There are two Wallace Shawns. There's the character actor, known for playing eccentrics in The Princess Bride and The Good Wife and voicing cartoon dinosaurs. ("I don't get cast as a lot of real people," he notes.) Then there's the acclaimed playwright, thinker, and ardent leftist. Shawn is out with a new collection of political musings, Night Thoughts, which address everything from inequality to the changing climate.

In the Spiel, Travis Kalanick, don't let the cab door hit you on the way out.

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