Ideas - The Boston Globe

A Democratic nominee for Congress, Joseph Alfonso, knocks on doors around downtown Plainwell, Mich.

‘What the hell are we doing?’: Democrats are letting beatable election-denying Republicans cruise to reelection

A party desperate to protect its narrow majority in Congress is leaving key races in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida virtually uncontested.

IDEAS | SHANTI L. NELSON

Grandma Bertha and the giant wall of pumpernickel

I always told her everything. And then I told her one thing thing too many.

IDEAS | CLAIRE DUNNING

The unintended consequences of Boston’s nonprofit-led urban development

Community-led nonprofits do great work, but where their ability to effect change ends, the city and state must step in.

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

A warning from China’s surveillance state: It could happen here

China is using AI to engineer a society in which most people enjoy ‘convenience, security, and predictability.’ Isn’t Silicon Valley selling something like that?

may i have a word?

May I have a word: The oft-repeated jokes that make us roll our eyes
They were funny once, perhaps. Now, they just land with a thud on our tired ears.

May I have a word: When you’re not exactly lucky, but it could have been a lot worse

May I have a word: Wrong phrases that sound totally right

What would you call a Bullwinkle in tears? A lachrymoose, of course. Pictured, "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle," starring Rocky the flying squirrel and his moose pal.

IDEAS | BARBARA WALLRAFF

May I have a word: Of lexicoins, misnamers, and changelingos

The delightful coinages that result from adding, subtracting, or changing letters in familiar words.

The author, her husband, and their four foster children enter the Edmund D. Edelman Children's Court in Monterey Park, Calif., for their adoption finalization hearing.

IDEAS | GEORGENE SMITH GOODIN

I love my children enough to wish I had never met them

Adoption out of foster care gives kids what they should have had from the start: a loving, stable home. I mourn for the broken family that mine is built on.

Conversations with the experts writing thought provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

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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.

Born broken: The deep history of the TWhat is the T for, anyway?

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.

Soaring housing costs, a broken T, and other existential problems require sweeping fixes that meet the moment.

Explore visionary plans for housing, education, climate, and transit →Bold visions from urban planners, policy experts, and readers →

Editing the Constitution
The Constitution is undergoing massive changes in the Supreme Court. It’s time to put the founding document in the hands of the people.

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.

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