Interview Shannon Lee Dawdy on American Afterlives October 25, 2021 Death in the United States is undergoing a quiet revolution. You can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved, or tanned. Read More
Essay Poverty, pandemic, and peace of mind October 14, 2021 When COVID-19 spread around the world, I was living in the south of France, but my mind was in the U.S. south. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: Very Important People October 04, 2021 Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on the French Riviera, and $40,000 bottles of champagne. In today’s New Gilded Age, the world’s moneyed classes have taken conspicuous consumption to new extremes. Read More
Essay A look inside Very Important People July 28, 2021 A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of “models and bottles” to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: Uneasy Street July 01, 2021 This month’s Book Club Pick is Uneasy Street by Rachel Sherman. This is an excellent non-fiction summer book club selection for readers who are curious about the lives of the 1%. Read More
Podcast Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable June 20, 2021 Why is the term “openly gay” so widely used but “openly straight” is not? What are the unspoken assumptions behind terms like “male nurse,” “working mom,” and “white trash”? Read More
Podcast Listen in: Hate in the Homeland June 16, 2021 Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right by Cynthia Miller-Idriss reveals the unexpected places where violent hate groups recruit young people. Listen to a chapter from the audiobook. Read More
Video How the giving habits of the super‑rich affect the rest of us May 16, 2021 It’s the time of year when our personal finances come to the forefront, but not many Americans are aware that the spending and giving habits of the super-rich are having a direct impact on public provision and policy. Read More
Essay Mothers, by default May 07, 2021 A few weeks ago, I sat down with a mom I’ll call Erica to talk about how she and her family have navigated the challenges of this past pandemic year. Read More
Essay ‘You try not to eat’: What joblessness means for low‑paid women in Pennsylvania May 04, 2021 Losing your job is difficult for anyone, but for working-class women without savings it is even harder. Sarah Damaske talked to women in low-wage jobs in Pennsylvania who struggled to afford to feed their families or pay for childcare so they could look for work. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: Making Motherhood Work May 01, 2021 This month’s Book Club Pick is Making Motherhood Work: How Women Manage Careers and Caregiving by Caitlyn Collins. I can’t think of a more relevant or timely selection for today’s working parents—especially after the challenges that we’ve faced in the last year. Read More
Essay Fracking, freedom, and the tragedy of the commons April 21, 2021 Whenever Earth Day rolls around, I think about Cindy Bower, one of the most dedicated environmentalists I know. When I first met her, in 2013, the silver-haired sexagenarian reminisced about carrying signs for the first Earth Day, many Aprils ago, in 1970. Read More
Podcast Can we fix social media? April 16, 2021 We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Read More
Interview Chris Bail on Breaking the Social Media Prism April 14, 2021 In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. Read More
Video Breaking the Social Media Prism April 01, 2021 Breaking the Social Media Prism is a revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online—and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social media. Read More
