Reading List

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

The looming showdown over IVF, explained

President Donald Trump says he wants Americans to have more babies, and his administration is willing to try almost anything, from cash bonuses to transportation grants.  However, there is one method for conceiving children that thousands of people use every year, but that has divided the Trump White House and the larger MAGA coalition: in […]

The revealing pointlessness of Trump’s primetime speech

When a president gives a primetime televised speech, it is typically about something of serious import: to make the case for a major new policy or to announce the beginning of a war. President Donald Trump’s speech on Wednesday night had no grave significance. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much of a point […]

Trump is breaking apart a scientific crown jewel

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: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle a critically important climate research center in Colorado. What’s happening? US Office of Management and Budget Director Russ […]

The low, low cost of ending extreme poverty

When it comes to fixing the world’s worst problems, it’s easy to pretend that we’re helpless. We tell ourselves that global poverty is just too big, too distant, and too intractable an issue for us to solve. If the world could afford to solve it, or something like hunger, then surely somebody else would have […]

The 2,000-year-old debate that reveals AI’s biggest problem

Almost 2,000 years before ChatGPT was invented, two men had a debate that can teach us a lot about AI’s future. Their names were Eliezer and Yoshua.  No, I’m not talking about Eliezer Yudkowsky, who recently published a bestselling book claiming that AI is going to kill everyone, or Yoshua Bengio, the “godfather of AI” […]