Interactive graphs and explanations
about key economic concepts
for use in teaching and exploring
Interactive graphs and explanations
about key economic concepts
for use in teaching and exploring
, a death-row attorney who returns to his hometown after an anonymous caller discovers a mysterious young man, known only as , caged in an abandoned wing of Shawshank Prison. The Return
For those who have yet to experience it, Castle Rock Season 1 is a fascinating artifact of the post- It Stephen King renaissance. It is not a show that holds your hand or offers tidy resolutions. It is a meditation on memory, trauma, and faith, dressed in the iconography of one of our greatest horror writers. Whether you are a devoted Constant Reader looking for the deepest of cuts or a newcomer seeking a smart, character-driven thriller, the journey to Castle Rock is one worth taking. Just be prepared for the possibility that you may never want to leave—or be able to.
Characters and Performances
As Annie navigates her newfound freedom, she becomes entangled in the lives of the town's residents, including: Castle Rock - Season 1
A man trapped in the literal and figurative shadow of death. Henry's psychological block regarding his childhood trauma mirrors the town's collective amnesia about its own sins.
A man haunted by his past, specifically his mysterious disappearance as a child and the subsequent death of his father 0.5.1.
A detailed breakdown of and its timeline. , a death-row attorney who returns to his
The reveal of their shared identity serves as a critique of the "Chosen One" trope. In many King stories, the protagonist is destined to save the town. In Castle Rock , the protagonist is destined to destroy it. The
In Texas, Henry Deaver (André Holland) is a death row defense attorney who left Castle Rock years ago under a cloud of suspicion. Many in town believe that as a child, he murdered his adoptive father, the beloved local pastor. Despite his reluctance to return, the call from Shawshank pulls him back to face the demons of his past.
In the vast and terrifying ecosystem of Stephen King’s fiction, the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, functions as a gravitational center—a small New England town where the mundane and the monstrous are separated only by a thin veneer of normalcy. Hulu’s Castle Rock (Season 1), created by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, is not a direct adaptation of a single King novel but rather a daring, original symphony of his themes, characters, and geography. The season transcends the typical horror procedural to become a profound meditation on inherited trauma, the non-linearity of evil, and the desperate, often self-defeating nature of redemption. By weaving together original characters with canonical figures like Annie Wilkes and the captive “Kid,” the show argues that Castle Rock’s true horror is not a monster, but a place—a psychic labyrinth where past sins are not forgiven, but endlessly reenacted. It is a meditation on memory, trauma, and
The result is a slow-burning, atmospheric, and deeply unsettling exploration of trauma, faith, and the cyclical nature of evil. The Plot: A Homecoming Drenched in Dread
Provides a grounded, skeptical, and deeply empathetic emotional center for the audience.
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(played with unsettling brilliance by Bill Skarsgård), his only words are the name of a former resident: Henry Deaver
My name is Chris Makler. I’ve been a lecturer at Stanford University since 2015, and before that worked as the Senior Economist for Aplia, back when all Aplia did was econ. :) I hold a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Humanities from Yale University.
I’ve created this site as an open source project to provide econ teachers with a standard set of interactive graphs they can use in classes. It’s heavily tilted toward the graphs I use in my own classes, which are intermediate micro classes with calculus; but I’m pretty much done with the main graphs for those topics, and am starting to branch out into both principles-level econ and (shudder) macro. Requests for new graphs are always welcome, so if there’s something you’d like to see, please let me know!
In addition to creating standalone graphs, for the past several years I’ve been working on developing an interactive textbook which invites the reader to manipulate graphs as they read. This is still very much in development and will change often!
However, although I use the textbook from beginning to end, I also recognized in writing it that “one-pagers” on economic concepts would be useful on their own, without the overarching narrative of the textbook. Therefore, I’ve begun the process of adapting the textbook in to “explanations” of core concepts. Look for more and more explanations to be added in the months ahead.
Comments and suggestions on all of the above are very much appreciated; send me a note at chris dot makler at gmail dot com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and EconTwitter.net.
Note that I develop and test using Google Chrome; while the site works on any modern browser, Chrome will provide the most predictable results.
I’m excited to be working with Simon Halliday, Doug McKee, and Anastasia Papadopoulou on research using the graphs and technology I developed for this site. Look for upcoming presentations at econ teaching conferences in 2023!
I’m also interested in exploring how this technology could be used to produce “one-pagers” on new research. If you’re interested in creating a snappy version of your research paper or dissertation chapter, please drop me a line…
This project would not have been possible without the mentorship of an outstanding group of friends and colleagues over the years, including (but certainly not limited to!) David Murphy, Karl Lew, Wilson Cheung, Harrison Caudill, and Kyle Moore.
I’ve drawn inspiration and support from the community Nicky Case has built up around Explorable Explanations, including Amit Patel, Chris Walker, Hamish Todd, Andy Matuschak, and many others.
The EconGraphs logo was generously contributed by Jørgen Veisdal.
Finally, and most importantly, I’d like to thank all of my students and TA’s, who have provided amazing feedback as I’ve developed and used these graphs in different ways in my classes over the years. Your patience and support is very much appreciated!
I use slides.com to present graphs in my lectures. Unlike most presentation software, this allows you to add iframes to your presentations and interact with them. See this page for some of the decks I use in my teaching.
The javascript engine I developed to make these graphs, the KineticGraphs Javascript Engine (KGJS), is open-source and freely available for use. It’s also under constant development, with new features being rolled out and existing features refined. (Please remember when looking at the source code that I’m an economist and not a software developer!)
However, for most applications I recommend Desmos. It’s an amazing web site that’s getting better all the time, and where I do most of my sketching out of ideas before coding them in KGJS.
I consider the graphs and explanations on this web site to be academic content like any other, and as such retain copyright to all work presented here. You are welcome to link to any of the graphs on this site for any purpose; in particular, graphs may be embedded within iframes without any need for a login. You’ll notice an inobtrusive copyright is included in the bottom-right corner of each graph, with a link back to this page. Of course any more prominent acknowledgement is also appreciated! :)
If you want to incorporate these kinds of graphs in a commercial project such as a textbook, I don’t recommend just linking to these graphs, as URLs may change or javascript may collide with a hosting page; also, the terminology I use may or may not match the terminology in your other materials. Instead, I am happy to serve as a consultant on commercial projects, either by creating graphs for your work or by training your own subject-matter experts on how to create them. This will allow you to host stable code on your site that you know works well with your project. If you’re interested in hiring me for this kind of work, please send me an email at chris dot makler at gmail dot com.