Best of: What ‘Drained-Pool’ Politics Costs America
In February, I spoke with Heather McGhee. I’ve been thinking about the conversation ever since. “The American landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold ...
6 Jul 20211h 8min
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Wants You to Be Bad at Something. It’s for Your Own Good.
Recently, I picked up Jeff Tweedy’s “How to Write One Song.” It was a bit of a lark. Tweedy is the frontman for Wilco, one of my favorite bands, but I’m not a songwriter, and I don’t plan to become on...
2 Jul 20211h 11min
Why Do We Work So Damn Much?
Historically speaking, we live in an age of extraordinary abundance. We have long since passed the income thresholds when past economists believed our needs would be more than met and we’d be working ...
29 Jun 20211h 22min
Republicans Are Setting Off a ‘Doom Loop’ for Democracy
The insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 failed. Donald Trump is not the president. But at the state level, the Republican war on elections is posting startling wins. They are trying to do what Trump...
25 Jun 20211h 18min
Sarah Schulman’s Radical Approach to Conflict, Communication and Change
Sarah Schulman’s work — as a nonfiction writer, novelist, activist, playwright and filmmaker — confronts the very thing most people try to avoid: conflict. Schulman, far from running from it, believes...
22 Jun 20211h 1min
Welcome to the ‘Take This Job and Shove It’ Economy
This is a strange moment in the economy. Wages are up, but so is inflation. Jobs are growing, but maybe not fast enough. Quit rates are at a 21st-century high. It isn’t clear what’s a trend, what’s a ...
18 Jun 202154min
The Freeing of the American Mind
Free minds. Freedom fries. Free speech. The Freedom Caucus. Freedom from. Freedom to. What do Americans really mean when they talk about freedom?Louis Menand’s “The Free World” is a 700-plus-page inte...
15 Jun 20211h 3min
Sam Altman on the A.I. Revolution, Trillionaires and the Future of Political Power
“The technological progress we make in the next 100 years will be far larger than all we’ve made since we first controlled fire and invented the wheel,” writes Sam Altman in his essay “Moore’s Law for...
11 Jun 20211h 10min
