CATEGORIES

THE DECAY OF IRAN

The Islamic Republic of Iran has thus far proved too ideologically rigid to reform and too ruthless to collapse. As in the late stages of the Soviet Union, however, the foundations decay in plain sight. Outside their homeland, women of Iranian origin become world-class mathematicians and astronauts; inside Iran, the ruling clerics debate whether women should be allowed to ride bicycles.

5 red flags for online mental-health content

THE CLASSIC VISION OF THERAPY REVOLVED AROUND A PERSON ON A COUCH, SUPINE, TAPPING into their deepest and darkest hopes and fears to a seated guy with a beard.

Small grocers are hurting. My buying habits don't help

EVERY WEEK, I GO ONTO WALMART'S WEBSITE AND order a bunch of groceries to be delivered to my house, and then feel a little bit guilty.

TESTING A CITY OF IMMIGRANTS

New York struggles to accommodate tens of thousands of migrants bused from other states

5 ways to strengthen a friendship

It might sound obvious, in the midst of a loneliness crisis, that having friends matters. But many of us "underestimate the very real impact our friendships can have on our life," says Marisa Franco, a psychologist and author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make-and Keep-Friends. "Connection is the most important factor predicting our health, both physical and mental."

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.

Writing for Friends was no joke

EVER SINCE I RETIRED FROM TELEVISION WRITING AT the ripe age of 38, people have asked me, \"Why would you quit such a cool career?\" It's impossible to answer this question over cocktail-party conversation. Where would I even begin? There were the grueling hours, the egotistical bosses, the dysfunction-there's everything the Writers Guild of America is currently fighting against with their ongoing strike, and the issues have only gotten more complex since I left in 2008.

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 NEW ROMANTICS

A decade after Fifty Shades, pop-culture romance has become alarmingly wholesome

BAJA IN THE BALANCE

The campaign to preserve a region, and a local fishing industry

THE HEALING SEA

In a quest to preserve the zones that let oceans thrive, ecologist Enric Sala heads for the South Pacific

CHANGING CLOTHES

Inside Stella McCartney's quest to transform the fashion industry from within

DÉJÀ VU

IT'S GETTING LATE EARLY IN THE GOP PRIMARY, AS THE FRONT RUNNER'S RIVALS STRUGGLE WITH THE CAMPAIGN'S CENTRAL QUESTION: HOW DO YOU STOP TRUMP?

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.

Climate Is Everything

One of the enduring legacies of this summer's heat waves is a disease that few people have heard of. First documented in El Salvador's sugarcane workers 21 years ago, chronic kidney disease of nontraditional origin (CKDnt) occurs among manual laborers working in high-heat conditions.

THE PARENT TRAP

American teens are having a hard time. High school students reporting chronic feelings of sadness and hopelessness rose from 1 in 5 to 1 in 3 from 2008 to 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By the pandemic fall of 2021, the feelings were reported by 42% of high school students and almost 60% of girls. The thing is, a lot of parents are in really bad shape too.

The Secretary on education

THE TWO YEARS THAT MIGUEL Cardona has been in the nation's top education job haven't exactly been serene: In June, the Supreme Court rejected President Joe Biden's student-loan-forgiveness plan and, in another ruling, essentially overturned affirmative action.

The creative ways teachers are using AI

PETER PACCONE, A SOCIAL-STUDIES TEACHER IN SAN Marino, Calif., has a new teacher's aid helping him in the classroom this year.

Special counsel

In Biden probe

Paul Reubens

Forever in character

Why did early puberty spike during the pandemic?

ITALY NOTICED FIRST. IT WAS THE FIRST COUNTRY TO lock down during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later in 2020, researchers at Florence's Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital were the first to point out a puzzling trend: more young girls than ever before had been showing up at the hospital with clear signs of early-onset puberty.

Why Trump's Georgia case may matter most

THE SIGNS IN GEORGIA WERE THERE FOR MONTHS. BACK in February, the forewoman of a special grand jury hinted that her advisory panel had recommended criminal charges against \"not a short list\" of familiar names in connection to an effort to overturn the results of Georgia's 2020 presidential election.

AFTER THE FLAMES

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

Fran Drescher – 6 Questions

Fran Drescher The president of the actors' union on joining the writers' strike, the impact of streaming and AI, and the Nanny memes burning up the net

The Struggles of John Fetterman

An unconventional senator opens up about his battle with depression

AI By the People, For the People

The workers making AI possible rarely see its rewards. One indian startup is trying to do things differently

THERE'S NO RIGHT OR WRONG IN MOVIE LOVE

IF YOU’RE LIKE MOST PEOPLE, YOU PROBably freeze when someone asks you what you think is the best movie of all time. What if you give a confident answer, only to wake up in the middle of the night, certain you should have said something else?

THE boiling POINT

EXTREME HEAT IS ENDANGERING AMERICA'S WORKERS AND ITS ECONOMY

Health Matters

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

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.