All posts tagged: Jason

A Plum Assignment | Lena Beug, Jason Logan, Leanne Shapton

A Plum Assignment | Lena Beug, Jason Logan, Leanne Shapton

Published by Jenni Sidey

The cover for our Fall Books Issue—a painting of ripe purple plums in a punnet, surrounded by hand-painted cover lines—was an unexpected collaboration between the Irish-born New Yorker Lena Beug, a commercials director, and the Canadian Jason Logan, who makes ink from natural pigments that he forages from rural and urban environments.  I had assigned the fully illustrated cover to Logan, who was visiting New York at the end of August, and invited both Logan and Beug to dinner. While he was sketching ideas, she arrived bearing plums to cook the popular New York Times plum torte. The dinner table was covered in paint and paper, and Beug sat down and made some quick brush studies before starting to bake. After Logan’s first idea was rejected a few days later, he went back to the drawing board and made inky paintings of leaves and landscapes, hand lettering around the shapes. He then tossed one of Lena’s paintings into the ring. We agreed that it looked luscious. (The editors at first thought the punnet looked like a chair, but flipping …

Why Jason Arday’s Defenders Fight On

Why Jason Arday’s Defenders Fight On

Published by Sam Flores

In death, Jason Arday has become two people. To many readers of legacy newspapers, the late Cambridge University academic is a proven fabulist. The life story on which he built his career, of being nonverbal until 11 because of autism, and then learning to read at 18 and becoming a professor, has “no precedent in medical literature,” as The New York Times delicately put it. Among many other extraordinary claims, his tale of being menaced by a knife-wielding man at Cambridge could not be corroborated, and neither could the story that his family had received a pig’s head as an act of racist intimidation. “To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me,” he told a Guardian reporter who challenged him. That is one reality. However, another one dominates left-wing new media, activist nonprofits, and visual social networks such as Instagram and TikTok. There, the prevailing narrative is that Arday did nothing seriously wrong and Britain’s right-wing media hounded an exceptional Black scholar to his death on August 14 for no reason except …

Jason Arday and the new politics of plagiarism

Jason Arday and the new politics of plagiarism

Published by Sam Flores

After a meteoric rise to the top ranks of British academia, scholar Jason Arday was found dead at his London home on Aug. 14, 2026. Arday had spent weeks fighting plagiarism accusations. The way they took on a life of their own in the media ecosystem is a stark reminder of the steep price people can pay in a culture that has made originality a kind of moral virtue. In 2023, at age 38, he had been appointed to a professorship in sociology of education at the University of Cambridge, becoming the youngest Black professor in the institution’s 800-year history. Nine days before his death, Arday had resigned from his faculty position. He was facing growing criticism about improbable and inconsistent details appearing in his memoir, scheduled to be released in the coming weeks by Simon & Schuster. Arday’s publisher had stood by him, lauding the academic’s “professionalism and integrity.” But the originality of Arday’s dissertation and his other academic work was also coming under scrutiny, leading to multiple allegations of plagiarism. Arday vehemently denied …

The Truths That Failed Jason Arday

The Truths That Failed Jason Arday

Published by Sam Flores

Yesterday in London, Jason Arday, the controversy-plagued British academic and author, was found dead. Made famous as the youngest Black professor in Cambridge’s more than 800-year history, Arday had been dogged by weeks of scrutiny amid accusations of plagiarism, fake qualifications, and a fabricated backstory filled with hard-to-believe details. He claimed to have been mute until age 11 and illiterate until 18, disadvantages that did not deter him from getting a Ph.D., which he earned by age 30. He claimed, too, that he had suffered from various medical conditions throughout his life, including autism, epilepsy, locked-in syndrome, testicular cancer, and a brain tumor. He was, by his account, a world-class endurance athlete who had racked up a variety of impressive feats, including running 600 miles in six days. Then there were his academic accomplishments: Arday was billed as a once-in-a-generation talent, whose research in his field—the sociology of education—was “the best in the world,” according to Hilary Cremin, the head of Cambridge’s faculty of education. He claimed to have received a book advance of 1.4 …

Jason Arday’s Fairy Tale Is Over

Jason Arday’s Fairy Tale Is Over

Published by Sam Flores

Even before the push alert about his resignation from the University of Cambridge this week, Jason Arday might well have been the world’s most famous living sociologist. In early 2023, Arday received a professorship at Cambridge; at 37, he was the youngest Black scholar ever to have done so, and his appointment made international headlines. A year later, he set out to sell his memoir. According to a cover letter that his agent sent to publishers at the time, Arday’s book, to be titled Great and Unfortunate Things, would be “an awe-inspiring tale of near mythic proportions.” That now appears to be an understatement. Arday’s story was indeed astonishing: As a toddler, he was diagnosed with autism and developmental delays; he didn’t fully speak until the age of 11; he learned to read and write only as an adult. Arday’s parents are Ghanaian immigrants; he grew up wearing homemade clothes and hustling for cash by playing snooker. Yet in spite of all these obstacles and many, many others he has recounted over the years, Arday …

Jason Momoa’s 1920s Harleys become electric hybrids in wildest EV conversions yet

Jason Momoa’s 1920s Harleys become electric hybrids in wildest EV conversions yet

Published by Miika Tikkanen

UK-based EV conversion specialist Electrogenic has converted five of Jason Momoa’s cherished vintage vehicles to electric power — including three 100-year-old Harley-Davidson motorcycles reimagined as plug-in hybrids. The builds are featured in Season 2 of Momoa’s HBO documentary series On The Roam, streaming now. The project includes two extremely rare classic Land Rovers converted to all-electric drive with 150+ miles of range, a battery-equipped off-grid camping trailer, and the three Harleys that can switch between electric, petrol, and combined hybrid power on the fly. Electrogenic is now selling conversion kits for both the Land Rovers and the Harleys. 100-year-old Harleys, electrified The most jaw-dropping part of the project is the motorcycle conversions. Electrogenic took a 1924 Harley-Davidson Model JD, a 1927 Model JD, and a 1921 Model FD — bikes that predate even the first commercially available radio — and fitted them with modern electric powertrains. The two Model JDs retain their original twin-cylinder petrol engines but now feature Electrogenic’s EV system working alongside them in a plug-in hybrid setup. Riders can switch between pure …

10 Questions with Jason Segel

10 Questions with Jason Segel

Published by Daniella Wilson

Add Shrinking to your watchlist From Forgetting Sarah Marshall to The Muppets, Jason Segel has played his fair share of wounded males. In Apple’s comedy drama Shrinking, he’s Jimmy Laird, a therapist with more than a few struggles of his own. On-screen, we’ve seen Jimmy befriend the hit-and-run driver who killed his wife (played by co-creator Brett Goldstein) while watching Parkinson’s weaken his colleague Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford). But as series three comes to a close, what do real therapists make of his methods? You’ve said series one of Shrinking was about grief and series two concerned forgiveness. As series three comes to an end, what would you say the theme is? He’s got out of the hole, he’s cleaned up the wreckage and now he’s moving forward, restarting life at 45. In my experience, picking up after a life event is much clumsier than you anticipate. You look in the mirror, you say you’re ready for that first date, then you go out and it’s a disaster. One potential future explored is with Sofi, …

Jason Statham’s “gripping” action-thriller with Daniel Mays is now available to watch at home

Jason Statham’s “gripping” action-thriller with Daniel Mays is now available to watch at home

Published by Sam Flores

Shelter, the “gripping” action-thriller starring Jason Statham and Daniel Mays, is now available to watch at home. Though the former may be in a familiar role, Statham’s latest venture was well received upon its release. The film sees the actor portray Michael Mason, a former government assassin who is living a quiet life on a remote Scottish isle. His peace is interrupted, however, when a terrible accident leaves local girl Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) without a carer. Upon caring for the youngster, Michael’s position is compromised and he is forced to go on the run with Jessie in tow. As he attempts to keep her safe, his very dangerous past seems to be clinging onto his tail. Related: UK film release dates: Find out when all the latest movies are coming to cinemas After being released in cinemas in January, the action-thriller is now available to watch from the comfort of your own home. On Amazon, the film can be rented in either Standard or High Definition for £15.99, or can be bought outright for …

A Plum Assignment | Lena Beug, Jason Logan, Leanne Shapton

Jason Statham Asks Nothing of Me | Chloe Wilson

Published by José Betancourt

And for this I’m grateful. The scene:I’m in my convalescent’s nest—a corner of the sofa.Floral pajamas, oily roots. The pain refersinto my shoulders, as they foretold. A flashof the anesthetist: This will feel cold. Your face will prickle. A male voice: She’s out. Let’s do this. Now, in the weeks betweenvisits to the theater, I want nothingto do with human drama. Spare me the pathos,the redemption arc. What do I want? That’s easy. Meataxe logic. Justice in its roughestapproximation. I want boots crunching across broken glass,I want someone to throw themselves from a skyscraperonto a helicopter, I want atomic lawsto be a surmountable inconvenience, and the plot incidental, motivationspaper thin. Good merciful god, I want to watch thingsexplode. Is a little gelignitetoo much to ask? And then cued up like a giftis the filmography of Jason Statham. I am touched by the solicitude of the algorithm.One after another I consume them. I cannotget enough. Mafioso, secret agent, marineor criminal, it doesn’t matter, in every incarnationhe’s the same, plus or minus kevlar, beret, turtleneck. I watchas …