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columns

Renée Graham

Flagging Martha-Ann Alito’s right-wing flag-flying antics

I can’t recall knowing anything about the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito until it was revealed that she’s a conservative virtue-signaling flag-flying fanatic.
Carine Hajjar

Could Massachusetts’ losses be Kelly Ayotte’s gain?

In New Hampshire's gubernatorial race, “Don’t Mass up New Hampshire” is front-runner Kelly Ayotte's core slogan.
KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR

Two verdicts and two very different pictures of America’s future

President Biden reacted to his son’s conviction as a father, an American, and as a president. Trump, conversely, acted like an autocratic baby after his own conviction.
JOAN VENNOCHI

Crude and sexist State Police investigator compromises Karen Read trial

Trooper Michael Proctor’s juvenile, tasteless, and amateurish approach to a murder investigation gave a big boost to the defense.

op-eds

Brian Worrell

Boston City Council budget is fair; members should override Wu’s veto

Nearly all of the council’s $15 million in redirected funds came from line items that had been over-budgeted during the past five years.
Sam Oliker-Friedland

NH elections work; state shouldn’t require proof of citizenship to vote

Two bad-faith bills are a partisan ploy to undermine trust in the state’s secure elections.
Ben Weber

City Council’s police budget change was vetoed. It would have increased promotions of people of color.

A delay of the promotional exam would allow the police commissioner to promote officers of color in significant numbers and allow the department to better reflect the community it serves.
Joan Donovan

Beware of identity fraud empowered by generative AI

Corporate leaders and school principals alike have recently been impersonated using GAI, leading to scandals involving nonconsensual intimate images, sexual harassment, blackmail, and financial scams.

editorials

State aid should focus on helping low-income students obtain college degrees

Free community college proposal raises questions about adequacy, effectiveness.

US dithering over aid, policy, pilots for Ukraine costs lives

G-7 meeting may be last, best chance for world’s leading democracies to get it right.

16-year-old Acton girl’s tragic death was preventable

Five years after an SJC justice called for a legislative fix, the loophole that prevents dangerousness hearings for some types of defendants has still not been closed.

letters

ADL New England: Antisemitism on campus is a painful reality, not a phantom claim

Insurer urges Mass. Senate to add curbs to House health care bill

Readers weigh verdict in trial of Hunter Biden

Two temporary housing programs fill a need, but to what degree?

🎧 Beating Burnout: A four-part series from ‘Say More’

Part 1: We’re in a Burnout Epidemic. There’s Hope.Part 2: Cal Newport says We’re Thinking about Productivity Wrong

Read our editorial series on higher education →

With US college-age population falling, luring more international students could help schools surviveThe ‘demographic cliff’ is coming. Colleges must be prepared.
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Editor's picks

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

We’re in a burnout epidemic. There’s hope.

The Globe’s Say More podcast is launching a four-part series, Beating Burnout, to spotlight insights and advice from leading experts on the topic, from a Harvard stress doctor to “On Being” host Krista Tippett.
EDITORIAL

What friends of Israel and the Palestinians should be demanding now

The fighting needs to stop. Hostages must return home. Israel and the Palestinians both need new leaders. And the diaspora of both sides should be pressing for lasting peace in the form of a two-state solution.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Trump is not the problem

It’s his followers. It’s always been his followers.
Renée Loth

Florida, the new nanny state

For a guy who crusades against nanny-state overreach, Governor Ron DeSantis is doing an awful lot of finger-wagging lately about other people’s lives.
IDEAS | ZACH RAUSCH

Why are religious teens happier than their secular peers?

Here’s what we can learn from the way faith communities stay rooted in the real world — and diminish the harms of the virtual one.
IDEAS | KAT ROSENFIELD

A 1920s doctor with a phony insanity cure was hailed as a hero. It’s a cautionary tale for today.

A combination of self-delusion and self-righteousness is a surefire way for experts to lose our trust.

Cartoons

Beth Wolfensberger Singer

Short attention span? This could explain why.

Christopher Weyant

Skip the gift, Hunter

PATRICK Chappatte

Saviors of democracy

Christopher Weyant

New York justice

Beth Wolfensberger Singer

Swiss Army Knives: 6 suggestions for blade-free designs

Christopher Weyant

We’re going to need a bigger boat

More from Globe Opinion

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR

Two verdicts and two very different pictures of America’s future

President Biden reacted to his son’s conviction as a father, an American, and as a president. Trump, conversely, acted like an autocratic baby after his own conviction.

JOAN VENNOCHI

Crude and sexist State Police investigator compromises Karen Read trial

Trooper Michael Proctor’s juvenile, tasteless, and amateurish approach to a murder investigation gave a big boost to the defense.

EDITORIAL

US dithering over aid, policy, pilots for Ukraine costs lives

G-7 meeting may be last, best chance for world’s leading democracies to get it right.

JEFF JACOBY

For assistance in dying, please press 1

Support for assisted suicide is up, but the slope it would lead to is dangerously slippery.

Joan Donovan

Beware of identity fraud empowered by generative AI

Corporate leaders and school principals alike have recently been impersonated using GAI, leading to scandals involving nonconsensual intimate images, sexual harassment, blackmail, and financial scams.

RENÉE GRAHAM

At Hunter Biden’s trial, many families heard the familiar sorrow of a relative’s struggles with addiction

The verdict against Biden is historic; that another family has been upended by substance use disorder is not.

EDITORIAL

16-year-old Acton girl’s tragic death was preventable

Five years after an SJC justice called for a legislative fix, the loophole that prevents dangerousness hearings for some types of defendants has still not been closed.

Harry Brett

Here’s how to meet climate goals with the state’s existing infrastructure

We are in a transition — and the need to push forward on clean energy can’t undermine the economy that will propel that progress.

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SPECIAL PROJECTS

IDEAS

Blueprints for a new downtown Boston

It's time to reimagine the identity of the city's core — and we've got ideas.

When accidents happen: True stories from an ICU nurse

An interactive comic that explores how medical mistakes can happen in the chaotic environment of an ICU.

Not so fast, fashion

How to be fashionable and equitable while saving the planet from climate change.

Teens Speak

We asked. They delivered. Teens from across the country offer a candid look at how they’re navigating life, school, friendships, social media, expectations, and so much more.

Blue sky Boston: Where inspiration meets aspiration for the city’s future

Sustainable living. Gondolas. A science expo. Evaluation of student humanity. Here’s what a Boston of the future could be.
ERNESTO BARBIERI WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESS RULIFFSON

Tenderness and brutality: True stories from an ICU nurse

An illustrated opinion piece that examines the porous border between healing and suffering in one hospital’s intensive care unit.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

How Uphams Corner got wealthier without getting whiter

The scrappy Dorchester neighborhood has fulfilled the community activist’s dream: development without displacement.
IDEAS

Where did all the workers go?

For two years, employers have been desperate for workers — and there’s no indication the labor shortage will soon change. What are we losing — and possibly gaining — as a result?
Explore the project ➞
IDEAS | PETER THOMSON

The radical, forgotten experiment in educational integration that changed my life

In 1971, kids from Roxbury and Lincoln spent half the year attending school together in the city and the other half in the suburb. Fifty years later, I tracked down my fellow students to see how it shaped them — and whether something like it could work today.

Globe Opinion’s 2022 Top 10

The readers have spoken: Take a tour through The Boston Globe opinion section’s top 10 most read columns, editorials, cartoons, letters, and Ideas stories of 2022.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Remembering trans lives taken in 2022

Even before a gunman killed five people and injured nearly 20 last month at Club Q, a popular LGBTQ nightspot in Colorado Springs, Colo., 2022 was already a deadly year for trans and gender nonconforming people. At least 35 have been killed nationwide, most of them Black trans women.
TIMELINE

Assault on American democracy

Jan. 6, 2021, was one of the most alarming days in American history. Boston Globe Opinion columns, editorials, letters, and cartoons untangle the continuing aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol.
IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

How the MBTA went off the rails

Nearly everything about Boston has changed in the past few decades, yet the T has the same big problem — a failure to prioritize the rider experience above all.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.

Soaring housing costs, a broken T, and other existential problems require sweeping fixes that meet the moment.

Young people and the power of social media

Social media holds enormous power over young people. Can they find a way to navigate safely through its ever-changing landscape?

How do we memorialize the pandemic?

As the United States neared its one millionth COVID-19 related death, artists, architects, and community leaders are calling for a permanent memorial to honor all those touched by COVID. Globe Opinion asked several artists for their vision of what a COVID memorial could look like.
Explore the rest of the project →
IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

Editing the Constitution

The Constitution is undergoing massive changes in the Supreme Court. It’s time to put the founding document in the hands of the people.
ideas

The Future of Work

The past year has shattered expectations of what workdays look like. Parenting while Zooming. An uncrowded T. Wary interactions with customers. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

The Longevity Hub

The Boston Globe Opinion section and MIT's AgeLab present The Longevity Hub, an ongoing series seeking to spark Greater Boston's transformation into the Silicon Valley of aging.
EDITORIAL

Future-proofing the presidency

Donald Trump brought our democracy to the brink and exposed its weak spots. Here’s how to thwart the next American tyrant.
EDITORIAL

A battle for affordable housing in Massachusetts

The Globe editorial board's 2020 series on the need for inclusive housing reform in Newton and across the Commonwealth.

Brave New Planet

Brave New Planet is a podcast that delves deep into the most exciting and challenging scientific frontiers, helping us understand them and grapple with their implications. Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is host.

The future of food

What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before. In this special issue, we celebrate the role of food in our communities and explore how it can be tastier, more accessible, and healthier for us and the planet.
Letters

Postcards from the pandemic

Invited to take a walk, in fact, lots of walks; dining room table repurposed — a snapshot of how readers were coping.
An archive of conversations with the experts writing thought-provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

The Other swing voter

Political coverage often focuses on voters who oscillate between political parties in a few key swing states. Here we feature perspectives and opinions from and about demographics of Americans — young voters and Black and brown voters —who swing between voting and not voting.
From voter suppression to gerrymandering to foreign interference, the integrity of US elections is under attack. In a three-part weekly series, Globe Opinion examines how the nation arrived at this moment and what needs to be done to protect voting rights.
Thomas E. Patterson

Trapped: Why the GOP's death is imminent

The Republican Party is destroying itself. Thomas Patterson of the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center explains the five traps the party has set for itself and warns that the party's future is in peril without reform.

Black voices now

Globe Opinion seeks to amplify the perspectives and the voices of Black community members, scholars, activists, doctors, teachers, business leaders, students, and parents as op-ed and letter writers, and as innovators and provocateurs featured in Globe Ideas. Here we feature Black voices from the community amid the historic protests following the killing of George Floyd. We aim to amplify yet more Black voices going forward.
IDEAS

Massachusetts Works

We turn the typical model of journalism on its head — instead of focusing on what’s broken, we’re taking a look at what Massachusetts gets right.

Legal Lens documentaries

Law and documentary film may seem far apart, but they actually share many connections. With the guidance of filmmaker and producer Joseph Tovares and support from the Hewlett Foundation, 12 Harvard Law School students from eight countries have worked since January on the Legal Lens project. You can view the films here on BostonGlobe.com.

Choosing, using, and losing your health care: A policy first-aid kit

In a four-part weekly series, Globe Opinion offers a baseline assessment of health care as well as prescriptions for fixing the industry.

Journalists are not the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.”
National Student Essay Competition winners announced