Reading List

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

For the first time, more kids are obese than underweight

Something striking just happened in global nutrition: As of 2025, children worldwide are now more likely to be obese than underweight. According to UNICEF’s new Child Nutrition Report, about 9.4 percent of school-age kids (ages 5–19) are living with obesity, compared to 9.2 percent who are underweight. Twenty-five years ago, the gap was much wider: […]

A self-driving car traffic jam is coming for US cities

A century ago, a deluge of automobiles swept across the United States, upending city life in its wake. Pedestrian deaths surged. Streetcars, unable to navigate the choking traffic, collapsed. Car owners infuriated residents with their klaxons’ ear-splitting awooogah!  Scrambling to accommodate the swarm of motor vehicles, local officials paved over green space, whittled down sidewalks […]

Obsessing about being a good person can backfire. There’s a better way.

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 […]

Is this the “sickest generation” in American history? Not even close.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the fractious debate over American health policy, you’ve probably heard this phrase: “the sickest generation in American history.” The words can be found in the third sentence of a major report released in May by a presidential commission led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy […]

How Charlie Kirk remade Gen Z

In the hours and days after Charlie Kirk’s killing, the breadth of people — particularly younger ones — sharing grief and shock on newsfeeds, Instagram stories, or TikTok livestreams might have been surprising. They were not just avowed conservatives or loyal Trump voters, but seemingly apolitical people: old classmates or hometown friends who never posted […]