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 with material for a crime drama. As Simon tells the Times-Picayune, the show would explore “political corruption, the public housing controversy, the crippled criminal-justice system, clashes between police and Mardi . . .
Dear Mr. Geithner, I have been on jury duty recently. Nevertheless, I have been observing your first few weeks in office. I figured you could use a little help. I, personally, don’t have the expertise, so I thought I’d lean on a few acquaintances who have weathered several economic storms. What’s that? You say you have your own friends? Well . . .
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 past reports can be found here. I should have seen it coming. But I didn’t. The Thugs informed me that they were not interested in watching the last 2 episodes . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia sociologist and author of “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back once again for an eighth report after watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances. 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 for a seventh report after watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances. His past reports can be found here. The Thugs were bored. Episode 7 failed to move them. “Too slow,” griped Shine. “They’re making us wait,” said Orlando. “See, that’s when . . .
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 reports can be found here. I had been waiting for the self-described “Thugs” to analyze the workings of City Hall and the fictional Baltimore Sun more consistently. This week, I . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia sociologist and author of “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back with another report after watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances. Past posts can be found here. Dear Freakonomics.com readers: Your comments in the last discussion regarding the respective strategies of Marlo and Omar was so inspiring to “the Thugs” that they requested a . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh, who’s got a dialog with Alex Kotlowitz over at “Slate” about his new book “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back now with his fourth installment of watching “The Wire” with a group of New York-area gang personnel. His previous entries can be found here. “Pay up fools!” Shine cried as Marlo entered Prop Joe’s kitchen. After the . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh, our good friend and author of the new book “Gang Leader for a Day,” continues today with his weekly mission of watching “The Wire” with some real gang personnel and reporting on their reaction (and his). Your response to his previous posts has been enthusiastic. Typical comments: “More” and “Please post this every week!” Sudhir, in deference to . . .
Last week, Freakonomics guest blogger Sudhir Venkatesh sat down with a group of current and former gang members to watch “The Wire.” This week, he took time out from touring for his new book (see reviews here, here, and here) to meet up with them again for Episode Two. What price, a cop? I posed this question to several self-described . . .
There are few people I have ever met who are more interesting to talk to than Sudhir Venkatesh. I’ve known him for over a decade, and I cannot remember ever having a boring conversation with him. This Q&A with Venkatesh gives you a sedate and sanitized peek into the sorts of things he has been part of throughout his career. . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh has become pretty well known in these parts as an authority on the inner workings of criminal street gangs. His new book is out tomorrow; but today, here’s 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 . . .
We recently solicited your questions about street gangs for Sudhir Venkatesh, the then-grad student we wrote about in Freakonomics who is now a professor of sociology at Columbia. His answers are, IMHO, fascinating. Your questions were really good, too; thanks. Venkatesh will publish a book, Gang Leader for a Day, in early 2008. Q: Do you think the HBO series . . .