Essay Bookstores are arsenals of democracy April 25, 2025 As long as there have been bookstores, booksellers have been threatened, arrested, jailed, fined, and prosecuted. Read More
Podcast Attention, Shoppers! April 24, 2025 Attention, Shoppers! traces the origins and evolution of American retail capitalism from the late nineteenth century to today, uncovering the roots of a bitter equilibrium where large low-cost retailers dominate and vast numbers of low-income families now rely on them to make ends meet. Read More
Podcast In Covid’s Wake, Part II April 22, 2025 With In Covid’s Wake, Macedo and Lee offer the first comprehensive—and candid—political assessment of how our institutions fared during the pandemic. They describe how, influenced by Wuhan’s lockdown, governments departed from their existing pandemic plans. Read More
Interview Brian Bruya on A Cure for Chaos April 21, 2025 C. C. Tsai is one of Asia’s most popular cartoonists, and his graphic editions of the Chinese classics have sold more than 40 million copies in over twenty languages. In A Cure for Chaos, he uses his virtuosic artistic skill and sly humor to create an entertaining and enlightening illustrated version of key selections from the Mencius, a profoundly influential work of Chinese philosophy. Read More
Essay Fire sermons: Seneca and Thoreau on climate trauma April 21, 2025 “Climate trauma” is a phrase that has now entered the global lexicon. As global temperatures rise and population densifies in settled areas, the effects of catastrophic weather events like floods, hurricanes, and fires, which are increasing in frequency and intensity, are proving ever more destructive to human lives and livelihoods. Read More
Essay When darkness still prevails: The authoritarian attack on truth April 17, 2025 “At no time in history have words meant so little as they do today,” declared the philosopher John Dewey in 1941. Dewey, who at the time was one of America’s preeminent public intellectuals, was worried about what he called “complete inversions of truth” by authoritarians and their sympathizers at home. Read More
Podcast In Covid’s Wake, Part I April 17, 2025 The Covid pandemic quickly led to the greatest mobilization of emergency powers in human history. By early April 2020, half the world’s population—3.9 billion people—were living under quarantine. Read More
Reading List On the freedom to read, speak, and exchange ideas April 14, 2025 The free and open exchange of ideas underlies intellectual inquiry and is the bedrock of a democratic society. Through engaged dialogue we refine our thinking, test our assumptions, and move closer to shared human truths. Read More
Interview Ruth Braunstein on My Tax Dollars April 13, 2025 Ruth Braunstein maps the contested moral landscape in which Americans experience and make sense of the tax system. Read More
Interview Laurence D. Hurst on The Evolution of Imperfection April 08, 2025 Laurence D. Hurst, author of The Evolution of Imperfection talks about how understanding our genetic imperfections can change our view of evolution and enrich what it means to be human. Read More
Interview Maria LaMonaca Wisdom on How to Mentor Anyone in Academia April 07, 2025 Mentoring is integral to how academics are formed and what trajectories their careers will take. Yet until recently, no one was trained to do it, and many academics have ingrained assumptions about mentorship that no longer fit the lives, needs, and aspirations of mentees. Read More
Essay Raising the dead April 04, 2025 My fascination, indeed, my love of, death began in my childhood when my mum took me to the British Museum to see the mummies. Read More
Video PUP Speaks: Tamar Mitts on using public policy to confront online extremism April 04, 2025 Tamar Mitts’ research addresses emerging challenges at the intersection of technology and security. Read More
Essay Unlocking the Middle East riddle April 03, 2025 The Middle East is a tinderbox. The convergence of military, economic, social and geopolitical crises makes this moment, one of the most dangerous periods in the modern history of the region, an inflection point. Read More
Reading List New in Poetry April 01, 2025 “Poets,” a term taken from the ancient Greek, “to make”– have contributed significantly to linguistic, artistic, and even practical aspects of language. Poetry is unique among literary forms, it enhances empathy, self-expression, and is in many ways the perfect medium for complicated thought. Read More
