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The section that asks “what if?” and “why not?”
IDEAS | JUDY KUGEL

Time flies. Wring the most out of every day.

Good choices combined with good luck have propelled me to ripe old age. Here’s what’s worked well for me so far.
IDEAS | JACKIE MANSKY

Mermaidcore is back. It never really went away.

The half-fish, half-woman sea creatures took hold in popular culture in the early 20th century and helped liberate women and girls from swimming costumes fit for drowning.
IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

To alleviate the migrant crisis, ease sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba

Biden could help himself by changing course.
IDEAS | LINDA RODRIGUEZ MCROBBIE

Don’t be rude to chatbots — for your sake, not theirs

Boorishness is a bad mode of being, even if there are no other living creatures around.
IDEAS | JULIA FREELAND FISHER

Caps and gowns but no career prospects for grads without connections

Too many colleges make only perfunctory efforts to help students build professional networks.
IDEAS | SCOTT WEIDENSAUL

An ecological disaster that’s within our grasp to reverse

Shorebirds that migrate through the Northeast are in serious decline. It’s not too late to save them.

may i have a word?

May I have a word: Doo the right thing
All the names (that are fit to print) for dog walkers who leave full poop bags on trails and sidewalks.

May I have a word: We are literally abusing ‘literally’ to death

May I have a word: Melightful distakes and other tips of the slongue

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The Globe Ideas Team

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 | SCOTT WEIDENSAUL

An ecological disaster that’s within our grasp to reverse

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

education

IDEAS | JULIA FREELAND FISHER

Caps and gowns but no career prospects for grads without connections

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

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 | LINDA RODRIGUEZ MCROBBIE

Don’t be rude to chatbots — for your sake, not theirs

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

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.