trauma
The only way to fix ICE is to get rid of it
The nation's traumatized response to 9/11 has spiraled utterly out of control.
Emily St. James
Emily St. James is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in Vox, The A.V. Club, and the New York Times. She is the co-creator of the podcast Arden and a writer on the TV series Yellowjackets.
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rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown December 22 2025–January 4 2026
This week: Hamnet, 2Topia, and more Little Women than you can even imagine.
emily rogers
How to make risotto
The cis recipe blogger version of Emily St. James from another timeline greets another year.
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown December 15–21
This week: Wicked's unsolvable second act, Train Dreams' hallucinatory magic, and a whole bunch of Christmas stuff.
mailbag
December mailbag!
This month: Rob Reiner favorites, new Oscar categories, and holiday stories crying out for the Rankin-Bass treatment.
winter
Always winter, never Christmas: 21 snowy entertainments without a Santa in sight
Celebrate winter - and NOTHING ELSE - with our list of recommendations.
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown December 8–14 2025
This week: Pluribus and the trauma plot, Disney and the YA-ification of everything, and 1985's strangest Christmas movie.
mailbag
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preview
It takes an ex-believer to make a film as holy as Wake Up Dead Man (preview)
A preview of Emily St. James's essay on the third Benoit Blanc film
movies
It takes an ex-believer to make a film as holy as Wake Up Dead Man
The latest Benoit Blanc mystery offers a bracing look at what makes faith so necessary and so dangerous, writes Emily St. James.
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown November 24–30 2025
This week: holiday classics, webs of lies, and a game designed to irritate your friends and loved ones.