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Two raised fists competed in San Francisco’s Union Square. One belonged to protesting service workers demanding livable wages. The other belonged to a life-size Mario at Nintendo’s new flagship store, beckoning locals to spend money they can barely spare. Nintendo raised prices nationwide on August 3rd, citing vague “market conditions.” Now, what the company tested […]

It was supposed to be a weekend of unadulterated joy and celebration. My husband and I were in Washington, D.C., for our son’s commencement ceremony at Howard University. What began as a seemingly trivial brush-up quickly spiraled into a jarring confrontation fueled by racist animosity steeped in American culture. Could it have been a grumpy […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF), now being evicted from its building by the Trump Administration, recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. In that same week, the first example of gene editing success in a human was announced, saving the life of an American child from a previously incurable disease. This remarkable feat relied on numerous scientific […]

In the wake of Atmosphere CEO Andy Byron’s Coldplay kiss-cam scandal and resignation, we’re surrounded by dialogues about workplace behavior and accountability. But accountability doesn’t have to be framed as a burden–something we’re held to when we’re tempted to bend or break the rules. In its most powerful form, accountability isn’t imposed on us by a manager, […]

“You don’t scare me, I’m a historian.” There was a time when I not only fully embraced that sentiment, I also helped to popularize among colleagues, generating bumper stickers as giveaways at departmental award ceremonies and retirement events. I even suggested it to the director of the professional association I belong to. They took it […]

For the millions of older Americans who rely on air travel to visit family, see doctors, or simply enjoy retirement, flight delays aren’t just a nuisance, they’re a quality-of-life issue. Yet, behind every canceled or delayed flight is a deeper problem: our air traffic control system is dangerously outdated, and Washington has refused to fix […]

In response to the trillions of dollars in new debt that will result from the Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress, Elon Musk has proposed a new American political party. It is not clear how a new political party will solve the debt crisis, but this appears to be a long shot at best. Senator […]

A few weeks ago, South Sudan briefly entered American headlines. Not because of war, famine, or oil—despite its former status as one of the most resource-rich nations on the continent. The South Sudanese regime—in a bid to win favor with the Trump administration after a deportation standoff prompted a U.S. visa freeze—agreed to accept several […]

Having spent a good part of my career working on national security and rule of law issues for the U.S. military, the federal government and the state of Massachusetts, I am increasingly concerned about President Donald Trump’s failure to require ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell the app as required by Congress […]

The WHO and Bloomberg-funded anti–tobacco harm reduction (THR) campaigns impose Western ideologies that ignore local socioeconomic and cultural realities—echoing a modern form of colonial paternalism. Nowhere is this more apparent than in India, home to one of the world’s largest populations of tobacco users. As a medical professional, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating effects of […]