Thomas Frank is a liberal by conviction but an equal-opportunity critic of America’s foundering political system. In a discussion of his new book Rendezvous With Oblivion: Reports From a Sinking Society, a selection of Frank’s essays from 2011 to 2018, he looks at a country divided and in disrepair, undone by folly and exploitation.

It appears to be the find of a lifetime. Shakespeareans worldwide were electrified earlier this year by the announced discovery of a previously unknown source—or inspiration—for many of the works of William Shakespeare. Researcher Dennis McCarthy and colleague June Schlueter made the case that the Bard drew repeatedly from a manuscript written in the late 1500s by a courtier of Elizabeth I. Using plagiarism-detecting software, they identified unique storylines and ideas in both the earlier document and Shakespeare’s works.