
When post-irony renders real and fake indistinguishable, irreverence becomes a political weapon
Tracing the line from Ancient Greece to David Foster Wallace to the bullet through Trump’s ear, this essay for Document Journal’s Fall/Winter 2024–25 asks if...

120 bpm: How can we go on raving at a time like this?
Introducing his monthly column with Document, writer and raver Evan Moffitt asks if the party can set us free

Molly Crabapple’s world of art and action
The artist returns to her roots with ‘The Chair Series,’ an intimate meditation on human connection amidst political upheaval

The pen, the sword, and liberation
An introduction to Palestinian resistance poetry—a medium for the reclamation of a people’s history

How shadowbanning silences pro-Palestine voices
Amidst a global humanitarian crisis, Instagram users say they’re censored for speaking up

Artists and journalists call for the restriction of AI illustration in publishing
In an open letter, Molly Crabapple and Mazria Katz advocate against the use of the technology in journalism, a medium long defined by human storytellers

‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ is a call-to-arms for a disillusioned world
Fed up with the ineffectiveness of peaceful protest, a group of young activists decide to burn it all down for the sake of our future

How do you moderate a chatbot?
In banning renderings of Chinese president Xi Jinping worldwide, Midjourney sparked debate about the policing of AI-generated content—and the line between regulation and censorship

Amidst calls to halt the advancement of generative tech, a chatbot convinced a man to kill himself
This incident comes in the wake of an open letter from AI experts, urging technologists to halt developments beyond GPT-4 ‘for the good of humanity’

Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s politics of care
The prison abolitionist and scholar discusses community policing, the failure of Anglo-American geography, and the notion of freedom as a place

Why is menstrual blood banned in porn? You might want to ask your credit card company
In the era of e-commerce, payment processors have become the internet’s unofficial content moderators—because when banks threaten to revoke service, platforms listen

For Vex Ashley, pleasure is an act of resistance
With DIY porn project Four Chambers, the adult filmmaker finds the art in sex—and investigates its relationship to society in the process

Survivalist dramas are topping the charts, but are they subverting the status quo?
From apocalyptic wastelands to shipwrecks, today’s most popular media offers an alternate model of meritocracy—but the message is not as progressive as it looks

For Betony Vernon, eroticism is a way of life
From sexology to erotic jewelry design, Vernon’s three-decade career draws on countless disciplines in the fight for our right to pleasure

Deepfake porn isn’t just a consent issue, it’s a labor issue
Sex workers have been fighting for control over their imagery since the rise of the internet—and now everyday people have joined the fray

15 sex workers on the joys and challenges of their line of work
Practitioners of the world’s oldest profession discuss the changes they want to see, and what sex work has given them

Michaela Stark transforms the corset from an emblem of conformity into a tool of liberation
With transgressive body-morphing designs, the Australian artist celebrates the features shapewear often serves to hide—satirizing oppressive patriarchal standards in the process

Dr. Carl Hart champions life, liberty, and the pursuit of psychoactive drugs
The famed neuroscientist and author of ‘Drug Use For Grown-ups’ speaks on America’s shifting stance toward substances, from law enforcement to the psychedelic renaissance

The art of activism, through the voice of Nan Goldin
In ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,’ documentarian Laura Poitras tracks the photographer’s unrelenting pursuit of personal and political truth

Julia Weist’s ‘Governing Body’ questions what we deem indecent in the scope of mainstream cinema
The film rating system has a history of stigmatizing the female body. Is that their fault, or ours?

Independent porn director Erika Lust invites you to reprogram your desires
Mainstream porn sites may be getting people off for free—but at what cost?

In Sierra Pettengill’s new documentary ‘Riotsville, U.S.A.,’ a fake town reveals real problems
Designed to train cops to quell civil unrest, the city was a reflection of our national ideals, and an impetus for internal state violence

Monkeypox reveals the cultural capital of beauty in a chronically-online culture
Anxieties surrounding the virus’s physical manifestations display society's aesthetic obsessions

Anna Delvey wants to be the new face of prison reform
The faux heiress on her newfound interest in political advocacy, the death of American entrepreneurship, and going from con artist to fine artist

For a story about stereotypes, B.J. Novak’s ‘Vengeance’ has some blind spots of its own
The film’s exploration of regional tensions effectively erase actual class dynamics—race, gender, religion, and most other major political fault-lines

Military PTSD could be a vehicle for further drug decriminalization
In a surprising turn of events, psychedelic therapy treatment receives bipartisan support from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Dan Crenshaw—but who’s receiving the treatment, and why?

Searching for queer sanctuary in Porto
Photographer Mallory Bea navigates a small queer community along Portugal’s coast

At Freshii, your ‘virtual cashier’ is actually a person working for $3.75 per hour
Public debate around a Canadian franchise’s experiment raises questions about automation, labor laws, and the ignorance of the Western consumer

The dangers, and benefits, of mobile health apps in a post-Roe world
Period tracking apps are marketed as a tool to empower users with information—but with abortion rights under fire, many worry that the data they collect...

Ten young Ukrainians on how the war has changed their lives
Seeking refuge in Poland, they reflect on family, culture, politics, and living in solidarity from outside their home country

How The Satanic Temple became a source of social justice
The organization filed a lawsuit against an elementary school for barring the establishment of an After School Satan Club

The man who attempted to assassinate Reagan is playing a sold out show in Brooklyn
John Hinckley Jr. has 26,000 YouTube subscribers and enough fans to warrant a tour—but is it for the right reasons?

Federal refusal to protect the Florida-Georgia marshlands highlights the importance—and limitations—of public interest
New legislation brought on by months of public backlash could brighten the future of the Okefenokee Swamp

AssangeDAO imagines the social justice potential of online collectives
The community bought an NFT for $53 million, with the aim to fund the WikiLeaks founder’s legal fees

The resurgence of anti-porn feminism
Sophia Giovannitti makes the case that the debate around sex work is really all about labor

Elizabeth Kolbert looks beyond inconvenient truths to explore ingenious solutions
In ‘Under A White Sky,’ the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist discusses scientific interventions to stop the effects of climate change

Inside the US Capitol insurrection with photographer Mark Peterson
Peterson discusses January 6th, his book "Political Theater," and how he captures the grotesque nature of US politics

Lauren Wasser, the girl with the golden legs, is waging war on Big Tampon
With help from congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, the model-turned-activist hopes to end toxic shock syndrome

The politics of pleasure: Is there a place for partying in the revolution?
In pursuit of this question, Michelle Lhooq takes Document inside Seattle’s autonomous zone and through the history of protest

The battle over the visual language of counterculture, from Dada to the digital age
Transgressive design has been defined by the provocative, cut-and-paste aesthetics of punk. Now, a new face of counterculture has emerged.

UBI, M4A, Radical Love: Brooklyn’s Paperboy Prince is a politician for the people
The rapper and community organizer tells Document about his historic bid for congress, and crusading for NYC's everyday heroes

Fish, Pole: on crises, change, and the American condition
On the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election, writer Brian Blanchfield considers change in the absence of divine intervention

Privacy expert Clare Garvie explains why your face is already in a criminal lineup
Biometric surveillance is coming for you, even if you have 'nothing to hide'

Andrew Yang joins Document to discuss political polarization, universal basic income, and America’s future
The former presidential hopeful on lessons learned from the campaign trail

Better living through anarchy: Tracking the rise of the temporary autonomous zone
As calls to abolish the police amplify and protest zones evolve into self-governing communities, it’s clear that Americans are fed up with the current system....

A new law seeks to expose the NYPD’s secret surveillance technology
A closer look at New York City's landmark POST Act—a law the NYPD and Bill de Blasio spent three years trying to quash

Portrait of Warren, Ohio—a microcosm of the Rust Belt struggle
Trumbull County was a Democratic stronghold before it flipped for Trump in 2016

Why the inevitable end of cash won’t fulfill its egalitarian promise
Is the price of convenience in a cashless world worth the human cost? Cody Delistraty investigates in Document's Fall/Winter 2019 issue.

Roxane Gay, Gloria Allred, and Siri Hustvedt envision the law rewritten by women
The women discuss the 2020 candidates, reproductive freedom, sci-fi matriarchies, and the power of female anger for Document's Fall/Winter 2019 issue.
