Hump Day Recommendations, July 3, 2024

Watch: “The Bikeriders.” This movie follows the evolution of a Midwestern motorcycle club during the 1960s and 1970s. The film offers a fascinating look at a rebellious subculture during a tumultuous period in the US. Would definitely recommend checking this out in theaters. – John

Read: “Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony,” by Robert B. Edgerton. While I realize it’s dangerous to recommend perennially controversial scholarship originally published when I was approximately six months old, I found this challenging piece of anthropology tremendously stimulating. Edgerton’s thesis is simple: No society is free of its own illnesses. Seems obvious enough, but much contemporary social and political thought – even in criticizing Eurocentrism – fetishizes an idea that societies living closer to the ways our ancient ancestors did are somehow healthier or closer to an innate ideal. Edgerton attempts to problematize the notion with case studies around the globe that show maladaptation despite practicing older lifeways. If nothing else, read his chapter on Aboriginal Tasmanians and the catastrophic effects of their 10,000-year isolation from mainland Australia. – Matt

Listen: “The Doping Scandal Rocking the Olympics,” by The Daily, features swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt testifying before Congress in June to say they had lost complete faith in the system of drug testing for the Olympics. A must-listen before this summer’s Games. – Riley

Peek: Into the back of the truck. About10 years ago, Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena began setting up his camera on an overpass outside of Monterrey, Mexico, capturing images from above of the day workers lying in the beds of the hundreds of pickup trucks that trundle in and out of the city every day. His series, “Carpoolers,” is an amazing and unexpectedly intimate series of portraits of the men and women whose hard work keeps one of Mexico’s most prosperous cities churning. – Alex