Rome’s Colosseum Was Once a Wild, Tangled Garden
Rare plants and Romantic poetry tell a forgotten history of the ancient ruin.
Broken Windows and Broken Policing
from 8 August 2020 Rudy Giuliani’s ‘zero tolerance’ attitude to community policing was rooted not in right-wing talking points, but in the liberal politics of the Civil Rights era. In…
How the Pandemic Now Ends
Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day—but the way there is different now. But although vaccinated individuals are well protected,…
Democratic Leaders Are Betraying Black Voters
In 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act by deploying a dubious legal doctrine with no textual roots in the Constitution, arguing that…
I’m Not Scared to Reenter Society. I’m Just Not Sure I Want To.
Quarantine has given us all time and solitude to think—a risk for any individual, and a threat to any status quo. People have gotten to have the experience—some of them…
NFTs Weren’t Supposed to End Like This
After a decade of whiplash-inducing changes in valuation, billions of dollars are now invested in cryptocurrencies, and the people who have made those bets can’t cash in their chips anywhere.…
The Quiet Exuberance of Winter
“You have to be at peace with the fact that something might happen, and you might not make it through,” says Alexandra de Steiguer, the caretaker for the Oceanic Hotel,…
The Digital Ruins of a Forgotten Future
Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm.
Harvey Weinstein and the Economics of Consent
The blunt power of the gatekeeper is the ability to enforce not just artistic, but also financial, exile. It’s not these bad men. Or that dirty industry. It’s this inhumane…
Even Jellyfish Sleep
Do jellyfish dream of gelatinous sheep? No one can say.