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The section that asks “what if?” and “why not?”
IDEAS | ULBE BOSMA
The sugar baron of Boston
The little-known story of Edwin F. Atkins, whose Belmont family’s vast cane plantations in 19th- and early 20th-century Cuba created a vast fortune and left a complicated legacy.
IDEAS | TYLER HARPER
I am the wrong kind of Black professor
I’ve staked my career on my interest in the dead white men of 19th-century British letters. I can’t count the times I’ve been told what a waste it is that I’ve done so.
IDEAS
Calling teen writers! Globe Ideas wants to give you a megaphone.
Rather than write about you, we want to hear from you.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG
The most interesting startup in America is in Massachusetts. You’ve probably never heard of it.
VulcanForms eyes a radical transformation of manufacturing.
IDEAS | KEVIN LEWIS
Social Studies: Surviving bias on ‘Survivor’; outrage on Twitter; don’t quit your day job
Surprising findings from the social sciences.
IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER
Don’t rule out a national abortion ban in 2025
Activists think they have a path to stopping abortions nationwide. It runs through the White House, the Supreme Court, and an arcane 19th-century law.
may i have a word?
May I have a word: We are literally abusing ‘literally’ to death
Readers weigh in with new coinages to replace an old word.
May I have a word: Melightful distakes and other tips of the slongue
May I have a word: Talking about one’s own devices
Submit to Globe Ideas
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special projects
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG
How Uphams Corner got wealthier without getting whiter
The scrappy Dorchester neighborhood has fulfilled the community activist’s dream: development without displacement.
Where did all the workers go?
For two years, employers have been desperate for workers — and there’s no indication the labor shortage will soon change. What are we losing — and possibly gaining — as a result?
IDEAS | PETER THOMSON
The radical, forgotten experiment in educational integration that changed my life
In 1971, kids from Roxbury and Lincoln spent half the year attending school together in the city and the other half in the suburb. Fifty years later, I tracked down my fellow students to see how it shaped them — and whether something like it could work today.
Public health
IDEAS | KAREEM KING AND DOMINICK CONTRERAS
More broadband access, better health
IDEAS | JULIA HOTZ
Feeling sick? The lawyer will see you now.
IDEAS | BRIAN MCGUIRE
America broke George Clooney’s ER
democracy under siege
IDEAS | JASON MIKLIAN
Crazy rich autocracies: What are they doing better than democracies?
IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER
As Turkey turns 100, its democratic future still has not arrived
IDEAS | MILES TAYLOR
The midterms and Trump’s return show why we need a third party
politics
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Boston has never elected a Black mayor. A quiet experiment could change that.
IDEAS | TODD WASHBURN
We’re all to blame for the chaos in Congress
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG
An opportunity for Democrats, hiding in plain sight
civil rights
IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER
Don’t rule out a national abortion ban in 2025
IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER
After Roe, the right to travel could be the next to fall
IDEAS | JACKIE MANSKY
On your own this Valentine’s Day? Carly Rae Jepsen would say that’s just fine.
inequality
IDEAS | NICHOLAS DAWIDOFF
What Elena Ferrante knows about the lingering pain of inequality
IDEAS | Katherine S. Newman & Elisabeth S. Jacobs
Low unemployment is the cheapest anti-poverty program
IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD
How the language of social justice is used to protect the status quo
climate crisis
IDEAS | MARTHA LEB MOLNAR
Got weeds? Read this before you whack them.
IDEAS | Alex Trembath and Seaver Wang
For a greener world, cut red tape
IDEAS | GEORGE ROGERS
Lost winter: A season on thin ice is a bad time for poutine
education
IDEAS | KARA MILLER
Public colleges should be truly public again
IDEAS | Régine Michelle Jean-Charles
Opponents of my kids’ math program have their calculus all wrong
IDEAS | STEPHEN ASMA
A way out of the campus free speech wars
development
IDEAS | MILES HOWARD
Evictions are rising again. It’s time to get creative.
IDEAS | ALAN WIRZBICKI
What is the T for, anyway?
IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD
Wu’s stubborn optimism is exactly what this transit crisis needs
history
IDEAS | DAVID CHRISINGER
The WWII newspaper column that dared to illuminate death
IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER
Henry Kissinger at 100: A contradictory legacy of peace and terror
IDEAS | ELIZABETH SVOBODA
When someone close to you has done very bad things
housing
IDEAS | MILES HOWARD
Making too little to get affordable housing — and other problems with trying to stay in Boston
IDEAS | CLAIRE DUNNING
The unintended consequences of Boston’s nonprofit-led urban development
IDEAS | STARRE JULIA VARTAN
Consider the small landlord
technology
IDEAS | SETH MOULTON
AI may pull the trigger in war, but it shouldn’t call the shots
IDEAS | NATHAN DUNNE
I want AI to tell me how the story ends
IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER
We don’t want chatbots to come off as people
essays
IDEAS | JOHN SUMMERS
What my autistic son’s cold cheeseburgers taught me about bureaucracy
IDEAS | TOM JOUDREY
The beauty of ugliness
IDEAS | CLARA YIM BOLDUC
My stepfather was dying. Why wouldn’t his doctors just say so?
more special projects
IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI
How the MBTA went off the rails
Nearly everything about Boston has changed in the past few decades, yet the T has the same big problem — a failure to prioritize the rider experience above all.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.
The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.
Editing the Constitution
The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.
The Future of Work
The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.
The Future of Food
What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before.
Massachusetts Works
We turn the typical model of journalism on its head — instead of focusing on what’s broken, we’re taking a look at what Massachusetts gets right.