Society

The findings, published in the journal Science, show that improved recovery of critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements currently being discarded as tailings of other mineral streams could meet the U.S. demand for energy, defense and technology applications.

…Let Me Help You Out In a review of Offended Freedom: The Rise of Libertarian Authoritarianism, Reason’s Brian Doherty summarizes the book’s topic as “people formerly of the left, who ‘were once committed to an emancipatory transformation of the existing order,’ who have pivoted to hostility toward openness to foreigners and the wider world and...

I've become accustomed to being lied to every day by now. About Israel and immigrants and trans people to name but a few. But there has been a superlative concentration of lies this past week. A novel density of lying. Something that feels massive. And not just from the people

Prediction markets once lived on the academic fringe. Now they’re trading billions on politics, sports, and celebrity gossip — under rules never designed for retail gamblers.

By using their authority to define what corporations are—and what powers they hold—states can end the era of corporate and dark money in U.S. politics.

During the Easter holidays, while many sought relaxation, Mark Zuckerberg embarked on a grand adventure. The Meta CEO mobilized his two superyachts for an

Flock Safety says it has become “the largest public-private safety network” in the country.

Designing with curiosity and criticality for responsible outcomes.

(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2016.)It’s no secret that CEOs get paid a ton – and a ton more than the average worker. More than a hundred times than what their average employee makes. But it wasn’t always this way. So, how did this gap get so vast? And why? On today’s episode … we go back to a specific moment when the way CEOs were paid got changed. It involves Bill Clinton's campaign promises, and Silicon Valley workers taking to the streets to protest an accounting rule. And of course, Dodd Frank. Subscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.This episode was hosted by Jacob Goldstein and Stacey Vanek Smith, and was originally produced by Nick Fountain. This update was reported and produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Alex Goldmark.

The centuries-long debate over who and what college is for has yet to be resolved.

George Orwell might’ve predicted the surveillance state, but it’s still surprising how many entities took 1984 as a how-to manual instead of a cautionary tale. [Benn Jordan] decided to …

For a long time now fundamental theoretical physics has been suffering not just from a slowdown in progress, but from a sort of intellectual collapse (I wrote about this here a while back in the co…

An argument that going off the grid is about a lot more than solar power and gardens.

We can’t not talk about power these days. We’ve been talking about it ever since the Stargate project, with half a trillion dollars in datacenter investment,

The expanded definition has justified assaults on journalists who have documented detentions of immigrants.

Today on TAP: The Democratic rank and file is much more aligned with Bernie, AOC, and Zohran than it is with Chuck and Hakeem.

Last week, I had coffee with someone who works at a big consulting firm.

The equal rulers returned England to Protestant rule and began a new era of royal leadership defined by parliamentary oversight

AI “threatens the common man’s liberty,” says GOP Sen. Josh Hawley.

Would you want to drink with a Nazi?

How Conservative Justices Legalized the Tyranny Our Founders Died to Prevent

One thing I got a bit of crap for in the hallways of the Abundance conference is my not infrequent mockery of trains on Twitter. I’m sorry, trains are not an abundance technology. I think many people in the abundance scene like trains because: 1. America’s inability to build HSR is the leading example of […]

From Genuine Grievance to Political Ammunition

No.369 — African time concepts and futures thinking ⊗ ChatGPT’s memory dossier ⊗ Resilient food systems ⊗ Artificial light has essentially lengthened birds’ day

How community-first thinking can help newsrooms survive AI