← the reading roomselective2025 · throughlineselective2025 · throughlineselective2025 · throughlineselective2025 · throughlineselective2024 · throughlineselective2024 · wisecrackselective2023 · throughlineselective2023 · throughlineselective2023 · throughlineselective2023 · throughlineselective2023 · throughlineselective2022 · wisecrackselective2022 · throughlineselective2022 · throughlineselective2021 · throughlineselective2021 · wisecrack2021 · throughlineselective2020 · wisecrackselective2020 · throughlineselective2018 · wisecrack2018 · wisecrackselective2018 · wisecrackselective2017 · wisecrackselective2017 · wisecrackselective2017 · wisecrack2017 · wisecrackselective2017 · wisecrackselective2017 · wisecrackselective2016 · wisecrackselective2016 · wisecrackselective2016 · wisecrackselective2015 · wisecrackselective2015 · wisecrackselective2015 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrack2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrack2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2014 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselective2013 · wisecrackselectivethemethemepersonperson
Humanities
Things worth sitting with
Two ways in: Throughline turns something ordinary into history and back to now; Wisecrack digs the philosophy out of films you've already seen.
Each piece ends on a few questions with no answer key.
Episodes
2026 · throughlineThe Billionaires' Utopia Blueprint
In one sentence: This episode isn't content to say tech billionaires want to build a utopia;
The Bitter History of Chocolate
In one sentence: Cacao was once a sacred offering and "money that grew on trees" in Mesoamer…
What Happened to Vladimir Alexandrov
In one sentence: In March 1985, Vladimir Alexandrov (the Soviet Union's answer to Carl Sagan…
Democracy Dies in a Day
In one sentence: Through the lived experience of four people — a prisoner, a journalist, an…
The Internet Under the Sea
In one sentence: Almost all intercontinental internet traffic runs through cables not much t…
Pop Music's First Black Stars
In one sentence: The American popular music industry's first business model was white perfor…
Why Kierkegaard Thinks Anxiety is Good For You
In one sentence: The default cultural take treats anxiety as a bug to be patched, but a line…
The Labor of Love
In one sentence: This episode goes after a fantasy: the ideal, all-giving mother who raises…
The Ghost in Your Phone
In one sentence: The cobalt that keeps your phone's battery icon green comes out of the same…
The Freedom of Speech
In one sentence: Walking through five landmark Supreme Court cases spanning two centuries, t…
Dance Yourself Free
In one sentence: In 1979, a stunt at a Chicago ballpark blew up a pile of disco records in f…
The Whiteness Myth
In one sentence: A decades-long Supreme Court tug-of-war over one man's citizenship proves t…
The Philosophy of Turning Red
In one sentence: This Wisecrack video refuses to stop at the obvious "red panda equals perio…
We Are All Friedmanites Now
In one sentence: This episode goes after the equation "free markets equal free people" (some…
There Are No Utopias
In one sentence: This episode isn't content to say capitalism has a racism problem;
How American Life Is Impacted By The Prosperity Gospel
In one sentence: The episode goes after the idea that belief determines outcome: think posit…
Soul: Deep or Dumb?
In one sentence: Wisecrack's "Deep or Dumb?" segment hands Pixar's Soul a verdict of "deep-i…
What Happened After Civilization Collapsed
In one sentence: Around 1177 B.C., a Mediterranean world stitched together by trade routes a…
Avatar: The Real Cost of War
In one sentence: Wisecrack argues that Avatar: The Last Airbender, on its surface a cheerful…
The Litter Myth
In one sentence: This episode goes after the idea that littering is a personal moral failing…
The Philosophy of The Good Place
In one sentence: Wisecrack breaks down how the NBC sitcom The Good Place smuggles a full Eth…
How Fahrenheit 451 Predicted Fake News
In one sentence: In this "How Did We Get Here?" installment, Wisecrack argues that Fahrenhei…
The Philosophy of Miyazaki
In one sentence: The forest gods, soot sprites, and furious mountain spirits that keep showi…
Pixar's Coco: Philosophy of Death
In one sentence: Wisecrack's short Quick Take on Coco argues the film's real achievement isn…
Hidden Meaning in Spirited Away – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: This Earthling Cinema episode plays dress-up as a post-extinction alien arc…
The Philosophy of Black Mirror
In one sentence: Wisecrack argues that Black Mirror's episodes have no connected plot, but t…
The Philosophy of Spider-Man – Wisecrack Edition
In one sentence: Skipping past the "with great power" cliché, Wisecrack reads Peter Parker a…
The Philosophy of One-Punch Man
In one sentence: This Wisecrack video argues that One-Punch Man isn't really about how satis…
Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears A Who! - Thug Notes Summary & Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes turns a bedtime picture book into a genuine lesson on the powerl…
Hidden Meaning in Blade Runner – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: This Earthling Cinema episode runs the usual bit: alien archaeologist Garyx…
Hidden Meaning in Interstellar – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: This Earthling Cinema episode runs its usual bit: alien archaeologist Garyx…
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Thug Notes Summary & Analysis
In one sentence: The point here isn't how absurd the plot gets;
The Hidden Meaning in Inception – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: Garyx is back running his usual bit, cataloguing Inception as an artifact f…
The Hidden Meaning in The Matrix – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: This Earthling Cinema episode runs its usual bit.
The Tell-Tale Heart - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" through a narrator who kills an…
Hidden Meaning of 2001: A Space Odyssey – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: This Earthling Cinema episode runs its usual bit.
The Hidden Meaning in Fight Club – Earthling Cinema
In one sentence: This Earthling Cinema episode runs its usual bit, alien archaeologist Garyx…
The Invisibility Ring Test: Are You Good When No One's Watching?
In one sentence: Plato tells a story about a shepherd who finds a ring that makes him invisi…
The Metamorphosis - Thug Notes Summary & Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Gregor Samsa's bug-shaped afterlife through the usual stree…
Why Shouldn't We Commit Suicide? (Donkey Kong & The Myth of Sisyphus)
In one sentence: This entry in Wisecrack's 8-Bit Philosophy series uses the original Donkey…
The Giver - Thug Notes Summary & Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Lois Lowry's The Giver through a thick layer of street slan…
Dune - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes blasts through Dune's plot in eight minutes of street slang, the…
Do We Enjoy Being Free? (Final Fantasy + Sartre)
In one sentence: This 8-Bit Philosophy episode borrows Final Fantasy's mage-versus-knight jo…
What is Real? (Plato's Allegory of the Cave) - 8-Bit Philosophy
In one sentence: Plato poses a single question with a fable: if you'd been chained in place…
Slaughterhouse-Five - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs through Slaughterhouse-Five and lands on a simple, devastat…
Wuthering Heights - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs the whole novel in eight minutes and lands on a claim it ne…
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Romeo and Juliet's double suicide through its usual foul-mo…
Macbeth (Shakespeare) - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes plays Macbeth straight as a classical tragedy, a righteous gener…
Frankenstein - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Frankenstein start to finish and lands on a pointed questio…
Homer's Odyssey - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes blazes through Odysseus's entire ten-year trip home in one profa…
Moby Dick - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Moby-Dick in eight minutes and lands on a point that isn't…
Animal Farm - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs through the barnyard-revolution plot in full street-slang d…
Brave New World - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: The video runs Huxley's whole plot through thick street slang and lands on…
Fahrenheit 451 - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Fahrenheit 451 through its street-slang treatment and then…
Of Mice and Men - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs George and Lennie's tragedy start to finish in thick street…
Hamlet (Shakespeare) - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs the whole revenge plot of Hamlet through thick street slang…
Jane Eyre - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Jane Eyre's whole arc (orphan to lady of the house) in eigh…
The Catcher in the Rye - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs through Holden Caulfield's two days of wandering New York a…
Lord of the Flies - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes cuts through the book's scariest monster reveal: the "beast" the…
Pride & Prejudice - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs the whole novel through thick street slang and lands on a r…
1984 - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs Winston Smith's whole tragedy through a thick layer of stre…
To Kill a Mockingbird - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes strips the "kids' summer in the South" wrapping off To Kill a Mo…
The Great Gatsby - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
In one sentence: Thug Notes runs the whole Gatsby-Daisy-Tom mess through its usual slang tre…
Themes
themeExistentialism in Pop Culture
"Existentialism" sounds like a word built to intimidate, but strip away the jargon and it's…
How Ideas Get Manufactured
These five episodes span five unrelated arenas — immigration law, family policy, religious h…
Utopia: Stay and Struggle, or Build Your Exit
One word, utopia, means "no place": Thomas More built the joke into it when he coined the te…
Concepts
conceptRacial Capitalism
This concept isn't the familiar, low-stakes claim that capitalism happens to have a racism p…
People
personGeorge Orwell
George Orwell is the author behind both Thug Notes episodes currently in this library, an an…
Robin D.G. Kelley
Kelley teaches history at UCLA, and his whole career has been one project: writing back into…
Søren Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard was a 19th-century Danish philosopher, the central figure of wisecrack-kierkegaa…