CATEGORIES

The man who was everything, and then some

IN A NATION TORN APART BY, OF ALL THINGS, the perception that drag performers will corrupt our children, the time is right for a documentary about the glitter king himself, Little Richard, a performer who broke all kinds of boundaries at a time when doing so could be life-threatening.

The day hip-hop changed forever

AS A PERSON WHO LOVES HISTORY, I'M one of those people who can spot a historical moment as it's happening-both as a participant and as an outside viewer.

AFTER THE FLAMES

In the Maui wildfires, a summer of climate warnings reached a hellish crescendo

"Absolutely Do Not Send Them There"

Foster kids have few advocates and little agency. That makes them the perfect cash cow for the country's biggest psychiatric hospital chain.

VAPOR TRAIL

After a cannabis product turned up at my kid's school, I rode into the Wild West of unregulated pot.

RICH DOC, POOR DOC

Why do the most important kinds of doctors earn the least money?

MEDICAL RESTRAINTS

How health care companies use debt to trap nurses on the job

FREEDOM READERS

Authors of banned books-like me-are battling right-wing censorship daily. But we can't do it alone.

Montreal: It's All French to Me

THE MONTREAL BIODÔME’S scarlet macaw named Bouton “will be deported to the Toronto Zoo next Friday after she only spoke English during a government inspection,” The Beaverton reported in July 2013

TRUE CRIME DISTORTS THE TRUTH ABOUT CRIME

In their telling, it was Kercher’s roommate, an American exchange student named Amanda Knox, who had killed the young woman during some sort of satanic sex game gone awry

Affirmative Action Loses in Court

THE END OF affirmative action in university admissions has been prophesied since 2003, when the Supreme Court issued its decision in Grutter v. Bollinger. In the majority opinion, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that “25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today

Private Tyranny' Is Less Private Than You Think

KIMBERLY NARANJO MAKES for a sympathetic protagonist. In childhood, she suffered abuse at home. In early adulthood, she struggled with addiction

Civics in Public Schools Won't Fix American Democracy

ON THE CAMPAIGN trail in May, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy provocatively proposed raising the voting age to 25 for Americans who have not had any kind of civic experience, such as serving in the military or working as a first responder

Subsidies Won't Stop Stagnation

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN is making a “big bet on place-based industrial policy,” writes Brookings Institution senior fellow Mark Muro

America's Immigrant Brain Drain

THE UNITED STATES boasts more international students, immigrant inventors, and foreign-born Nobel laureates than any other country

Taylor Swift, Junk Fees, and the 'Happy Meal Fallacy'

WHEN AMERICA’S LARGEST ticket retailer announced plans to adjust its pricing structure, President Joe Biden was quick to claim credit

HOW Hippies Saved the Fourth Amendment

THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION DID EVERYTHING IT COULD TO CURB ANTIWAR ACTIVISM. THEN THE COURTS SAID IT HAD GONE TOO FAR

Africa's Planned Cities Need Unplanning

NIGERIA'S SLUMS AND STARTUP CITIES CAN LEARN FROM EACH OTHER

THE PIRATE PRESERVATIONISTS

WHEN KEEPING CULTURAL ARCHIVES SAFE MEANS STEPPING OUTSIDE THE LAW

Markets, Misunderstood

A sweeping new book on the history of free market thought misses the mark

Taylor Zakhar Perez

WHEN CASEY MCQUISTON'S NOVEL RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE WAS PUBlished in 2019, it was an instant bestseller.

Some Justice for Henrietta Lacks

Her 'immortal' cells have contributed to several major medical discoveries. Seventy-two years after her death, her family has settled a lawsuit against a biotech company

The War Over the Ukraine War

Support for Kyiv will be a KEY ISSUE in the 2024 election. The outcome will shape U.S. foreign policy for YEARS TO COME.

How to End the Korean War-Finally

Seven decades after the fighting stopped, the U.S. is still seeking a way to halt hostilities and avoid a nuclear disaster

At War Within and Without

Facing both Hamas attacks and its own bitter political divisions, Israel is at a moment of crisis. A first-time visitor, however, sees some signs of hope

Half human, half robot

I was born missing my left arm. And while there really isn’t anything I can’t do, it felt like an obvious inadequacy in a world saturated with an obsessive desire for perfection.

NUCLEAR DÉJÀ VU

J. Robert Oppenheimer's shadow has stretched well into the 21st century. We are still living in the nuclear age he helped create in 1945-and still confronted with the same moral and political dilemmas he wrestled with about weapons of mass destruction. Now, Christopher Nolan's new film Oppenheimer offers a chance to reinvigorate public debate about the nuclear threat.

Health Matters

There's no shortage of recommendations about how to become happier. But how effective are they?

THE boiling POINT

EXTREME HEAT IS ENDANGERING AMERICA'S WORKERS AND ITS ECONOMY

The best-selling YA author Elizabeth Acevedo has written her first novel for adults, and it's full of magic

THE KERNEL OF THE STORY THAT WOULD become Family Lore, Elizabeth Acevedo’s first novel for adults, came to her in college, after a visit with one of her aunts in the Bronx.