As soon as pharmaceutical company Pfizer issued a press release on the morning of November 9th indicating that their Covid-19 vaccine candidate appears to have an efficacy rate of more than 90 percent, the reaction tended to go in one of two directions: The first was sheer excitement. We had …
Read More »5 Scary Podcasts to Get You in the Mood for Halloween
Halloween might be decidedly less social this year, but you can always take solace (or a scare) from a good podcast. From fictional tales of small-town horror to a real-life scaredy-cat screaming his way through Midsommar, here are five creepy podcasts to binge while you’re stuck inside this Halloween. Radio …
Read More »Youth Organizers: Foyin Dosunmu of Katy 4 Justice
Since May 2020, youth organizers across the country have been mobilizing against police brutality and working for systemic change in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. Some of them had organized for social justice before, but many of them took to the streets for the first time and without an …
Read More »Meet the People We're Counting on for a Covid-19 Vaccine
T his spring, doing rounds in the Covid-19 units at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Dr. Kirsten Lyke saw more than 130 patients each day. Some were under observation after developing symptoms like shortness of breath, dry cough, and fever. Others were on ventilators. Many initially tested …
Read More »Amid Covid-19, Parents of Special-Needs Kids Face a Dilemma
Bella, 11, sits in her chair, her left hand tapping a yellow joystick switch. She is animated, her blue eyes sparkling, her wavy hair bouncing as she moves her head. Yesterday, she went back to school for the first time, after five months of lockdown. She has a lot to …
Read More »How Do Women Become White Supremacists?
In the years following Trump’s election, the deadly Charlottesville rally, and shooting massacres such as the those in Christchurch, New Zealand, El Paso, Texas, and Poway, California, many people have tried to address a virtually unanswerable question: What is the process by which a relatively mild-mannered, disaffected young white man …
Read More »Sorry, Olivia Benson Is Canceled Too
A few days ago, I was scrolling through TikTok and saw one featuring Olivia Benson, the beloved star of Law and Order: SVU played by Mariska Hargitay. The TikTok is captioned “#when I say ACAB,” and the audio is from Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” “I hope you know, I …
Read More »A Bioethicist Tackles Your Most Pressing Coronavirus Questions
After more than a decade working in the field of bioethics, I’ve gotten used to the blank stares on people’s faces when I tell them what I do. I usually follow up with a description like “I think through the ethical components of current or potential medical care or research …
Read More »How a New Meme Exposes the Far-Right Roots of #NoNutNovember
If you spend a lot of time in certain Extremely Online corners of the internet ecosystem, you’ve likely stumbled onto #NoNutNovember, or just #NNN for short. An annual challenge encouraging men to refrain from masturbating (or even, for many, having any sex) for the month, No Nut November was initially …
Read More »Elton John's 'Me' is a Uniquely Revealing Pop Star Autobiography
Earlier this year,the Elton John biopic,Rocketman,hit multiplexes. The movie took huge liberties telling Elton’s story: showing him performing songs years or even decades before they were written; taking his stage name from John Lennon instead of his mentor, little-known English rocker Long John Baldry; levitating high above the piano while …
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