Leigh Finke

A new memoir explores why it’s OK to be uncertain about your identity at any age.

“You have to have people willing to speak out and be visible within the community, and that is not possible given the current climate.”

“The good stuff never applies to people of color, ever.”

For these churches, giving protection to immigrants is no longer a matter of if, but when. And what will happen if ICE comes to their doors?

Diplomat Omar Saif Ghobash wants to challenge rigid interpretations of what it means to be a good Muslim in the modern world.

The large refugee community in Minnesota is a big target for bigotry, and tensions are expected to get worse. But they’ve got a plan.

Author Jeff Chang talks about Trumpism, Whiteness, and cultural equity in his new book, “We Gon’ Be Alright.”

With 20 million refugees worldwide, the International Olympic Committee announces a new team to make the games more inclusive for people without a nation to call home.

“Nebraska” writer Bob Nelson on his new film and how economically depressed father and son characters are pulled from his own life story.

Along the Kenya-Somalia border, people have been displaced for decades. A new book profiles nine Somali refugees to explain the political forces that keep them—and hundreds of thousands more—from getting out.

In Minneapolis, demonstrators are demanding police release video of a fatal shooting of an African-American man. Earlier this week, five were shot by alleged white supremacists.

In her directorial debut, Afia Nathaniel brings the reality of Pakistan's child bride crisis to American audiences.

Can something as simple as watching movies—and empathizing with fictional characters—help generate more compassion and understanding in the real world?

I interviewed the filmmakers of the new blockbuster "No Escape" to see if they think their movie is racist. Spoiler alert: They don't.

Jason Segel steers away from his usual funny guy persona in "The End of the Tour," and plays the late "Infinite Jest" author David Foster Wallace.

"The Tribe" has no spoken dialogue at all—viewers must search for meaning through body language and emotion. This is why it works.

For geographer and author M Jackson, knowing climate science isn’t enough. We need to get our hearts involved too.

For Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, shooting this funny, intimate film was a healing experience.

Texas-born Jackson Bird waited 25 years to come out. Here's why he did it online.

Missoula has a problem—just like every other college town in America. A sociologist weighs in on John Krakauer's new book about sexual assault at the University of Montana.

March Madness is now a bigger cash cow than the Super Bowl, but in college sports the only people not getting a piece of the billion-dollar pie are the players.

In Bryan Bliss' debut novel, 16-year-old Abigail's family follows a charismatic preacher to San Francisco, where they live in a van to wait out the apocalypse. But if you believe completely that the world is coming to an end, what do you do when it doesn’t?

Harry Potter stood up for his world's most vulnerable people. Now, legions of real-world kids are too—by demanding Fair Trade certification for products sold in their hero's name.

This weekend, thousands converged on one of the world's biggest malls, chanting "Black people cannot breathe while you have a shopping spree." Check out our play-by-play.

To call “Wild” a redemption film is to minimize the wide range of emotions it works with—not to mention the subtlety of Reese Witherspoon’s performance.

All the main characters are played by white people. It doesn't really have to be that way.

Her enigmatic creator believed women were destined to rule the world. 10 facts about the iconic heroine.

The first video game developed by an indigenous-owned company uses gaming’s immersive storytelling style to connect players with Alaska Native culture.

“The center of Marvel’s storytelling history is the eternal struggle between good and evil, with many of its greatest superheroes having to contend with—and rise above—bullying, in all its forms.”

We can learn a lot about the future of culture wars from a “movement” of video game players angry about efforts to make gaming more welcoming for women.

A future where India is the major world superpower, gender is flexible, and energy comes from waves? This writer’s version of the near future feels much more real than apocalyptic nightmares we’ve come to dread.

“There’s a reason you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

An ESPN commentator said women should try not to provoke men to violence. The public backlash has proved sports culture can be a fertile place to debate women's rights, after all.

Mass annihilation is depressing, sure. But stories about it force us to imagine large-scale rebirth—and what kind of people we want to become.

Earlier this year, a 7-year-old girl urged the toy company to “make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok!?!” Here’s what they did.

They call themselves "nerdfighters"—and they're unlike any movement you've seen before.

The PBS classic, which taught a love of books to generations of kids, will be coming back in an online version.

The fans hope to buy the team and make it into a nonprofit organization like the Green Bay Packers.

Pretending that a rape never happened is a problem—regardless of whether it took place in fiction or reality.

Blockbuster series like Twilight have left their mark on a generation of girls, but what message are they sending boys? Here are a few to look out for.

Shannen Koostachin, a teenage activist who died before ever seeing the results of her work, has inspired a new hero in the DC Universe.

The upcoming Academy Awards will recognize some of 2013’s best social justice-themed films. Here are some of our favorite past winners.

Kelly Sue DeConnick is a woman author working in the comic book industry, who's had successful titles in both mainstream and independent forms. In this Q&A, she talks about her feminism, creativity, and her love for old-school "exploitation" movies.

Many of the Disney classics contain outdated images of racial and gender groups. Luckily, recent animated masterpieces provide alternatives without sacrificing anything in the way of imagination.

Only 25 percent of STEM jobs are held by women. YouTube science sensation Emily Graslie on how we can inspire them with better-quality pop-culture role models.

This is my first Christmas as a father. Since my baby has never known holiday commercialism, it's made me re-examine what I really want to ask for this year.

What if we used fantasy not as an escape from our world, but an invitation to look deeper into it? How teenage fans are fighting injustice—in real life.

Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin is not the only NFL player to challenge the league's bigotry and misogyny. These five men stand for a new kind of masculinity.

Four Stockholm cinemas are adopting a system that rates films on how deeply their female characters are developed—and how much they interact. It could radically change the way we see movies.

Comics artist Tess Fowler has a second great talent—communicating about misogyny through social media. Warning: This article contains accounts of sexual assault and may be triggering to some people.

Movies have long helped us understand what it means to live on earth and contribute to an ecologically sustainable planet. Here are ten of our favorites.

The idea of having a baby boy scared me: What kind of man will he grow up to be? Here’s what I learned about what it takes to raise compassionate men.

In just six months, the “Land of Lakes” went from debating a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, to legalizing it this week. One proud resident on celebrating change in one of our more politically quirky states.