Less than a decade ago, information technology seemed wondrous in its ability to make modern life better. Alexis Wichowski discusses the good and the bad of technology's penetration of our lives as private individuals, as public citizens, and, most broadly, as members of society.
It is one of the cruel realities of life for every nation and every individual: we all suffer loss and disappointment. Award winning poet Maggie Smith offers wisdom-and hope-for anyone who knows that pain.
Every family has its secrets. Robert Kolker tells the story of an All-American family in the middle of the 20th century forced to grapple with that era's stigma and the tragic consequences of serious mental illness.
The end of the 19th Century in America, is often associated with the rise of profound social movements like the temperance movement; the women's suffrage movement, and more darkly even the eugenics movement. Ernest Freeberg tells the story of the birth of the animal rights movement.
Many Americans believe our politics are broken. Norm Ornstein says the fault lies squarely with one political party and will likely shape the course of the Biden administration.
The music scene in the 1970s and 1980s is now the stuff of legend from disco to the rise of hip hop, punk, and new wave, innovation and artistry dominated pop music. Chris Frantz was in the middle of it all as a founding member of Talking Heads.
We live in an age increasingly defined by the intrusion of technology in our lives. Kashmir Hill is a technology journalist whose work explores the looming tech-dystopia-and how we can avoid it.
The genetics revolution is already reshaping healthcare-and most people see in it the potential for healthier children, healthier adults, and less disease. Jamie Metzl argues that the same technology making progress possible has the potential to saddle the world with a complex array of thorny ethical questions that will effect everything from human sexual reproduction to national security.
Nothing saps the confidence of the uninitiated quite like the reality of actually becoming a parent. KJ Dell'Antonia tells parents to cut themselves some slack and to worry less about the many hours each day that teenagers spend on screens.
In this era of "fake news," disinformation, and social-media distortion and falsehood, professional expertise is under fire. U.S. Naval War College Professor Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters, explains why these assaults on truth threaten American democracy.
Political divisions are as old as the republic, itself. But Thomas E. Ricks says that if we're serious about preserving the union, there is much we can learn from the founders' study of the ancient republics in antiquity.
On many issues today, Americans are bitterly divided. Many politicians are unwilling to reach across the aisle, and fact-based attempts to bridge these gaps seem to fail. Linda Tropp, award-winning author and professor of social psychology at the University of Massachusetts, argues that face-to face connections and emotion, not data and statistics, can bring disparate groups together.
The music scene in the 1970s and 1980s is now the stuff of legend from disco to the rise of hip hop, punk, and new wave, innovation and artistry dominated pop music. Chris Frantz was in the middle of it all as a founding member of Talking Heads.
History, as a subject of study, is more than a linear progression of events. It is ideas, currents of thought, institutions of learning, social movements, moral awakenings and more. In a brief, new book, Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen traces the history of ideas that shaped the United States from its beginnings.
War stories whether the stuff of memoir or fictional portrayals of people at war-are mainstays of literature across human history. Mark R. Jacobson is both a historian and a veteran who seizes on the power of modern storytelling in film to educate the next generation about the realities of war.
Everyone has a ghost story-a personal family experience, something that happened to a friend, an uncle, or even ourselves. Sometimes these stories are comforting and sometimes they are not. Amy Bruni shares her experience as a paranormal investigator.
With more and more newspapers closing, a cornerstone of democracy in many localities is imperiled. Penny Abernathy, head of the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses the problem - and poses possible solutions.
Climate change is about water: places where there is either too little or too much. Elizabeth Rush describes the impact of rising sea levels on the people and animals who live on America's coasts.
In the 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation spied on civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sam Pollard and Bend Hedin tell that story in a powerful documentary that shines a light on race, power, and the politics of personal destruction.
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