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“Social Security reform” is one of those soundbites you might hear every election cycle without anything ever changing. Politicians have been sounding the alarm for decades, saying that the program — which helps retirees, people with disabilities, and their families stay afloat — is quickly running out of money. So what’s actually at stake? Social […]

When you think of what makes us human, would you say it’s our powers of prediction? I probably wouldn’t have, at least not until my conversation with Mark Miller, a philosopher of cognition and research fellow at both the University of Toronto and Monash University in Melbourne. He studies how new ideas about the mind […]

On the afternoon of October 10, author and influencer Caroline Calloway texted me “I lived bitch.” She posted a screenshot of the same proof-of-life selfie and message on her Instagram story that morning after Hurricane Milton made landfall.  We’d spoken one day earlier about Calloway’s decision not to evacuate for the monster of a storm, […]

Even when a life-threatening hurricane is headed your way, there are many reasons why you might stay put. You might have dependent family members who can’t leave due to disabilities or other health-related reasons; you might not have reliable transportation to get to a safer area, and what’s more, no gas to get there. Sometimes, […]

AI companies are on a mission to radically change our world. They’re working on building machines that could outstrip human intelligence and unleash a dramatic economic transformation on us all.  Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, has basically told us he’s trying to build a god — or “magic intelligence in the sky,” as he […]

There’s an old saying that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” It’s intended as a dig at music criticism, but beneath that, there’s a deeper truth: Music is intangible, subjective; it’s universal yet still deeply personal. And while science and math are involved in its creation, there is something undeniably mystical about it.  […]

Hurricanes Milton and Helene have absolutely devastated large swaths of the United States. But residents who are cleaning out waterlogged homes and businesses have another challenge to their recovery, one that hasn’t let up — viral disinformation.  There’s the rumor that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is limiting payouts to disaster survivors to $750. […]

Editor’s note, October 10, 4:10 pm: On October 10, 2024, Netflix announced that John Mulaney would be hosting a live weekly talk show for the streamer starting in early 2025. John Mulaney’s new, just-concluded Netflix comedy limited series, Everybody’s in LA, felt experimental in a number of ways. It’s not only Netflix trying out an […]

Ahead of Hurricane Milton’s destructive landfall on Wednesday evening, millions of residents chose to leave. For roughly 1,200 inmates in the Manatee County Jail, which is located in a major evacuation zone near Sarasota, Florida, that wasn’t an option. Local authorities decided not to evacuate the prisoners so they rode out the storm — which […]

Most people know Sonoma County, the Northern California region sometimes called America’s Provence, for its lush vineyards, Mediterranean-style villas, and farm-to-table restaurants. But when I traveled to wine country last year, it was to observe a side of Sonoma that few outsiders know about: a dead-of-night animal rights protest at an industrial chicken slaughterhouse, located […]

After churning across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, Milton made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, around 8:30 pm Wednesday as a powerful Category 3 hurricane with up to 120 mile-per-hour winds. The storm — and the many tornadoes it spawned — tore the roofs off of homes and a major […]

At first, I thought I was allergic to my shampoo. I’d switched to a new brand recently, and while my hair looked amazing, I’d developed an itchy ring around the perimeter of my skull, like someone had put a poison crown on me. When the itch became so distracting I couldn’t work, I reluctantly switched […]

What is the relationship between creativity and intelligence?  That’s a fundamental, perhaps unanswerable, question. Is it also an obsolete one? The question today seems to be: What is the relationship between creativity and artificial intelligence? We tend to think of artistic creativity as a uniquely human endeavor, but what if it can be much more? […]

It seems as though the country has been engaged in one long screaming match since 2016. Go on YouTube or scroll through X and that feeling gets a face. Videos claiming that someone “silenced” or “destroyed” another party in a discussion about politics abound on social media. There are now nearly unavoidable clips of conservative […]

Around 15 years ago, a new campaign took off across the young social media ecosystem.  People with learning disabilities and intellectual disorders were asking everyone else to stop using the r-word to describe them or even to make jokes. No more, “Bro, that movie’s so dumb, it’s [r-word],” no more, “Don’t be stupid, why are […]

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day, and in many ways, it seems like the world has made great strides in mental health care. In 2023 alone, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) poured $1.25 billion into research studying how mental illness manifests in the brain. People are prescribed more psychiatric drugs now than ever, […]

The latest health check on wildlife is in, and it’s not pretty. A new report by two of the world’s leading environmental groups reveals that the average size of wildlife populations worldwide has shrunk dramatically, by what the report calls a “catastrophic” 73 percent in the last 50 years.  The Living Planet Report, published by […]

The term “climate haven” never made much sense. After Hurricane Helene dumped two feet of rain on western North Carolina, many major media outlets marveled at how Asheville, which had been celebrated as a climate haven, had been devastated by a climate-related disaster.  Some in the media later reported accurately that climate havens don’t actually […]

Glossip v. Oklahoma is currently before the Supreme Court — and it is one of the most muddled death penalty cases the Court has faced in a while. Exactly how the justices untangle it will decide whether a man lives or dies. Richard Glossip is on death row after being convicted of an Oklahoma murder […]

Just weeks ago, Hurricane Helene devastated multiple states in the southeastern US. Over 230 people were killed because of the storm, and that number is likely to go up as the search for missing people continues. Entire homes, streets, and towns across the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida have been torn apart. Plans for rebuilding are […]

Insured losses from natural disasters around the world in the first half of the year have already topped $60 billion, 54 percent higher than the 10-year average. Three-quarters of insured losses were due to severe thunderstorms, flooding, and forest fires. More recent calamities like Hurricane Helene will push the toll this year much higher. Damage […]

Reader Andrew Perrin writes: While I realize political campaigns need money, the only messages I seem to get from political campaigns are pleas for money, especially when they’re trying to hit “end of month deadlines” — which I have no idea why that’s important. I’d much rather receive texts or emails about policy ideas, what […]

Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship with each other, and how those relationships inform one another. Jackie Pilossoph is 59 and lives in the suburbs of Chicago. Her business, Divorced Girl Smiling, is a media company that connects people facing divorce with trusted, vetted […]

Much to the chagrin of dating app users everywhere, there is no exact science behind meeting someone and falling in love with them. But what about those who have found someone they want to spend the rest of their lives with? Is there a way to know if it will last? Despite the hand-wringing about […]