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The section that asks “what if?” and “why not?”
IDEAS | KEVIN LEWIS

Social Studies: The healthy descendants of farmers; what Tinder didn’t change; how oil boosts religion

Surprising findings from the social sciences.
IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

There’s no shame in being a Luddite

Brian Merchant aims to rebrand a term that unfairly implies cluelessness about technology.

Tell us: What do you think it means to be a teenager today?

In order to better understand the challenges and experiences of Gen Z, Globe Ideas invited anyone between the ages of 13 and 19 to send in a dispatch from their lives. Now, we want to hear from you.
IDEAS | CRAIG FEHRMAN

Girls gone wild — Harriet Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and the freedoms they found outdoors

Harvard historian Tiya Miles on how some of American history’s most remarkable young women forged their truest selves beyond the confines of home.

Whatever happened to bedtime?

I spent my high school years running on fumes, and I wasn’t alone. Teenage sleep debt is a public health crisis.

To my loving parents: Your expectations are crushing me

For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled to live up to the vision of my life as my mother and father see it. I’m finally starting to realize that what I want matters, too.

may i have a word?

May I have a word: Last rites for last bites
A term to capture sadness over fleeting summer produce.

May I have a word: When critters have first dibs in the garden

May I have a word: Signs of our times

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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 | AMIRA SKEGGS

Rethinking our lonely heroes

IDEAS | KAT MCGOWAN

When love is deeper than blood: New recognition for families of choice

IDEAS | CATHERINE PALMER

Menopause is something employers should have to sweat, too

democracy under siege
IDEAS | Hollie Russon Gilman and Amy Eisenstein

It’s like jury duty, but for getting things done

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Journalism is being killed in Central America

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Polarization will put Spain’s young democracy to the test

politics
IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

Liberals need a clearer foreign policy

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

The political earthquake in Guatemala

IDEAS | SHANNON A. MULLEN

Reclaiming our agency

civil rights

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

Another brick in the wall blocking abortion access

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

Women’s stories may change the abortion narrative

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

The latest antiabortion tactic: Silencing doctors

inequality
IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

Probation is supposed to be an alternative to prison. It might be a trapdoor instead.

IDEAS | KARA MILLER

Marriage is increasingly for the upper classes. That’s not a good sign.

IDEAS | FREDRIK DEBOER

Identity politics is a game the left can’t win

climate crisis

IDEAS | JOHN GOVE

Extreme weather forces New England farmers to be more collaborative than ever

IDEAS | Maja Prijatelj Videmšek & Matjaž Krivic

Bolivia’s Amazon is burning

IDEAS | SCOTT WEIDENSAUL

An ecological disaster that’s within our grasp to reverse

education

IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

How to get the most out of college — and save liberal democracy

IDEAS | MICHAEL SERAZIO

The algorithm vs. the syllabus

IDEAS | Albert Fox Cahn & Shruthi Sriram

Will AI be monitoring kids in their classrooms?

development
IDEAS | KARA MILLER

All those empty office buildings could spell trouble for you and me

IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

Lynn is trying to reinvent itself. Will inertia at the MBTA derail its plan?

IDEAS | MILES HOWARD

Evictions are rising again. It’s time to get creative.

history
IDEAS | CRAIG FEHRMAN

Girls gone wild — Harriet Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and the freedoms they found outdoors

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

50 years later, Chile’s coup has a disturbing number of supporters

IDEAS | BEN JACQUES

The truth about my ancestors

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 | EVAN SELINGER

There’s no shame in being a Luddite

IDEAS | TOM JOUDREY

In 1909, E.M. Forster foresaw the real threat from AI

IDEAS | ELIZABETH SVOBODA

Is AI really as good as advertised?

essays
IDEAS | MELANIE BROOKS

A daughter who couldn’t ask questions is now a mother who invites them

IDEAS | BRYAN PFEIFFER

After the Vermont flood

IDEAS | MARA A. COHEN

I skipped synagogue for a Grace Jones concert and felt the power of Rosh Hashana

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.