What Do Real Thugs Think of The Wire? Part Three
…ghetto legend was quickly dispelled when I watched episode three of The Wire with the usual cast of thugs from New York and New Jersey — ex-gang members and drug…
…ghetto legend was quickly dispelled when I watched episode three of The Wire with the usual cast of thugs from New York and New Jersey — ex-gang members and drug…
Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia sociologist and author of “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back once again for a seventh report after watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances….
…shouted, “This may be the only crime that a black man can’t be rounded up for!” The episode was a bit sluggish for the Thugs, and so the conversation drifted…
…a great post from him about watching “The Wire” with some of the kind of guys who are portrayed in it. Ever since I began watching HBO’s The Wire, I…
Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia sociologist and author of “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back for a sixth report after watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances. His past…
…His past reports can be found here. Where is Flavor? Readers of this blog may have noticed the absence of Flavor, the youngest member of “the Thugs,” from last week’s…
Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia sociologist and author of “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back once again with his chronicle of watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances. His…
…and cheese on me,” he offered the losers. This was not the only thing the self-described thugs got right about the final season of The Wire. They correctly surmised that…
…“thugs” after the airing of the second episode of The Wire, season five. Once I saw Detective McNulty tamper with a homicide scene — apparently hoping to raise speculation that…
The creator of The Wire, The Deuce, and other shows is leading the Writers Guild on the picket lines. He and Steve break down the economics of TV writing, how…
…consiglieres by looking at some of their earlier commentaries. “The Thugs” were kind enough to watch Season Five of The Wire with me, offering their feedback on the David Simon‘s…
We are belatedly watching The Wire, nearing the end of Season V. [N.B.: see Sudhir Venkatesh‘s series of blog posts called “What Do Real Thugs Think of The Wire?”] By…
…The Wire gives an accurate portrayal of gang life? It is clear from the show (if it is as real as it seems) that traditional policing strategies are very ineffective….
…a machete for self-defense was extremely valuable to farmers before the election because of marauding thugs, in which case prices really might be expected to temporarily rise.) (Hat tip: Doug…
The famously profane politician and operative is now U.S. ambassador to Japan, where he’s trying to rewrite the rules of diplomacy. But don’t worry: When it comes to China, he’s…
We often look to other countries for smart policies on education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. But can a smart policy be simply transplanted into a country as culturally unusual (and as…
…into the gate — we thought it would be scratched — but then it got in and the gates opened and his horse led wire to wire. It was a…
When he became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai announced that he was going to take a “weed whacker” to Obama-era regulations. So far, he’s kept his promise,…
The public has almost no chance to buy good tickets to the best events. Ticket brokers, meanwhile, make huge profits on the secondary markets. Here’s the story of how this…
Caitlin Doughty is a mortician who would like to put herself out of business. Our corporate funeral industry, she argues, has made us forget how to offer our loved ones…
What makes a con succeed? Does snake oil actually work? And just how gullible is Angela?…
…How many folks do you know who watch The Wire with high-ranking gang members? His new book, Gang Leader for a Day, which hits the stores this week, is as…
We often look to other countries for smart policies on education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. But can a smart policy be simply transplanted into a country as culturally unusual (and as…
Thinking of Bitcoin as just a digital currency is like thinking about the Internet as just email. Its potential is much more exciting than that.
David Simon, creator of The Wire and Homicide, announced plans to shoot an HBO pilot of Treme, about the New Orleans neighborhood of that name. New Orleans is unfortunately rife…
He’s the award-winning author of hugely popular books like Guns, Germs, and Steel; Collapse; and Upheaval. But Jared actually started his varied career as an expert on gallbladders and birds….
…out how to stop them from killing people. Soccer hooliganism is no surprise to anyone who’s followed the sport, or read Among the Thugs, or even How Soccer Explains the…
…a happy ending. The higher-ups in the gang sent some thugs to beat the gang leader up when they heard he had the gang’s foot soldiers doing neighborhood clean-up. The…
On the Internet, people say all kinds of things they’d never say aloud — about sex and race, about their true wants and fears. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has spent years parsing…
In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the P.G.A. Tour. Can a sporting event…
