The Two Lives of Norma McCorvey
The law is written in words, and words are not the same thing as people. In the 1973 landmark lawsuit Roe v. Wade, for example, the plaintiff “Jane Roe” was not the same person as Norma McCorvey. The...
View ArticleThe Blue Wave That Saved the Vote
When most people think about the significance of the 2018 midterms, they think about the House of Representatives. Democrats, propelled by voter antipathy toward President Donald Trump, retook the...
View ArticleHave a Good Trip Demystifies Psychedelics
In 1955, Aldous Huxley, author and early champion of the psychedelic experience, returned to reality after the effects of 400 milligrams of mescaline had settled, brimming with, “the direct, total...
View ArticleSounding It Out
When my daughter began homeschooling earlier this year—a string of words that, even now, causes me to rub my eyes with disbelief—I went through something like the stages of grief, landing at acceptance...
View ArticleIs Email the Future of Journalism?
Last year was an extinction-level event in journalism. More than 3,000 jobs were lost in an industry that was already in rough shape. There were layoffs in every type of news organization: At BuzzFeed,...
View ArticleThe Intolerable Cruelty of Our Eldercare System
Residents and employees of nursing homes have emerged as one of the hardest-hit groups of the coronavirus pandemic, with a third of overall deaths taking place within nursing home walls. The facilities...
View ArticleThe Crumbling Cult of Jamie Dimon
Under the most extraordinary circumstances imaginable, Jamie Dimon, the chairman, CEO, and president of JPMorgan Chase, has noticed an incredibly obvious thing: Everything might not be going great;...
View ArticleAmerican Cities Are Built for Cars. The Coronavirus Could Change That.
As the Covid-19 crisis wears on, a surprising tool has emerged in the effort to slow transmission: city streets. The car has long been king in America’s cities, with spacious roadways edged by narrow...
View ArticleI Was Already Underwater as a Cab Driver in New York. Then the Pandemic Hit.
I live in Woodside, Queens. I’m originally from Ecuador, but I’ve been living in New York for 24 years and driving a cab in the city for almost 19 years. I realized that the coronavirus was going to be...
View ArticleDominic Cummings’s Very Trumpian Response to His Very English Scandal
Not since Thomas Becket has a counselor to the government of Britain caused so much controversy. Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was revealed over the...
View ArticleThe U.S. Can’t “Win” an Arms Race With Russia and China
The president who told the American people that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” now appears equally confident about “winning” a nuclear arms race. Last week, Donald Trump made a half-baked,...
View ArticleHow Corporations Make Pandemics Deadlier
In early 2009, a toddler named Édgar Hernández, of La Gloria, Mexico, came down with a fever and a nasty, persistent cough. Doctors told his parents he was suffering from a mysterious respiratory...
View ArticleThe Case for Liberal Arts Education in a Time of Crisis
Well before Covid-19 arrived on the scene, pundits were sounding the death knell for higher education—and now many are proclaiming that the pandemic has dealt the final blow. They may even be planning...
View ArticleThe Biggest Threat to a Coronavirus Vaccine Is the American People
President Donald Trump claims that a coronavirus vaccine will be available by the end of the year. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, expects one within 18 months. Most other...
View ArticleTwitter Can’t Rein In Donald Trump
“President Trump on Tuesday tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough,” Timothy...
View ArticleThe Pandemic Is the Right Time to Defund the Police
The pandemic has slowed much American police work, but police are still working. “As of May 17, 375 people had been shot and killed by on-duty police officers in 2020—about the same rate as other...
View ArticleThe Implausibility of an “Explosive” Economic Rebound by November
On Tuesday, Politico reported a growing anxiety among Democratic policy experts that a dramatic economic recovery could boost President Trump in November’s election. Jason Furman, who chaired the...
View ArticleThe End of the Backlash to Big Tech
Don’t trust anyone who gets rich during a pandemic. Jeff Bezos, whose world-straddling fortune was built largely on the backs of immiserated warehouse workers around the planet, has seen his net worth...
View ArticleUnionizing the Office in an Age of Remote Work
Before it was mandated for millions of workers by the coronavirus, remote work was an occasionally controversial practice. While some management studies have claimed that working from home increased...
View ArticleDavid Frum’s Hold Over the Center
I will grudgingly admit that I underestimated the Never Trump conservatives. Like many on the left, I shared the view summarized by Jeet Heer in The New Republic on the eve of the 2016 election—that...
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