For many years, Donald Trump has viewed unpredictability as one of his greatest negotiating assets. He believes deliberately acting “crazy,” as he reportedly told aides in 2017, is a highly effective way to win concessions in advance of a deal. As I’ve written, this is akin to what President Richard Nixon dubbed the “madman theory” […]

Pollen allergy season is getting longer and more intense as the climate changes, creating more misery for allergy sufferers. But it’s not the only type of allergy threat getting worse with warming.  There are other allergens, like mold spores, whose spread coincides with higher temperatures and weather disruption. But one of the most insidious and […]

A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here! We live in a consumerist society. But at least speaking for my own social circles, we also live in an anti-consumerist society: We purchase lots of things, and we also feel vaguely guilty about it and brag about all of the ways we […]

By the time Remi Bader, who built her career as a plus-size influencer with over 2 million followers on TikTok, went on Khloé Kardashian’s podcast to address her smaller body, it had been subject to nearly a year and a half of speculation.  Fans were certain Bader had betrayed them, but exactly how and in […]

When you think about animal cruelty, you might think of chained-up dogs left to suffer in the cold, stray cats struggling to survive on the streets, or depressed polar bears at the zoo. As terrible as many cats, dogs, and zoo animals have it, the animals that are both the most numerous and that have […]