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Don’t Look Back

Globe Op-Talks

Postcards from the pandemic

The past year has shattered expectations of what workdays look like. Parenting while Zooming. An uncrowded T. Wary interactions with customers. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

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IDEAS | COMPILED BY REBECCA M. KNIGHT

New clothes, new hours, and other expert advice

IDEAS | JEFF HOWE

Telecommuting will make Boston share the wealth

IDEAS | Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Is parenting during the workday here to stay?

Latest

Boston Latin Academy.
EDITORIAL

Boston’s interim exam-school admission plan deserves a shot

H.D.S. Greenway

Afghanistan and Vietnam: How did the US lose two wars?

In the end, our clients could never shake the impression that they were puppets fighting for foreigners.
Kimberly Atkins

I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The pause makes me believe in it more.

The worst thing that could happen now is for the recommendation by the FDA and CDC to pause the vaccine’s administration to spur a new wave of vaccine hesitancy.
Joan Vennochi

‘Your dad was a hero’ — the clashing views about American police

More than relying on one jury to change the world of policing, it might be better to change how we think about police.

editor's picks

Joseph Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto

Boston: The Silicon Valley of longevity?

IDEAS | ANNIE MURPHY PAUL

A smarter way of thinking about intelligence

IDEAS | NOAH Y. KIM

Housing will test white support for Black lives

The outbuildings of the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana.
IDEAS | TIYA MILES

What should we do with plantations?

public health
Licensed vocational nurse Denise Saldan prepares the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles, California on March 25.
Kimberly Atkins

I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The pause makes me believe in it more.

LETTERS

In pushing old-style approach for a new soldiers’ home, Mass. abandons key blueprint for care

Leonard L. Glass, Edwin B. Fisher, and Lance Dodes

Why did Yale dismiss Bandy X. Lee?

climate crisis
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Bruce Springsteen, Marie Kondo, and the power of subtraction

IDEAS | Julia Wallerce and Ari Ofsevit

Let’s board buses on both sides now

LETTERS

Renewable energy and renewed opportunity for fossil fuel workers go hand in hand

education
Boston Latin Academy.
EDITORIAL

Boston’s interim exam-school admission plan deserves a shot

LETTERS

What determines ‘fairness’ in vocational school admissions?

JEFF JACOBY

The problem with Holocaust education

Cartoons

securing democracy
A voter submits a ballot in an official drop box during early voting in Athens, Ga., Oct. 19, 2020. A new Georgia law, among other constraints on voting, restricts the availability of drop boxes for absentee ballots.
EDITORIAL

MLB, corporate leaders wake up to assault on voting rights

IDEAS | TOM JOUDREY

Stanley Kowalski’s populist rage was a prescient warning

Kimberly Atkins

Civil suits could be the path to holding Trump accountable for the insurrection

technology
Damon Krukowski and Joyce Linehan

Spotify and the recording artist

IDEAS | GABRIEL NICHOLAS

Be wary when Big Tech says it’s defending your privacy

LETTERS

Vaccine passports should not usher the way to even more social stratification

civil rights
A police officer from Prince George's County, Maryland, awaits a procession for Capitol Police Officer William Evans on April 13 in Washington, D.C. A ceremony honoring Evans was held in the rotunda of the US Capitol after he was killed in the line of duty when a car drove into security barriers on April 2.
Joan Vennochi

‘Your dad was a hero’ — the clashing views about American police

LETTERS

An ‘accident’ in Minnesota

LETTERS

Emphatic ‘no’ to heels

Community Voices
Magistrate Elliot Brady in Wilmington, N.C.
IDEAS | Elliot Brady

My job is to see beauty in ugly situations

IDEAS | RALPH CHURCHILL

What I overcame to work during the pandemic

IDEAS | Marlyn DuMont

I want my Blue Line car to be busy again

Globe Opinion Columnists & Contributors

Editorials

Boston Latin Academy.
Boston’s interim exam-school admission plan deserves a shot
Reform to the elite schools’ admissions system has been long overdue.

Ending the code of silence for Boston police

The case of Patrick Rose should be a never-again moment for BPD. Officers of the law must be held accountable for breaking it.

Fixing the chasm that claimed the life of David Almond

The Office of the Child Advocate points to much needed reforms in dealing with the state’s vulnerable children.

Boston’s hospitals should put patient trust first

The city’s health care goliaths should bar presidents and CEOs from serving on the boards of drug and health care companies.

States must take up the gun-safety fight

There is a greater prospect for progress in state capitals than in Washington, D.C.

Letters

Clemency is an issue of social justice and economics
These mechanisms exist to help people who have paid their dues move forward and create a better life for themselves.

N.Y. is right, Governor Baker — bring on the vaccine passport

Baker’s reluctance to use that information to facilitate safe expansion of the state’s economy seems shortsighted.

Whatever the outcome in Chauvin trial, justice will have been served

I cannot fathom an acquittal. Still, that is not my choice to make.

In pushing old-style approach for a new soldiers’ home, Mass. abandons key blueprint for care

Instead of building a monument to our past failed efforts at institutionalization, the Commonwealth should develop and operate supportive living options and related services.

A new definition of ‘chutzpah’

It used to be said that the defining case of “chutzpah” was the man who murdered his parents and pleaded for clemency on the grounds that he was an orphan. This definition may now be updated, as I have just read the statement of Patricia Stewart, director of the so-called “Citizens for Life."
Conversations with the experts writing thought-provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

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Brave New Planet is a podcast the delves deep into the most exciting and challenging scientific frontiers, helping us understand them and grapple with their implications. Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is host.
Watching the 2020 DNC felt like watching an infomercial for a product that was not made for me, but that I’m being told to buy anyway.
Political coverage often focuses on voters who oscillate between political parties in a few key swing states. Here we feature perspectives and opinions from and about demographics of Americans — young voters and Black and brown voters —who swing between voting and not voting.
Voters observed social distancing guidelines as they waited in line to cast ballots in the Wisconsin presidential primary election, in Milwaukee in April.
From voter suppression to gerrymandering to foreign interference, the integrity of US elections is under attack. In a three-part weekly series, Globe Opinion examines how the nation arrived at this moment and what needs to be done to protect voting rights.

Trapped: Why the GOP's death is imminent

The Republican Party is destroying itself. Thomas Patterson of the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center explains the five traps the party has set for itself and warns that the party's future is in peril without reform.

Black voices now

Globe Opinion seeks to amplify the perspectives and the voices of Black community members, scholars, activists, doctors, teachers, business leaders, students, and parents as op-ed and letter writers, and as innovators and provocateurs featured in Globe Ideas. Here we feature Black voices from the community amid the historic protests following the killing of George Floyd. We aim to amplify yet more Black voices going forward.

Legal Lens documentaries

Law and documentary film may seem far apart, but they actually share many connections. With the guidance of filmmaker and producer Joseph Tovares and support from the Hewlett Foundation, 12 Harvard Law School students from eight countries have worked since January on the Legal Lens project. You can view the films here on BostonGlobe.com.

Choosing, using, and losing your health care: A policy first-aid kit

In a four-part weekly series, Globe Opinion offers a baseline assessment of health care as well as prescriptions for fixing the industry.

Journalists are not the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.”
National Student Essay Competition winners announced