Spare Change News

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Marley: A Movie Review

    Movie directed by Kevin McDonald It is the rarest of figures whose life’s work was so passionately particular that, by honoring his own credo, he, in turn, spoke to the pulse of the world. This is not hyperbole. Director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) ends this enthralling documentary, as the credits roll, with…

  • The Other Candidate

    One rainy summer after noon in mid-August, Jill Stein took the stage in Roger Williams Memorial Park in Providence, Rhode Island. The Green Party Presidential candidate launched into indictments of the last two administrations, “We need to stop spending money wastefully like George Bush Jr. and President Barack Obama have done to support the military!”…

  • Cornel West: A Voice in the Wilderness

    Cornel West: A Voice in the Wilderness

    “I come to you tonight with a heavy heart,” Cornel West began. “I just buried my grandmother,” he continued at the crowd gathered at West Park Presbyterian Church in the New York, which caused a collective “ahhh.” Dr. West cancelled a number of speaking engagements in early March, pausing his whirlwind schedule to deliver the…

  • Searching for Sugar Man: A Movie Review

    Movie directed by Malik Bendjelloul It’s been a long time since I’ve walked out of a movie feeling as invigorated and uplifted as I did after seeing “Searching for Sugar Man.” Unfortunately, I can’t fully tell you why without running the risk of ruining the experience for you. I knew next to nothing about this…

  • Beasts of the Southern Wild: A Movie Review

    Movie directed by Benh Zeitlin In one hour and 31 minutes, this movie transported me to a world that was poetry; alive, tender and disturbing at the same time. Quvenzhane Wallis is Hushpuppy, an 8 year old girl who has grown up in the “Bathtub,” an isolated part of the Mississippi Delta with her father,…

  • America's Rapper: Shea Rose

    “Where did all the female hip hop artists go? We need to find the next generation and make sure their voices are heard.” –Queen Latifah Although the charts are inundated with a plethora of ubiquitous pop artists like Beyonce, Rhianna and Lady Gaga, one tend to wonder…whatever happened to female hip hop acts like Queen…

  • Looking for a Good Job? Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

    Michelle Chen In These Times If you think your job stinks, you’re not alone. And if you’re still looking for a decent job, don’t expect to find one anytime soon, or ever. A new analysis of job quality, assessing various measures of benefits and wages, confirms what many of us already suspected: Good jobs are…

  • Nuns on the Bus

    Sister Simone Campbell gets off the bus in Columbus, Ohio, a day that included a visit to House Speaker John Boehner’s office. The tour was organized by NETWORK, a social justice advocacy group which is run by Catholic Sisters. The tour was intended to highlight the work Sisters do, meet the people they serve and…

  • Where Are the Jobs?

    Dashka Slater Economic Hardship Reporting Project As we stood in line at a Burger King in Sacramento, Calif., Joe Sisco gave me a nudge. “Look at the age of the people who are here right now,” he said and cocked his chin toward the three women behind the counter, each several decades past the age…

  • Why the Wealthy Should Worry About Inequality

    Mike Reilly International Network of Street Papers The work of Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and former Chief Economist for the World Bank, is recognized worldwide. He has written a long string of books, numerous papers and a wide variety of essays and articles, many focusing on equilibrium in the…

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