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Describing a work of art as "didactic" has become a way of writing it off. But works such as HBO's "The Pitt" push us to reconsider the merits of trying to teach.

Brian Finke's photographs document riders breaking through the constraints of the city's crowded landscape--and showing off while they do.

A new law in the U.K. bars young people from buying cigarettes for the rest of their lives. For the British government, even a sixty-year-old will someday be underage.

What to do this week, in New York City and beyond.

The polymath musician, formerly of Vampire Weekend, likes to push our idea of what a pop song can be.

The Tennessee rapper reflects on sobriety, the scrutiny he faced after his sexuality was publicized, and a new album that fittingly covers his past five years: "It's Been Awful."

From Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, to Wichita, Kansas, highly localized newsletters are going narrow but deep.

Olivier Assayas's adaptation of a novel about a fictionalized adviser to Vladimir Putin reduces politics to personalities and atrocities to anecdotes.

The director--whose newest film, "The Wizard of the Kremlin," examines the ascent of Vladimir Putin--discusses a few of the books that have helped to shape his ideals.

Reviews of notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.