Ideas - The Boston Globe

IDEAS | KATHY FLANN

Download the Pre-pology™ app today

Apologize in advance like you mean it. (Unless this is a bad time.)

IDEAS | GEORGE ROGERS

As my students watch animals online, I witness a kind of extinction

Lately I’ve been pondering what we lose when the high jinks of wild creatures, packaged for algorithms, replace a connection to nature itself.

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Harvard Square was never what it used to be

A new book ponders why we fall in love with commercial centers — and why we ache so much when they change.

A growing number of scientists, investors, and bioethicists believe we can and should engineer longer and healthier lives.

IDEAS | RAIANY ROMANNI

Want to live to 150? The world needs more humans.

Aging may not be inevitable — and believe it or not, we have an underpopulation problem to solve.

The author's son, Henry Zurkow, in Boulder, Colo., in May 2022.

IDEAS | PETER ZURKOW

I wrote this to save a life

A drug containing a lethal dose of fentanyl, bought off Craigslist, killed our son. Had I known then what I do now about the ubiquity of the most powerful, non-natural opioid ever synthesized, maybe Henry would still be alive today.

An analysis of State of the Union addresses, such as Barack Obama's in 2016, finds that most rhetoric about adversarial countries consists entirely of "unitary references."

IDEAS | KEVIN LEWIS

Social Studies: Love for joint checking accounts; the power of labels; agitation by association

Surprising findings from the social sciences.

may i have a word?

May I have a word: These mangled metaphors really break the cake
Phrases that are so close to being right — and yet so far.

May I have a word: Parody-worthy job titles

May I have a word: Old saws get new teeth

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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?

Sidetrack students find a piece of machinery in an abandoned building on the Boston waterfront while exploring the city.

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.

The author's son, Henry Zurkow, in Boulder, Colo., in May 2022.

IDEAS | PETER ZURKOW

I wrote this to save a life

IDEAS | Emily Silverman and Jay Baruch

The pipeline of ER doctors is drying up

IDEAS | ELOISE DAVENPORT

My fitness trackers took me hostage

democracy under siege

The Central Business District and the Chinatown in Singapore, which has an autocratic government and is known for its cleanliness and low rates of crime.

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

Andrea Campbell during her run for mayor.

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

"The more we understand the history of loneliness, the more we can start to see it as a force like any other — one that can push us toward introspection and action and community."

IDEAS | JACKIE MANSKY

On your own this Valentine’s Day? Carly Rae Jepsen would say that’s just fine.

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

As its 50th anniversary looms, Roe v. Wade still matters

IDEAS | MARIAH G. SCHUG

The price of prejudice: States that ban same-sex marriage leave millions on the table

IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

How the language of social justice is used to protect the status quo

IDEAS | MILES HOWARD

Open Mass. beaches to everyone — with buses

IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

A recession, if we choose

climate crisis

"You can’t love poutine in the summer or in the south. It’s calorie-dense survival food for the darkest days of winter, those subzero stretches that make us dream of fat and salt and warmth."

IDEAS | GEORGE ROGERS

Lost winter: A season on thin ice is a bad time for poutine

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Costa Rica’s new president may test the commitment to eco-consciousness

IDEAS | VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

For one afternoon, lab-grown meat was the talk of the town

education

A student in the Calculus Project at Brookline High School wrote in his notebook in 2015.

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

IDEAS | WILLIAM DEVINE

The business of college sports deserves to collapse

A law enforcement officer placed an eviction notice in the doorway of an apartment in Springfield in 2020.

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

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters on March 8 that he wants to introduce legislation to combat Mexican cartels and gangs. "We are going to unleash the fury and might of the US against these cartels," he said.

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Republicans would be wise to drop the talk of bombing Mexico

IDEAS | CRAIG FEHRMAN

The quietly radical genius of Phillis Wheatley

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

The incalculable moral cost of proxy wars

An unidentified woman, center, wears a "we shall not be moved" pin at a sit-in at the Boston Redevelopment Authority in April 1968.

IDEAS | CLAIRE DUNNING

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

IDEAS | STARRE JULIA VARTAN

Consider the small landlord

IDEAS | NOAH Y. KIM

Housing will test white support for Black lives

technology

IDEAS | BENJAMIN MAZER

The AI doctor will charge you now

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

What if companies could read your mind? Neurotechnology is coming, and your cognitive liberty is at stake.

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

How to make online life more pleasant

"The single biggest change that I’ve seen in my 22 years of teaching science is that most kids don’t spend time outside like they used to."

IDEAS | GEORGE ROGERS

As my students watch animals online, I witness a kind of extinction

IDEAS | LIZ BROWN

The coloring contest that changed my father’s life, and didn’t

IDEAS | RAIANY ROMANNI

Want to live to 150? The world needs more humans.

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.