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Politics, Science & Nature

What the Health Care Debate Still Gets Wrong

A decade ago, Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande helped popularize the idea that health care spending is high because we use too much medicine. He was wrong: it’s the prices, and who pays them.

Adam Gaffney

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Politics

Politics, Science & Nature

Technology Can't Fix Algorithmic Injustice

We need greater democratic oversight of AI not just from developers and designers, but from all members of society.

Annette Zimmermann, Elena Di Rosa, Hochan Kim

Politics, War & Security

Rambo Politics from Reagan to Trump

In linking the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Trump invokes a fantasy of poetic justice—positioning himself as Rambo, the avenger of American humiliation abroad.

Bonnie Honig

Class & Inequality, Politics

Whose Liberalism?

With its elite decision-makers and opinion-formers—and over 1.5 million copies sold per week—the Economist has exerted tremendous influence on popular liberal discourse for more than a century.

Ben Jackson

Politics

Atone—But Not Because It Will Save Democracy

Germany’s official policy of shame about its past is a model the United States should adopt. But it won’t protect either country from far-right extremism.

Samuel Clowes Huneke

Politics

How Not to Do Activism

The calculus of power isn’t defined by hits or clicks or tweets. It is measured in relationships and meaningful reactions over time.

Michael Gecan

Politics

Loving Latin at the End of the World

Many revere Latin as the soul of Western civilization. But its beauty should not keep us from reckoning with its history.

Joel Christensen

Politics

It's No Secret Why Republicans Win

The right’s success in media is not a shadowy conspiracy; it has been achieved out in the open, largely through ordinary politics. Much of it can be countered the same way.

Nicole Hemmer

Class & Inequality, Politics

The Long History of Debt Cancellation

Moral thinking about debt has fluctuated throughout U.S. history. Today’s calls for cancellation suggest it may be poised for transformation once again.

Olivia Schwob

Politics

Politics is for Power, Not Consumption

Political hobbyism takes well-meaning citizens away from pursuing power.

Eitan Hersh

Politics

Fascism in Translation

Far-right leaders often call for one nation united under one language. At the same time, they have always been good at using translation to spread their politics.

Yuliya Komska

Politics, Reading Lists

Is Populism a Problem?

A bumper crop of brilliant essays on why populism isn't “anti-elite”, Trump isn’t a populist, and more. 

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Politics, Race

The Fragile Patriotism of the American Conservative

The New York Times’s new 1619 Project argues fiercely for a new understanding of what it means to believe in America—and it is cracking the very foundations of conservatism.

David Walsh

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