Rand Richards Cooper

Rand Richards Cooper is a contributing editor to Commonweal.

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Article

Joshua Epstein on Contagion & Fear

Humans are hardly the ‘rational actors’ social scientists pretend they are. With COVID-19 cases rising again, epidemiologist Joshua Epstein proposes another model.

By Rand Richards Cooper

June 25, 2020

Coronavirus

Philosophy

Science

Article

The Burning Question

It is the responsibility of all Democrats to unite behind the nominee. Right now, Joe Biden is the most likely—and arguably the best—choice.

By Rand Richards Cooper

March 10, 2020

Election 2020

Donald Trump

Domestic Affairs

Article

Oscar Oversights

If you needed proof that Oscar nominations are capricious and routinely neglect excellent films, here are three prime pieces of evidence.

By Rand Richards Cooper

March 6, 2020

Movies

Article

Cinema’s Pewter Age

This year’s Oscar lineup is hardly as strong as it could be. Herewith your reviewer’s annual preview, with pleasures, peeves, and picks.

By Rand Richards Cooper

February 8, 2020

Movies

Web Exclusive

Media

Article

The Life You Lead

With ‘The Irishman’ Martin Scorsese returns to his familiar cinematic beat, where morality contends with the primal facts of time and mortality.

By Rand Richards Cooper

November 29, 2019

U.S. Catholicism

Movies

Spirituality

Article

Different Drums

Two films about two supremely gifted singers explore how fate deals out both the plot of one’s life and the temperament with which we negotiate it.

By Rand Richards Cooper

November 9, 2019

Music

Movies

Must Reads

Politics

Visionary Gradualist Pressure

To Michael Harrington, socialism was the idea of a society in which certain fundamental limitations of human existence are transcended.

By Gary Dorrien

September 8, 2021

Religion

A Beautiful Day, A Horrible Event

From the archives: Faith in the Resurrection does not cancel out what happens on the cross; the cross is its beginning.

By John Garvey

September 11, 2021

Religion

The Limits of ‘Traditionis Custodes’

Anti–Vatican II traditionalism won’t just disappear by papal fiat.

By Massimo Faggioli

September 2, 2021

Culture

The Same Anew

The poet Donald Revell believes that seeing—true seeing, ecstatic seeing—is the poet’s real task.

By Anthony Domestico

September 2, 2021

Culture

There Ought to Be a Law

The law is one thing, morality another. Conflating them flattens our public morality into a deadening binary.

By Matthew Boudway

May 24, 2021

Books

Learning What to Want

Not all aesthetic consumption is equal, and developing the ability to judge the art we encounter can help transform us.

By Nate Klug

September 8, 2021

Collections

Confronting Climate Change

Writing from Commonweal on the effects of climate change and our responsibility to care for our common home.

By The Editors

September 20, 2021