Society

Tressie McMillan Cottom recently offered a neat little summary of how universities have responded to generative AI: "Academics initially lost our minds over the obvious threats to academic integrity. Then a mysterious thing happened. The typical higher education line on A.I. pivoted from alarm to augmentation. We need to

Simoun Magsalin Rebel Peripheries May 1, 2025

The only correct way to interview This Guy has never been tried.

We all have the power to name ourselves—collectively, not individually

The widespread assumption that leaders should prioritize business growth is a factor in global environmental degradation.

What could go wrong?

The rapid progress of the last few centuries was not a fluke.

Drift Signal #255

"There are two kinds of order in society. It’s time we stopped glorifying and overestimating one, and ignoring the reality, or discounting the marvels, ...

Running a small business is tough. It's so unpredictable that most people have to run them as side projects alongside their day jobs, and you can't really quit your day job (with all its healthcare and predictable checks coming in each month) until your small biz is running so well

The Supreme Court has long held banishment as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

And Democrats not only don't have the same network, but they don't seem interested in building one.

The words we use matter. So let's say what's actually happening.

I carry coal company scrip in a little zipper pouch in my wallet everywhere I go. It’s a few little coins, with holes punched in them. I bought them from

The White House will soon move to rapidly repeal or freeze rules that affect health, food, workplace safety, transportation and more.

When I was in college in North Carolina, I flew home to Pennsylvania for the holidays. My mother and father were going through a divorce at that point (a divorce that should’ve happened many …

Every system that frustrates your customer also dulls your brand. Every rule that makes no sense becomes a barrier to trust. And every moment that feels disconnected chips away at your credibility.

Imagine that all of us—all of society—have landed on some alien planet and need to form a government: clean slate. We do not have any legacy systems from the United States or any other country. We do not have any special or unique interests to perturb our thinking. How would we govern ourselves? It is unlikely that we would use the systems we have today. Modern representative democracy was the best form of government that eighteenth-century technology could invent. The twenty-first century is very different: scientifically, technically, and philosophically. For example, eighteenth-century democracy was designed under the assumption that travel and communications were both hard...

Once upon a time, there was a federal government department that helped design and distribute tools for living the good life. What happened to that vision?

Richard White, the historian and author of "The Republic for Which It Stands," explains what made the late 19th century gilded.

The Trump administration’s current use of 19th-century tools to solve 20th-century problems threatens to take America back to the 19th century.

Americans have gone through three historic junctures like what we're witnessing today — and they happen on an uncanny 80-year cycle.

🚨 This TED talk is an absolute must-watch. 🚨