Emily St. John Mandel on pandemics, at The New Republic.

Emma Straub wrote about the US Open for Rolling Stone.

Laina Dawes reported on this year’s Afropunk Festival.

Ian MacKaye and Glen E. Friedman got together to discuss DC punk history.

Self-Titled has an excellent piece from Zachary Lipez on Michael Gira.

Brandon Hobson interviewed Lance Olsen for The Believer.

David Ulin wrote about what the downtown Shakespeare & Co. taught him about being a writer.

“Anglicized college rock with radio ambitions that take off with all the internalized excitement of kids launching model rockets in the backyard.” The new album from Connections sounds promising.

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