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The section that asks “what if?” and “why not?”
IDEAS | DON LYMAN

I save frogs from being eaten by snakes, but should I?

The ethics of rescuing prey animals from predators are complicated.
IDEAS | KEVIN LEWIS

Social Studies: How Craigslist changed US politics; more data, more overconfidence; who’s more paternalistic?

Surprising findings from the social sciences.
IDEAS | KATHERINE O'MALLEY

The FDA should stop letting drug companies skip steps

Drug companies are taking advantage of the FDA’s accelerated approval program. Patients are paying the price.
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 | CRAIG FEHRMAN

Charles Darwin and Emily Dickinson, kindred spirits in art and science

The founder of evolutionary theory and the great Massachusetts poet were driven by overlapping ideas.
IDEAS | JOSHUA PEDERSON

Our health care workers are suffering from more than burnout

Moral injury is best known for affecting members of the military — why do doctors and nurses say they feel it, too?

may i have a word?

May I have a word: A breacher of aisle etiquette
What to call shoppers who leave their carts unattended.

May I have a word: Conversation stoppers

May I have a word: Bags that defy your fingers

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The Globe Ideas Team

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.
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.

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?
Public health
IDEAS | ZACH RAUSCH

Why are religious teens happier than their secular peers?

IDEAS | JOE KEOHANE

The case for — gasp! — teaching kids to talk to strangers

IDEAS | KATHERINE O'MALLEY

The FDA should stop letting drug companies skip steps

democracy under siege
IDEAS | WILLIAM SCHULZ

The disturbing rhetorical device permeating American politics

IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

The best-case scenario for Trump’s foreign policy

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Nevertheless, Trumpism persisted

politics
IDEAS | MICHAEL COTTER

Mass. voters emphatically stood up for cage-free eggs. Now factory farms are pushing back.

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Mexico is about to get its first female president. But how much change can she create?

IDEAS | CARINE HAJJAR

Biden’s border bungle is souring America on immigration

civil rights

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

Katie Britt’s MOMS Act is dangerous, but not for the reasons you might think

IDEAS | JANE EISNER

Here’s how to get more young people to vote

IDEAS | MARIANNE MOLLMANN AND EDUARDO GONZALEZ CUEVA

Our daughter is a student protester at Emerson. The police went too far.

inequality
IDEAS | Shira Schoenberg

Cut loose at 18 and struggling into adulthood

IDEAS | LISA SELIN DAVIS

Subsidizing families is one thing the two parties can agree on

IDEAS | COLEMAN HUGHES

Color blindness remains the best form of antiracism

climate crisis

IDEAS | ASHLEY BALZER VIGIL

In uncharted ocean depths, researchers find never-before-seen sea creatures

IDEAS | MICHELINE MAYNARD

The $100 billion gamble on EV batteries

IDEAS | JOHN GOVE

What it takes to save nature’s candy from a spring freeze

education

IDEAS | ALEXANDRA STYRON

The problem with campus protests is not cruelty but ignorance

IDEAS | Jane Rosenzweig

ChatGPT is at odds with what education is for

IDEAS | CARINE HAJJAR

‘Safetyism’ has made colleges less safe

development
IDEAS | CARINE HAJJAR

Milton isn’t a ‘rapid transit community,’ no matter how many times the state says it is

IDEAS | Taylor C. Noakes

A once-futuristic vision for urban housing whose time still may come

IDEAS | THE EDITORS

Help us reimagine downtown Boston

history
IDEAS | CRAIG FEHRMAN

Charles Darwin and Emily Dickinson, kindred spirits in art and science

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

A US intervention that worked out well

IDEAS | TED WIDMER

The limits of comparisons to 1968

housing
IDEAS | BART TOCCI

I can’t afford you anymore: A letter to the place where I was born

IDEAS | MILES HOWARD

Making too little to get affordable housing — and other problems with trying to stay in Boston

IDEAS | CLAIRE DUNNING

The unintended consequences of Boston’s nonprofit-led urban development

technology

IDEAS | SCOTT KIRSNER

I signed up to drive for DoorDash. Now I know why food delivery causes traffic chaos.

IDEAS | Brian C. Albrecht & Jonathan W. Williams

Net neutrality is an idea that should have stayed dead

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

What it will take for robots to start doing our chores

essays
IDEAS | DON LYMAN

I save frogs from being eaten by snakes, but should I?

IDEAS | VANESSA BRAGANZA

The new Amy Winehouse biopic and our obsession with tragic geniuses

IDEAS | BART TOCCI

I got dumped by the Unemployment office. Would they take me back?

more special projects

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.

The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

Editing the Constitution

The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. 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 Future of Work

The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. 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 Future of Food

What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before.

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.