Reading List

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

The Democrats are about to make a trillion-dollar mistake

A bold new idea is taking the Democrats by storm: massive middle-class tax cuts.  Last week, two of the party’s rumored 2028 candidates — Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Cory Booker — unveiled plans to fully exempt tens of millions of Americans from federal income taxes. Under Van Hollen’s policy, individuals who earn less than […]

This war is putting Iranians in an impossible moral dilemma

There is a photograph on Instagram of a girl who shares almost my exact name — Roya Rastegar. She is 33 years old. She is from Isfahan, my grandfather’s city. Security forces raided her home in January and arrested her. No one has heard from her since.  Every morning, I wake up too early and […]

AI is moving fast. Should you ditch the job you love?

Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a unique framework for thinking through your moral dilemmas. It’s based on value pluralism — the idea that each of us has multiple values that are equally valid but that often conflict with each other. To submit a question, fill out this anonymous form. Here’s this week’s question from a […]

What would you do alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine?

Imagine you’re alone in a room. No phone. No windows. No way out. There’s only one thing in there with you: a giant pile of cocaine. Maybe you’ve never touched drugs in your life. Maybe you think people who use drugs are bad or morally suspect. But you’re trapped in that room, for an unknown […]

The man behind the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger

Hollywood has been reeling from the production exodus from California, the pandemic, the writers’ and actors’ strikes, the LA wildfires, and the AI takeover. Now comes the big consolidation. David Ellison, head of Skydance Media and son of tech mogul Larry Ellison, has been on a shopping spree, first buying up Paramount and now beating […]