Kathleen Hanna remembers her path to becoming the OG 'Rebel Girl'

Alex Banayan writes that success is like a nightclub with three doors: The first is the main entrance, through which you enter by working hard and playing by the rules. The line to this door is crowded and moves slowly. The second door is reserved for billionaires and celebrities and is off-limits to ordinary people. In The Third Door, he focuses on the last option—the door that allows regular folk to skip the line, find hidden opportunities, and think outside the box. He argues it’s the best—and really, only—route to getting ahead of the crowd.

Banayan interviews successful people from a wide range of fields to discover what insights, tricks, and motivations helped them find their unique paths to success. In this guide, we’ll review major themes he came across in his interviews, and we’ll explore how the insights he gleaned compare to theories of success from other thinkers.

Since her first hit song, Britney Spears has been a pop music icon. She’s won MTV Awards and a Grammy, millions of fans have attended her concerts, and she’s become one of the all-time best-selling musicians. However, behind the scenes, Spears has lived a life of turmoil, emotional trauma, and never-ending scrutiny in the public eye. When she bent under the strain of that pressure, Spears’s father took control of her life while exploiting her for financial gain.

The Woman in Me is Spears’s memoir of her career and private life, from the joy she’s found to the trauma she’s endured. In this guide, we’ll follow the story of Spears’s life from her small-town childhood to her struggles with stardom and the 13-year conservatorship that severely restricted her freedom. We’ll also explore the media’s portrayal of Spears throughout her career, the music industry’s treatment of women, and expert views on family dysfunction.

Finding Me, Viola Davis’s memoir published in 2022, recounts her extraordinary journey from the depths of poverty to the heights of Hollywood stardom. In this deeply personal account, Davis shares how acting became a beacon of hope and a path toward self-discovery in the midst of poverty, abuse, and racial discrimination.

Davis, celebrated for her roles in The Help, Doubt, How To Get Away With Murder, and Fences, has distinguished herself in film, television, and theater, achieving the historic "Triple Crown of Acting." Beyond her acting career, she co-runs JuVee Productions, aiming to produce diverse storytelling across various media.

This guide provides a detailed overview of Davis's life, enriched with historical context and additional information not found in the memoir, while also exploring Davis’ impact on the discussions about the importance of diverse storytelling in the media.

Many women have experienced “mansplaining”—when a man condescendingly explains something to a woman that she already knows well. But have you ever considered that this irritating experience might reflect a cultural tendency to devalue women more generally? In Men Explain Things to Me, historian, activist, and award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explains that this tendency is the result of a pervasive underlying belief: that men have the right to control women. It manifests in different ways, from irritating actions like mansplaining to violence such as rape and murder.

In this guide, we’ll explain the attitude of control that motivates the mistreatment of women. We’ll then examine the factors that contribute to this violence, as well as how men use their power to stifle women’s voices. We’ll finish by exploring the role that language plays in the advancement of women’s rights. In commentary, we’ll add research supporting and extending Solnit’s ideas, as well as social, historical, and scientific context.

Since her first hit song, Britney Spears has been a pop music icon. She’s won MTV Awards and a Grammy, millions of fans have attended her concerts, and she’s become one of the all-time best-selling musicians. However, behind the scenes, Spears has lived a life of turmoil, emotional trauma, and never-ending scrutiny in the public eye. When she bent under the strain of that pressure, Spears’s father took control of her life while exploiting her for financial gain.

The Woman in Me is Spears’s memoir of her career and private life, from the joy she’s found to the trauma she’s endured. In this guide, we’ll follow the story of Spears’s life from her small-town childhood to her struggles with stardom and the 13-year conservatorship that severely restricted her freedom. We’ll also explore the media’s portrayal of Spears throughout her career, the music industry’s treatment of women, and expert views on family dysfunction.

Many women have experienced “mansplaining”—when a man condescendingly explains something to a woman that she already knows well. But have you ever considered that this irritating experience might reflect a cultural tendency to devalue women more generally? In Men Explain Things to Me, historian, activist, and award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explains that this tendency is the result of a pervasive underlying belief: that men have the right to control women. It manifests in different ways, from irritating actions like mansplaining to violence such as rape and murder.

In this guide, we’ll explain the attitude of control that motivates the mistreatment of women. We’ll then examine the factors that contribute to this violence, as well as how men use their power to stifle women’s voices. We’ll finish by exploring the role that language plays in the advancement of women’s rights. In commentary, we’ll add research supporting and extending Solnit’s ideas, as well as social, historical, and scientific context.

Finding Me, Viola Davis’s memoir published in 2022, recounts her extraordinary journey from the depths of poverty to the heights of Hollywood stardom. In this deeply personal account, Davis shares how acting became a beacon of hope and a path toward self-discovery in the midst of poverty, abuse, and racial discrimination.

Davis, celebrated for her roles in The Help, Doubt, How To Get Away With Murder, and Fences, has distinguished herself in film, television, and theater, achieving the historic "Triple Crown of Acting." Beyond her acting career, she co-runs JuVee Productions, aiming to produce diverse storytelling across various media.

This guide provides a detailed overview of Davis's life, enriched with historical context and additional information not found in the memoir, while also exploring Davis’ impact on the discussions about the importance of diverse storytelling in the media.

Do you feel like social justice advocacy has gone too far? Or like you have to constantly be careful about what you say? The authors of Cynical Theories agree and explain how this came to be. While past movements for equality used to fight for concrete issues, the authors contend that contemporary activists and scholars are instead more concerned with policing language and culture, shutting down rational debate, and challenging the very foundations of liberal society.

In our guide to Cynical Theories, we’ll show how, in the authors’ view, social justice scholarship and activism changed from a force for good to a dangerous movement with totalitarian tendencies. We’ll also discuss why the tenets of liberalism—namely freedom of speech and belief in science—are more important now than ever. Through our commentary, we’ll offer insights and alternate views on the history of social justice and its impact on our modern world.

Finding Me, Viola Davis’s memoir published in 2022, recounts her extraordinary journey from the depths of poverty to the heights of Hollywood stardom. In this deeply personal account, Davis shares how acting became a beacon of hope and a path toward self-discovery in the midst of poverty, abuse, and racial discrimination.

Davis, celebrated for her roles in The Help, Doubt, How To Get Away With Murder, and Fences, has distinguished herself in film, television, and theater, achieving the historic "Triple Crown of Acting." Beyond her acting career, she co-runs JuVee Productions, aiming to produce diverse storytelling across various media.

This guide provides a detailed overview of Davis's life, enriched with historical context and additional information not found in the memoir, while also exploring Davis’ impact on the discussions about the importance of diverse storytelling in the media.