To many progressives, ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — is synonymous with President Donald Trump’s brutal and cruel immigration regime. But to hardliners in the Trump administration bent on carrying out mass deportation, ICE has actually been something of a disappointment.  So they’re increasingly turning to another agency that they view as willing to […]

On Saturday, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — also known as food stamps — will run out for more than 40 million Americans. Those millions of Americans are collateral damage from what is thus far the second-longest government shutdown in US history.  But even as the looming deadline has underscored the very real impact […]

Among the many humiliations of being American in the current moment is this: Members of the tech right and the conservative ruling class continually fetishize objects of nerd culture while also displaying a willful inability to grasp the very basic messages those objects are sending. While there are certainly worse problems (e.g. white nationalism in […]

They’re growing miniature 3D brains from stem cells. These aren’t your fictional mad scientists’ brains in a vat; they’re organoids, and they grow in petri dishes. They’re also incredibly cool.  We can, should, and will use cerebral organoids to discover new medical treatments, study brain development, reduce the demand for animal testing, and even power […]

It’s getting harder to find a job and easier to lose one.  Employers are hiring workers at a steadily lower rate while laying them off at a rising one, according to data from the Chicago Federal Reserve. The unemployment rate has been ticking up, and job growth has been slowing.  This said, our picture of […]