Everything Is Infrastructure Now
How spending got out of control and words lost their meaning.
October 2021
Features
Cashed Out
What happens when a community bail fund stops paying bail and starts trying to abolish it?
Do We Really Need New Anti-Asian Hate Crime Laws?
A holistic look at the data shatters the narrative about bias-based violence.
Interview
Cynthia Lummis, Crypto Queen of the U.S. Senate
The Wyoming Republican explains why she's long on bitcoin.
Topics
Let's Play Horseshoe Theory
Extremists on the left and the right are much closer to each other than either side would like to admit.
Photo: Hong Kong
In June, police stormed the offices of Apple Daily, one of the last pro-democracy newspapers and an unapologetic defender of Hong Kong's autonomy.
Supreme Court Dodges Another Religious Liberty Fight
Justices have mostly demurred on the question of whether anti-discrimination laws trump religious freedom.
America on the Dole
Biden's American Families Plan would put most working-age American households on the dole.
Britney Is Not the Only One Who Needs Freeing
While Spears' case is the most high-profile example of alleged conservator abuse, there are similar stories from all over the country.
Leaving Afghanistan
The U.S. did not leave behind a safe and stable situation, but it was never capable of creating one.
California Is Clueless About Homelessness
Both Los Angeles and San Francisco struggle with restrictive land use regulations that raise the costs and completion times of housing projects. That same red tape is now hobbling projects aimed at helping alleviate homelessness.
DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No 'Accepted Medical Use'
In the DEA's view, the fact that most states allow patients to use marijuana for symptom relief is irrelevant.
Cubans Rose Up. America Should Step Up.
Economic freedom is the key to other kinds of freedom.
Walking the Delicate Line Between Reporter and Activist
Telling a century's worth of stories about the people who had done creative things on the radio dial—and their opponents
Biden's Total Financial Surveillance
What if every one of your noncash financial transactions was automatically reported to a beefed-up, audit-hungry IRS?
A Good Day for the Fourth Amendment
"We are not eager—more the reverse—to print a new permission slip for entering the home without a warrant," declared Justice Kagan in Lange v. California.
Afghan Helpers Left Behind
Slow processing of SIV applications has led to an average wait time of three years and a backlog of roughly 18,000 primary applicants (and 52,000 family members).
Infographics
185 Americans Wrongly Sentenced to Death Have Been Freed in the Last Half-Century
For every 8.3 executions in the United States, one innocent person on death row has been exonerated.
Culture
When the 'Native Son' Became 'The Man Who Lived Underground'
One of Richard Wright's best books went unpublished in his lifetime, due to "unbearable" scenes of police brutality. Now at last it is in print.
Books
Stealthily Wielding Caesar's Sword
Sohrab Ahmari's case for tradition conceals an authoritarian agenda.
A Clear and Present Lack of Danger
We can stop obsessing about Islamic terrorists crossing the Southern border.
Reviews
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Unearthed relics tell the story of the long-forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured the likes of Nina Simone, B.B. King, and Stevie Wonder.
Undoing Drugs
Harm reduction invites a radical reconsideration of the way the government deals with politically disfavored intoxicants.
Bo Burnham: Inside
The Netflix comedy special deals with the loneliness brought on by the pandemic.
Project Hail Mary
In the new sci-fi novel, humanity manages to save itself not with social revolution but through reason, technology, and innovation.
Pandemic Legacy
The board game lets gamers indulge in a little cooperative epidemiological roleplay.
Exit Scam
A new podcast gives an autopsy of how a shadowy and charismatic crypto enthusiast was able to lure in so many people.
In the Heights
The movie tells the story of an immigrant community coming together to forge its own future through commerce.
ETC.
Author Steven Johnson on the Good News of the Century
Innovations in epidemiological statistics, artificial fertilizer, toilets, sanitation systems, and vaccines have allowed billions of people to flourish until old age.
