Reason magazine
Chatbots Win the Debate
IN A MAY 2025 study in Nature Human Behavior, researchers set up online debates between two humans, and between a human and the large language model GPT-4. In some debates, they provided both humans and AI with basic personal information about their opponents—age, sex, ethnicity, employment, political affiliation. They wanted to find out if such personalized information helped debaters both human and machine to craft more persuasive arguments.
3 min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
A Spy's Eye View
NOT ALL OF James Bond's gadgets were fictional. In the 1969 movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond uses a strange-looking metal square to photograph supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s secret plans. The same metal square appears in the 2013 season of the Cold War-themed show The Americans, when an FBI asset is sent to copy documents in the Soviet Embassy.
3 min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
WHY EUROPEANS HAVE LESS
EUROPE IS POOR BECAUSE IT CHOOSES TO BE.
10+ min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
Poland Climbs, Hungary Slips
LOOKING BACK ON his career as one of Poland's most prominent economists and political leaders, Leszek Balcerowicz offered a succinct lesson for policymakers everywhere.
3 min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
Cracks in the Map
THE IDEA OF carving out territorial exceptions to, or escape zones from, the hand of the nation-state has long captured the imagination of free market enthusiasts. In the 1990s, I was involved in several organizations devoted to the idea, and I witnessed the movement's gradual shift from a pipe dream of libertarian theorists to something attracting serious interest, and investment capital, from entrepreneurs, as libertarian-oriented free ports, special economic zones, charter cities, and even floating maritime cities (seasteads), began to look more politically possible. In 1993, my “free nation” group was meeting in a local North Carolina hotel; by 2011, I was sipping cocktails at a rather swankier “free cities” conference on the resort island of Roatán, Honduras—which, not coincidentally, today boasts its own charter city, Próspera.
5 min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
The Depopulation Bomb
NATALIST PANIC IS rife nowadays. The White House is weighing initiatives to boost the number of births, ranging from a $5,000-per-baby bonus to awarding “National Medals of Motherhood” to mothers with six or more children. In March, the NatalCon gathering in Austin, Texas, declared that we're “living through the greatest population bust in human history.” In April, the tech billionaire (and father of 14 children) Elon Musk posted on X: “Low birth rates will end civilization.”
4 min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
Richard Dawkins on the New Enemies of Scientific Thinking
THE LEGENDARY ATHEIST AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST ARGUES THAT TRUTH SHOULDN'T BEND TO FAITH OR FASHIONABLE POLITICS.
10+ min |
October 2025
Reason magazine
DOGE BEFORE DOGE
BEFORE TRUMP HAD ELON MUSK, NIXON HAD HOWARD PHILLIPS.
10+ min |
October 2025
Mother Jones
THE GOLDEN KINGDOM
Crypto's true believers gather and rejoice under Trump.
10 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
ROOFTOP RESISTANCE
TRUMP IS TRYING TO KILL SOLAR. HERE'S HOW TO FIGHT BACK.
10+ min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
REFRIGERATOR MOMS REDUX?
Don't blame ADHD on stressed moms.
8 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
PROJECT 2026 TRUMP'S PLAN TO HIJACK THE NEXT ELECTION
On an April episode of the popular Politics War Room podcast, the veteran journalist Al Hunt posed an increasingly common question from listeners to Democratic strategist James Carville. “Is Trump looking to spark enough protest to justify declaring martial law in 2026, thus suspending the election?” Hunt asked.
10+ min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
“YOU CAN’T LIVE LIFE ON SHEER TERROR”
Author, TV writer, and social media wit Kashana Cauley on living with debt, leaving Twitter, and finding humor in dark times
3 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
HIDING IN LA
WHEN DEPORTATION forces descended on Los Angeles, a new reality set in for many Angelenos: the fear of living in a city under constant threat from ICE. For many, it means sheltering in place—avoiding work, social life, or even a walk outside.
1 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
THE PLOT AGAINST VACCINES
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies have hit on a way to undermine immunization.
10+ min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
POD OF WAR
HOW MAGA'S FAVORITE MILITARY INFLUENCER WEAPONIZES VULNERABILITY
10+ min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
PLASTIC MEASURES
The synthetic stuff in our brains, oceans, and politics
3 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
DISINFORMING AMERICA
How a network of conservative funders and outlets is distorting news in battleground states
7 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
WHITEWASH
Trump is perverting the mission of an agency founded to fight discrimination.
5 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
ON THE GROUND WITH A SCRAPPY NETWORK OF VOLUNTEERS PROTECTING THEIR COMMUNITY FROM ICE
8 min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
STATUS ANXIETY
HOW TO DEPORT 1 MILLION PEOPLE A YEAR? MAKE RULE-FOLLOWING IMMIGRANTS UNDOCUMENTED.
10+ min |
September/October 2025
Mother Jones
“DIVISIVE"
How the right enforces the myth of American unity
4 min |
September/October 2025
The Atlantic
The Judgments of Muriel Spark
The novelist Muriel Spark died almost 20 years ago, but she still regularly appears on lists of top comic novelists to read on this subject or that. Crave more White Lotus-level skewering of the ridiculous rich? Try Memento Mori, The New York Times suggests. An acerbic take on boring dinner parties? Symposium. Interested in “the fun and funny aspects of being a teacher”? Read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie— also good for learning how to be a highly inappropriate teacher, if you want to know that too.
10+ min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
The Forgotten Still-Life Prodigy
The 17th-century painter Rachel Ruysch was once more famous than Vermeer.
9 min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
Playing Mailman
A new memoir considers what public service is, and what it isn't.
8 min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
THE MAN WHO ATE NASA
The agency once projected America's loftiest ideals. Then it ceded its ambitions to Elon Musk.
10+ min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
Chasing le Carré in Corfu
If you're trying to find someone who doesn't want to be found, you don't go to the obvious places.
10+ min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
Mrs. Dalloway's Midlife Crisis
Virginia Woolf's wild run of creativity in her 40s included writing her masterpiece on the terrors and triumphs of middle age.
6 min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
CAPTAIN RON'S GUIDE TO FEARLESS FLYING
The pilot who calms the nerves of anxious fliers
7 min |
September 2025
The Atlantic
WHY MARRIAGE SURVIVES
The institution has adapted, and is showing new signs of resilience.
9 min |