With this issue, we inaugurate two new monthly features. First, replacing our Media Commentary column that begins on our last page, we will now present Hollywood Commentary—an inside look at the machinery of American popular culture by the veteran TV writer-producer Rob Long, with whom I share a twice-monthly podcast called GLoP Culture along with Jonah Goldberg.

Our Media Commentary columnist these past five years, Matthew Continetti, has shifted gears and departments and will now write our monthly Washington Commentary. He succeeds Andrew Ferguson, who has decamped for a staff writing position at the Atlantic.

You will also find in this issue a new monthly entry we’re calling Cultural Commentary. It’s a two-page compendium of recommendations of books, services, films, and TV shows we like and wish to commend to your attention, written by the magazine’s staffers. The first Cultural Commentary includes favorable notices on a book about therapy, a collection of short stories, a Netflix movie, a free streaming-video service for people with library cards, and a compelling investigation of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. You can find it on page 15.

Christine Rosen, who has been writing our Social Commentary column since December 2015, has joined our staff full-time as a senior writer, working out of Washington. She joins Noah Rothman as one of our two daily bloggers, has become a regular member of our podcast crew, and will write longer articles in the magazine in addition to her column. 

Now look to your left at the announcement on the facing page for our 10th annual Commentary Roast with the victim of 2019, Ben Shapiro.

This 35-year-old pipsqueak has just published The Right Side of History, a prodigious small volume that takes us on a tour of Western thought—and as of press time, Ben’s book has sold in excess of 100,000 copies. He’s got millions of YouTube viewers, podcast listeners, Twitter followers…let’s face it, someone who seems to triumph at everything ought to be taken down a peg or two just to keep him honest. Our roast, on September 16 here in New York, will be phenomenal. You should come. You should buy a table and bring your teenage kids. We need you. It’s our only fundraiser of the year. Contact Stephanie Roberts at [email protected] to learn more. 

Over the coming months, we’ll be doing some renovations at our website, www.commentarymagazine.com, to make it more aesthetically pleasing. But this is all probably enough change for the moment. We are conservatives, after all.