A Ridiculous, Perfect Way to Make Friends
Group fitness classes aren’t just about exercise.
A Good Country’s Bad Choice
And what I got wrong about the 2024 election
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.
Gladiator II Is More Than Just a Spectacle
Ridley Scott’s ancient-Roman epic manages to find some beauty amid the savagery.
Donald Trump’s Most Dangerous Cabinet Pick
Pete Hegseth considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically.
What Pete Hegseth’s Nomination Is Really About
Revenge on the military is just the start of it.
The Fairy Tale We’ve Been Retelling for 125 Years
Every generation has an Oz story, but one retelling best captures what makes L. Frank Baum’s world sing.
Winners of the 2024 International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Some of the top and winning images from this year’s landscape-photography competition
How One Woman Became the Scapegoat for America’s Reading Crisis
Lucy Calkins was an education superstar. Now she’s cast as the reason a generation of students struggles to read. Can she reclaim her good name?
There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI
Dialogue from these movies and TV shows has been used by companies such as Apple and Anthropic to train AI systems.
The People Who Quit Dating
Being single can be hard—but the search for love may be harder.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
It’s not just a phase.
Climate Diplomacy’s $300 Billion Failure
Climate negotiations at COP29 ended in a deal that mostly showed how far the world is from facing climate change’s real dangers.
Another Theory of the Trump Movement
Who else but Sigmund Freud to help explain?
The Trump-Trumpist Divide
The incoming president wants to do things his voters have not embraced.
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Don’t Give Up on the Truth
Striking out against injustice is always right; it always matters.
Trump’s Most Misunderstood Policy Proposal
Economists aren’t telling the whole truth about tariffs.
How America Got Mean
In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.
The Saruman Trap
When power is corrupt, there is no way to escape its toxic influence.
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