Reading List

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

Why your energy bill is suddenly so much more expensive

Americans are paying more for electricity, and those prices are set to rise even further. In almost all parts of the country, the amount people pay for electricity on their power bills — the retail price — has risen faster than the rate of inflation since 2022, and that will likely continue through 2026, according […]

The modern taboo that Americans just can’t seem to break

When Alana Romero was a child, they’d leave their bed in the middle of the night, sneak through her family’s darkened home in South Florida, and slip into her sisters’ bedrooms. But they didn’t want to play, gossip, or otherwise annoy her siblings — she wanted to make sure they hadn’t died in their sleep.  […]

How the Jeffrey Epstein scandal became the mother of all conspiracy theories

The political world’s frenzy over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has essentially blotted out the sun. That’s even though Epstein has been dead for nearly six years, and the scandal around him has no apparent import to American public policy. So why is the obsession over it so intense? The known facts around Epstein are genuinely […]

Should we feel weird about the Coldplay cheating drama?

What does it mean to be a private individual in public? Are we all just characters waiting to go viral?  These questions have resurfaced following the instantly infamous Jumbotron incident that occurred during a Coldplay concert last week. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, who’s married, and the company’s head of human resources, Kristin Cabot, were caught […]

What the heck is “corn sweat” and is it making the Midwest more dangerous?

Ah, yes, late July in the Midwest: a time for popsicles by the lake, a trip to the county fair, and, of course, extreme humidity made more miserable by…corn sweat. Corn sweat. It’s a thing! The term refers to the moisture released by fields of corn during hot and sunny weather. Like all other plants, corn […]