Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Trump’s gas prices problem

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump’s war with Iran has pushed US gas prices to their highest point in more than three years.  What happened? On Tuesday, the […]

If these whales go extinct, we’ll know who to blame

In the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico lives one of the world’s rarest and most elusive marine mammals: Rice’s whale. There are just 51 of them left, according to the most recent scientific estimates, meaning they are quite literally on the knife’s edge of extinction. That’s why, in 2019, the federal government — then […]

Why an 8-1 Supreme Court just ruled in favor of anti-LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy”

There was never much doubt how this Supreme Court would decide Chiles v. Salazar, a lawsuit challenging a Colorado law that bars licensed therapists from providing “conversion therapy,” or counseling that seeks to convert LGBTQ+ patients into straight and cisgender people. This Court, which has a 6-3 Republican majority, typically rules in favor of religious […]

Why some American accents have endured — while others have faded away

On Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in podcast, we hear a lot of stories from listeners. Recently, we asked people to tell us about their accents: what they love about them, things they’ve noticed. The response was huge; we got the most responses we’ve ever gotten.  This was not a surprise to Valerie Fridland. […]

The crisis in American air travel

I’m scheduled to take my 1-year-old on a three-hour flight just over a week from now. Probably a headache, under normal circumstances, but a bona fide nightmare amid the recent airport bedlam. I was thus relieved — overjoyed, really — to learn that the security line chaos is easing at many airports. But that doesn’t […]