“Just think back to where this nation was a year ago,” an ebullient Joe Biden said on July 4, as he gave remarks billed as a celebration of U.S. independence—and independence from COVID-19. “Think back to where you were a year ago. And think about ho

Works that illuminate the intricacies of how we form communities and relate to one another: Your weekly guide to the best in books

Government has done what it can. Now we need to use the power of free markets to fight the pandemic.

One big reason HIV/AIDS remains a deadly crisis despite the existence of lifesaving drugs is stigma: Fear of shame and ostracization discourages people from accessing testing, preventive measures, and treatment. In other words, a factor causing needl

Lofty prodemocracy rhetoric is back, but the Biden administration isn’t doing enough to thwart a coup in Tunisia.

To reach vaccine conspiracists and other skeptics, focus on what they care about most: freedom without repercussions.

When Edmund Schechter, a Viennese Jew who fled the Nazis, arrived in postwar Germany in 1945, he encountered a “wasteland”—not just physically, he said, but “psychologically.” All newspapers had ceased publication. Radio stations were destroyed and d

In 2019, Steven Spielberg called for a ban on Oscar eligibility for streaming films, claiming that “movie theaters need to be around forever” and that audiences had to be given “the motion picture theatrical experience” for a movie to be a movie. Spi

Simon Biles’s withdrawal from the Olympics reminds us that there are humans behind unfathomable athletic feats.

The act of migration involves taking risks in pursuit of a meaningful reward and having faith in the future. Everyone should try to live more like that.

The problem, as the Biden administration tech-policy adviser Tim Wu might say, is the bigness. This month, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to attempt to undo some 40 years of growth-at-all-costs economic policy, targeting various kinds

A new graphic novel argues that even though social isolation is extremely common, it is too easily maligned.

A few days ago I heard from a former student of mine, whom I will refer to as Scott. He began by assuring me that he, his wife, and their three children were all well, and filled me in on his career since a period of extended service in Afghanistan a

States make millions off phone-call fees from incarcerated people, but the cost can be even higher for their families.

A newly discovered disk of cosmic dust around a faraway exoplanet could one day become something more.

In the time I spent with Mike Lindell, I came to learn that he is affable, devout, philanthropic—and a clear threat to the nation.

The promise of success can propel us forward, but it comes with pitfalls that can undermine the satisfaction of actually succeeding.

Simone Biles was expected to be the story of the Tokyo Olympics because of her long series of jaw-dropping performances up to now. Instead, she’s become the story of these Olympics because she’s not performing. Citing her mental health, Biles removed

Beijing’s confrontation with Australia should have been an unequal contest. That’s not how it worked out in practice.

Businesses such as Nike and Oracle are happy to let you work from home—just not in Colorado.

The late civil-rights leader understood that grassroots organizing was key to delivering political power to Black Americans in the South.

Every striver who ever slipped the rank of their birth to ascend to a higher order has shared the capacity to ingratiate themselves with their betters. What the truly exceptional ones have in common is the ability to connect not only with their super

As a mom who had just escaped the two-under-2 phase, I felt like my long-overdue trip to the dentist was a vacation: I was child-free, my feet were up, and I almost fell blissfully asleep as I waited for the perfect report I had received from every d

The Trump administration desperately wanted to cut government benefits, and it had outside help to do so. But very few of its new rules held up.

The “time tax,” one of our writers argues, is a scourge, and the government needs to take responsibility for it.

David Lowery’s film starring Dev Patel is a dreamy piece of high fantasy that turns an age-old tale into something to be puzzled over anew.

If America wants to fight climate change—or enjoy the benefits of a modern economy—it must get much better at building electricity transmission. Yikes.

Amid widespread misinformation and antivaccine propaganda, pro football needed to put more pressure on players.