Reading List

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

The US-Iran ceasefire is breaking down

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The US-Iran “ceasefire,” such as it is, is breaking down. What’s happening? After Iran downed a US helicopter earlier this week, violence between the two […]

The next victim of the Supreme Court’s voting rights decision will be workers

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice released an opinion on Tuesday that, in the likely event it is embraced by a Republican-controlled federal judiciary, would make it significantly harder for plaintiffs who face employment discrimination to prevail in court. The opinion was released by the Office of Legal Counsel, an institution that interprets federal law […]

Will Trump ruin America’s birthday?

President Donald Trump has big plans for America’s 250th birthday celebration, which gets underway this month. Some are anodyne: a state fair on the National Mall, for example, and what will reportedly be a record-breaking fireworks display.  Others, though, are focused a little bit more on Trump than America: There will also be a UFC […]

Everyone’s a girl’s girl on TV. Until they’re not.

Once upon a time, women were asked if they had danced with the devil and howled at the moon. Now, a more important question is being asked: Is she a girl’s girl?  Is Amanda Batula of Bravo’s Summer House a girl’s girl? How about Tituba? Anne Boleyn? Do you think Athena, goddess of wisdom and […]

Designer babies. Self-improving AI. Are we ready for either?

How do we know when the world has changed? On June 1, a team of scientists published a preprint scientific paper claiming they had edited human embryonic DNA with more precision than any previous attempt. As a technical achievement, the work is undoubtedly impressive, largely avoiding the errors that had accompanied earlier efforts to gene […]