Four years ago, America was on the cusp of the largest expansion of its welfare state since the 1960s.  Under Joe Biden in 2021, House Democrats passed legislation that would have established a monthly child allowance for most families, an expansion of Medicaid’s elder care services, federal child care subsidies, universal prekindergarten, and a paid […]

The science fiction author Isaac Asimov once came up with a set of laws that we humans should program into our robots. In addition to a first, second, and third law, he also introduced a “zeroth law,” which is so important that it precedes all the others: “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by […]

The first big Christmas gift I remember getting was an animatronic bear named Teddy Ruxpin. Thanks to a cassette tape hidden in his belly, he could talk, his eyes and mouth moving in a famously creepy way. Later that winter, when I was sick with a fever, I hallucinated that the toy came alive and […]

Editor’s note, June 18, 2025, 4:40 pm ET: On June 18, 2025, Karen Read was found not guilty of the second-degree murder of her boyfriend John O’Keefe. She was found guilty of drunk driving. This was her second trial; to read our rundown of what was different at the retrial, click here. The story below […]

Editor’s note, June 18, 2025, 4:15 pm ET: On June 18, Karen Read was found not guilty of second-degree murder, and found guilty of drunk driving in John O’Keefe’s death. The story below was originally published on May 3, 2025. It’s the same courtroom, the same judge, and nearly all of the same players — […]