What Happened to the Intern Revolution?
“Do you think we’ll ever use unpaid interns?” a friend once asked while we were being used as unpaid interns. It was 2011, in the thick of the long slog of the Great Recession, and we were both working...
View ArticleThe Fossil Fuel Industry Thinks It Will Have a Good Year Under Biden
The oil industry spent much of Joe Biden’s first week in office publicly squawking in protest. The American Petroleum Institute called his decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline a “significant...
View ArticleThe True Cost of Energy Monopolies
For the vast majority of North Carolina’s 10 million–plus residents, there is only one option if they’d like to heat their home, turn on the lights, or charge their phone: Duke Energy. The largest...
View ArticleWhy Josh Hawley is Playing the Victim
Two and a half weeks ago, something terrible happened to Senator Josh Hawley. Something not only fundamentally opposed to American values but downright unconstitutional, as well. Something that should...
View ArticleHow Biden Can Achieve a Russian Restoration
Volcanic protests erupted across Russia in the first weekend of Joe Biden’s presidency, adding the challenge of Putinism under duress to the more familiar challenge of dealing with Vladimir Putin’s...
View ArticleLeon Black and the American Tradition of Impunity
After a year of mounting pressure from investors and outside critics, Leon Black, the billionaire chief executive of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, announced on Monday that he would...
View ArticleThe Senate Is Failing
For one ever-so fleeting moment after the Capitol Hill riot earlier this month, it looked as if the GOP might take decisive action against Donald Trump. Ten House Republicans voted to impeach him for...
View ArticleRepublicans Don’t Care About “Unity”
“Unity” is an elusive word in American politics. More often than not, it suggests something utopian and silly—the promise of an end to partisanship, an epiphanic recognition of a common interest after...
View ArticleThe Age of the Disappearing Boss
One of my first bosses, the publisher of a digital media startup, sat just a few rows of desks away from me. She blended in fairly easily. The only thing that made her stick out was that her leather...
View ArticleFine, Keep the Filibuster. Kill the 60-Vote Requirement Instead.
The standoff for control over the U.S. Senate ended Monday with GOP leader Mitch McConnell declaring victory, even though he failed to secure his main demand: an official commitment, by Senate...
View ArticleHow The Dig and Ammonite Fetishize Britishness
With the release of the drama Ammonite, paleontology has joined palace intrigue and oil painting on the list of surprising provocations to lesbian sex in recent historical films. Ammonite is a...
View ArticleThe Persistence of Hate In American Politics
The historian Joan Wallach Scott started thinking of the judgment of history when the Charlottesville riots took place in 2017. The appearance of a large number of marchers chanting antisemitic slogans...
View ArticleThe D.C. Statehood Debate Is Coming, Like It or Not
While it remains unclear how Biden’s legislative agenda will take shape once coronavirus relief and impeachment have been dealt with, one item that will be competing for his attention will be statehood...
View ArticleThe GameStop Saga Shows How Casino Capitalism Is Eating the World
On a typical day in early January, the stock for GameStop, or GME—a beleaguered brick-and-mortar video game retailer undergoing downsizing—traded at around $18, with about 6.5 million shares changing...
View ArticleTribal Nations Deserve a Greater Say on Drilling Projects
President Joe Biden is looking to make good on a promise that every president since Bill Clinton has formally offered, in some shape or form: to uphold the sovereignty of tribal nations. If he actually...
View ArticleHere’s What Happens When Every Government Vehicle Is Electric
The best way to think of President Biden’s midweek flotilla of executive actions on climate is as a statement of intent: a signal of how this administration intends to approach the climate crisis....
View ArticleThe Republican Retreat From Governance
On January 26, 45 Republican senators voted for an amendment declaring the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump unconstitutional—a stance not shared by legal scholars. Trump is...
View ArticleUnemployment Nation
Nearly a year into the pandemic, more than 10 million people are out of work in the United States. That number is partial, excluding the seven million people who are unemployed but have simply stopped...
View ArticleGameStop Is Teaching Republicans to (Pretend to) Hate Wall Street
The ongoing fallout over a group of Redditors boosting GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks has landed—inevitably—at the door of the Trump family. While the former president hasn’t spoken out, Don...
View ArticleWhat the GameStop Rally Has Revealed About Financial Media
For a brief moment on Wednesday afternoon, CNBC anchor Scott Wapner appeared to be on the verge of an epiphany. Wapner was, in that moment, in a heated debate with venture capitalist Chamath...
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