D&D Must Grapple With the Racism in Fantasy
“Orcs are human beings who can be slaughtered without conscience or apology.” This damning assessment of one of fantasy’s most ubiquitous villains comes from N. K. Jemisin, titan of modern…
Let Fire Stations and EMS Crews Administer Covid Vaccines
Vaccinating the masses against Covid-19 is fraught with challenges. Despite deployment in sophisticated health care institutions, less than 46 percent of the available vaccine stock has reached the arms of…
President Biden, Please Don’t Get Into Carbon Farming
What do climate advocates have in common with fossil fuel companies, auto firms, and farm lobbyists? Not much, yet all are joining hands to promote “carbon farming” as a form…
Social Media Bans Are Really, Actually, Shockingly Common
Donald Trump’s accounts have been banned on Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other platforms. Every last one of @realdonaldtrump’s 47,000 tweets vanished from the site in an instant, from…
If Covid-19 Did Start With a Lab Leak, Would We Ever Know?
“We find ourselves 10 months into one of the most catastrophic global health events of our lifetime,” wrote Stanford University immunologist and bio-threat expert David Relman in November, “and, disturbingly,…
The US Government Needs to Invest in Digital Design
Imagine if, when the president addressed the nation in those early, frightening days of March 2020, he had announced the launch of a user-friendly digital hub for citizens to access…
Climate Change Needs an Operation Warp Speed
In the dismal early days of the pandemic, a vaccine seemed depressingly far off. Historically, the average time to develop a new vaccine was 10 years—far too long for our…
The DC Riot Is the Sandy Hook of the Disinformation Crisis
The violent insurrection against the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, may prove to be a critical juncture in terms of how our media ecosystem treats disinformation and the individuals…
Crime Rates Dropped in 2020—Just as They Did in 1918
When the pandemic hit the US last spring, and states went into lockdown, policymakers and experts wondered about the trade-offs. Which would end up worse: damage to the economy from…
Listening to Black Women: The Innovation Tech Can’t Crack
In her new personal history of the internet, Lurking, Joanne McNeil argues that the mess Big Tech is in is largely due to its insistence on designing and making for…