Rise of the Samurai Lawyers
An economist explores how a stable and relatively just legal order emerged in medieval Japan.
Culture
Can Ultimate Frisbee Heal the Middle East?
The spread of Ultimate Frisbee testifies to a kind of Western soft power in the Middle East, one far friendlier than bombs or bullets.
The 2024 Campaign Was an Embarrassment for Elite Media
Journalists increasingly see their job as protecting their preferred candidates, not asking tough questions.
How the Feds Destroyed Backpage.com and Its Founders
By prosecuting the website's founders, the government chilled free speech online and ruined lives.
Secession Is Back in Style in Texas
Can't Americans all just get along? Maybe we can't—and perhaps we shouldn't have to.
The Libertarian Pioneer Who Wrote for America's Biggest Black Newspaper
To Rose Wilder Lane, African Americans' achievements were all the more amazing given their disadvantaged starting point.
The Republican Radical Who Helped Launch the Gay Rights Movement
Dorr Legg saw the government as homosexuals' enemy.
Government Can't Fix America's Baby Bust
The obstacles to having more babies can't be moved by tax incentives or subsidized child care.
Culture Warrior in Chief
The modern presidency is a divider, not a uniter. It has become far too powerful to be anything else.
After a Century, the Federal Tea Board Is Finally Dead
Imported tea was required for decades to pass a literal taste test before it could be sold in the United States.
Comedy's Truthiness Problem
Hasan Minhaj’s stand-up tests the boundaries of fact and fiction.
DeSantis vs. Disney: Florida's Fight Over Private Governance
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crusade to end America's greatest success in private governance.
Why Frozen Pizza Is the Best Pizza
The best pizza isn't made in New York, Chicago, or New Haven. It's made on assembly lines.
Minesweeper, Solitaire, and a '90s Moral Panic
When computers came to offices, bosses found a new way to worry that workers were wasting time.
True Crime Distorts the Truth about Crime
Popular podcasts and shows portray crime as salacious and sexy, failing ordinary victims in the process.
Get Your Politics Out of My Pickleball
Fault lines emerge as government gets involved in America's weirdest, fastest-growing sport.
What Do Gadsden Flags and Pride Flags Have in Common?
Sexual minorities aren't the only ones who love to wave identity flags.
Comic: Maria Montessori and the Freedom To Learn
Maria Montessori valued independence and experimentation in a time of authoritarianism.
The Expensive, Seductive Nostalgia of Field of Dreams
Why are so many filmgoers and politicians eager to prop up baseball's boondoggles?
Is Internet Spoonie Culture Keeping People Sick?
While the FDA keeps experimental treatments out of reach, the spoonie world makes a diagnosis into an identity.
The GOP's Pitchfork Populism Is Older Than Trump
But it doesn't have to be the future of the GOP or the country.
Is There a Future for the City of Tomorrow?
The consequences of our obsession with urban dystopias and utopias
Stop Spazzing Out About 'Spaz'
Social media, streaming, and a new era of digital self-censorship
The Fractal, Fractious Politics of The Expanse
Taking humanity from Earth to the stars isn't easy.
When Karl Marx Made the Case for Capitalism
In barely a century, capitalism led to more productivity "than have all preceding generations together," Marx and Friedrich Engels argued.
Zora Neale Hurston's Inconvenient Individualism
The author of Their Eyes Were Watching God defies easy political categorization.
The 1619 Project Unrepentantly Pushes Junk History
Nikole Hannah-Jones' new book sidesteps scholarly critics while quietly deleting previous factual errors.
The Real Cost of a Magical Education
Blood, sweat, and tears in Naomi Novik's Scholomance novels.
Free the Art! Sell the Art!
Countless works of art are locked in museum basements. Why not put them back on the open market?
We Keep Going Back to The Matrix
How a generation was redpilled by a nerd power fantasy about defining yourself in the digital age
False Nostalgia
The "good old days" weren't all that good—but they're still messing with politics.
Communism Destroyed Russian Cooking
Soviet rule promised abundance. Instead it brought misery and starvation.
The Kinks vs. the People in Grey
Happy 50th birthday to Muswell Hillbillies, a concept album about nostalgia, conformity, and the evils of urban renewal programs.
When the 'Native Son' Became 'The Man Who Lived Underground'
One of Richard Wright's best books went unpublished in his lifetime, due to "unbearable" scenes of police brutality. Now at last it is in print.
Wittgenstein vs. the Woke
A generation of activists has imbued words and sounds with superstition.
Wartime Rationing Changed How America Ate for a Century. The Pandemic Will Do the Same.
The government tried to stabilize the nation's food supply 80 years ago. Its efforts backfired.
Will Feminists Please Stop Calling the Cops?
The women's liberation movement has gotten tied to mass incarceration. It needs to break free.
The All-American Arms Dealer
Samuel Cummings built a global weapons empire in Washington, D.C.'s shadow.
Sex, Communism, Race, and Creative Freedom in Hollywood
Like the Hays Code and Waldorf Statement before it, new diversity requirements are Tinseltown's way of asserting cultural dominance through self-policing.
When Your Outfit Is Made Illegal
When fabulous clothes are outlawed, only outlaws will be fabulous.
How Frederick Douglass Destroyed John C. Calhoun With the Power of John Locke
Armed with the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the far-reaching guarantees of liberty and equality that they contained, Douglass took the fight directly to the slaveholders.
The Games Must Go On
COVID-19 upended the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, and MLB. How the professional sports leagues responded offers a glimpse into our future.
Why Does Hollywood Hate Real Estate Developers?
The typecasting of builders as villains might help explain why NIMBYs so often win the policy battles over urban growth and development.
How the Abolitionist Grandfathers of Modern Libertarianism Won by Losing—and Lost by Winning
While Europe was in revolt, America had its own Free Soil revolution of 1848.
