further. AMC’s Emmy-winning, media darling Mad Men wrapped up its third season last week with a bang and a whimper. In the season finale, “Shut the Door. Have a Seat,” ad agency Sterling Cooper...
November 23rd, 2009 | Culture, Television | Read More

You Are What You Eat…And Not Who You Sleep With

Food and sex have shifted roles over the past fifty or so years, argues Mary Eberstadt in a fascinating essay at Policy Review. Once, social stigma condemned extra-marital philandering. Sex was a serious ethical issue, with serious personal and social consequences. Food, however, was something with few,...
November 16th, 2009 | Culture, Technology, Worldviews | Read More

Where the Heart Is: Marilynne Robinson’s Home

Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead, returns to Gilead, Iowa in her latest novel, Home (2008). Though the events of Home run concurrent with Gilead, Home stands wonderfully in its own right. The narrative voice belongs to tenderhearted Glory Boughton, thirty-eight, who has recently...
October 29th, 2009 | Art & Literature, Book Reviews, Family Issues | Read More