current features
An Interview with People's Historian Howard Zinn
"I am even more persuaded than I was ten years ago that governments are essentially rotten and not to be trusted. To put it another way, the anarchist distrust for government—as more history parades itself before us, the more events come into our view—the anarchist distrust of government seems to me more and more legitimate."
Oz Captain! My Captain!: An “Ode” to Midnight Oil & An Interview with Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie
From the first rumblings of the opening riff--the brassy stomp of “Beds Are Burning” (i.e., the now-famous duh, duh, du-u-uh!)--I became stupid with goosebumps. My heart pounded like some long-extinct herd. And for the first time in my rock-n-roll life, I felt my very aliveness...
Planting Seeds: 13 Questions with Mia Doi Todd
"I like to listen to the arc of a record, like reading a book from start to finish. I make records that way."
Under Water Eyes
"His eyes, my Andere Vater's eyes, they would hurt so much, but he kept smiling, never frowning, never complaining."
Only Love is All Maroon: An Interview with Bon Iver
With all your lies, you're still very lovable. - "For Emma"
Mil Máscaras: An Interview with Pulitzer-Winner Junot Díaz
"But I do think that because we're sort of 'living in the Matrix,' we have this hunger for truth and fact because we know these things are important--and we’ve abdicated truth and fact in the larger society--so we’re just projecting our need for them onto other areas. I just think that fiction, like many other areas, is being asked to carry the burden for a society that no longer wants to confront itself."
Writers on Music: An Interview with Robin Benway
"For a band that's just starting out, it's still fun and exciting and very Kerouacian to be in a van and touring the country. That's the spirit I wanted for Audrey, and listening to that music definitely helped to infuse the book."
Laying Bricks to Build Social Change: An Interview with Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee
The co-authors of Reproduce & Revolt, a twenty-first century primer on creating socially radical art, discuss the power of visual culture--and our ability to use visual tools to make change.
You Know This Gloom: An Interview with The Notwist
"In the end it was all about finding a way to express something that you cannot express otherwise."
The Spectacle
Reece parked in front of the store, which read Squadrito and Son's in rusty neon across the façade. He'd bought the place after the old man died, but never bothered to change the name. At least once a day, someone walked in, "You Squadrito?"
Writers on Music: An Interview with Mysterious Skin Author Scott Heim
The author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear talks about Cocteau Twins, Talk Talk, the importance of soundtracks, and why writing novels "appeals to the control freak inside [him]."
A Walking Bible: Interview with Rap Artist Tech N9ne
"When Reagonomics hit--if you recall--a lot of after-school activities were taken away...so that left a lot of young people on the street...[Then in] '85, crack hit...so if we were on the streets, instead of in school, that's what we were doing."
Interview with The Flowers author Dagoberto Gilb
"I like reading reviews not for the truth element but as a form of writing—I don't even know what they mean. We have reached this juncture in the country where nothing is what it is supposed to be. Who knows, books aren't books anymore. I don't know what we are up to. We're in a new phase."
Big Mad John: An Interview With John Cusack on War, Inc.
"Their game has been to privatize the entire essence of what it means to be a state--from military to disaster relief. They want these unaccountable elements. They want to turn everything that it means to be a state into a for-profit enterprise, including outsourcing the advanced interrogation techniques, which is torture."
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news and views
- NEW Film Blog: Side Shots
- Social Justice: You Can Stop Violence Against Women
- Books: PEN World Voices, Amy Goodman
reviews
- Liberation Aesthetics: Sinning and Surviving in Meirelles' City of God by David Ryan
- Album Review: David Karsten Daniels' Fear of Flying by Mary McCampbell
- Paying Dearly for Masculinity in 3:10 to Yuma by David Ryan
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What We're Reading
- Stacy Muszynski: The Flowers
- Sarah Presite: The Grapes of Wrath
- Jesslyn Roebuck: The Omnivore's Dilemma
- Andrew Whitacre: How to Rig an Election
- Andrew Whitacre: How to Rig an Election
- Sherry Saturno: Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work
- James Warner: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
- Anna-Lynne Williams: The Magus (still)
- Sumanth Prabhaker: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- Robert Birnbaum: Human Smoke
- Alexandra Tursi: The World Without Us
- Stephanie Johnson: Shortcomings
- Mara Naselli: A Civil Action
- Alexandra Bullen: Lee Miller: A Life
- Alex Shapiro: My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead
- Summer Block Kumar: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa
- Matt Borondy: The Audacity of Hope
- Our complete reading list
more editor picks
- Song of the Month: "Gobbledigook" by Sigur Ros
- Album We're Liking: Exiting Arm by Subtle
- What We're Watching: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Identity Theory is an online magazine that publishes author interviews, music interviews, original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, book reviews, film reviews, a social justice blog, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. Learn more, contact us, get our 
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