Ideas - The Boston Globe

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

A surprising thing Walz and Vance have in common

Both VP candidates have unorthodox views on foreign policy — and one of them may actually get a chance to be influential.

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

Ballot measures for abortion rights are becoming tests of democracy

When voters are asked directly, they support abortion rights. So Republicans are trying to keep them from being asked.

IDEAS | NATE TINNER-WILLIAMS

Pope Francis won’t pick a side in today’s culture wars

The head of the Catholic Church has been more of a moderating force than either the progressive or orthodox movements within the faith might have preferred.

A protest at The Cooper Union, a college in New York City, on May 9.

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

The radical ideology at the heart of the anti-Israel protests

The academic theory of ‘settler colonialism’ distorts the very real plight of the Palestinians.

IDEAS | RACHEL AMENT

Parenting is so hard that I turned to ChatGPT for help

I turned to ChatGPT in desperation, but all I needed was more confidence in myself.

Freelance journalist James Foley in Aleppo, Syria, on Nov. 5, 2012. He was taken hostage a few weeks later and killed in 2014.

IDEAS | DANIEL BROCK JOHNSON

James Foley’s last gift

Ten years after the journalist’s execution by ISIS, his friends are continually rekindling the powerful process of communal grieving.

may i have a word?

May I have a word: The gross thing about birthday parties
A useful term for those who cringe when someone blows out the candles.

May I have a word: The parking spots you somehow missed

May I have a word: Calling out serial bailers

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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?

IDEAS | Tasnim Ahmed

Doctors fleeing primary care is a crisis for Boston’s low-income neighborhoods

IDEAS | ADELINE GOSS

What should we think of the new Alzheimer’s drugs?

IDEAS | NATALIE KAUFMAN

Why is my generation so caffeinated all the time?

democracy under siege

"This doesn’t mean Caesarist leaders are less dangerous than fascist ones," the author writes. "They’re actually more threatening in one sense."

IDEAS | Elizabeth Svoboda

Trump isn’t a fascist. He’s a Caesarist.

IDEAS | DAVID SHRIBMAN

America is at a turning point, yet again

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Latin America is rife with dysfunctional madness

Vice presidential candidates Tim Walz (left) and JD Vance.

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

A surprising thing Walz and Vance have in common

IDEAS | JEFFREY SWINDLE AND MATTHEW D. BLANTON

El Salvador’s migration success story doesn’t add up

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Anointing Kamala Harris was a mistake

civil rights

Abortion-rights supporters in Arizona delivered more than 800,000 petition signatures to the Capitol to get a measure on this November's general election ballot.

IDEAS | MARY ZIEGLER

Ballot measures for abortion rights are becoming tests of democracy

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

Kevin "Prince" Works posed for a portrait in his Brighton apartment. Works struggled to live independently after aging out of the foster care system.

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

Satellite photo of the Baltic Sea surrounding Gotland, Sweden, with algae blooms swirling in the water.

IDEAS | BENJAMIN TWINING

Using the ocean as a carbon sink may be our best hope against climate change

IDEAS | KIRSTEN LIE-NIELSEN

Oysters, please — without a side of plastic

IDEAS | VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

A journey to the vault at the end of the world

education

Boston Latin School.

IDEAS | WILL AUSTIN

Fewer kids are applying to Boston’s exam schools. It’s a sign of a larger problem for the city.

IDEAS | JARED CHARNEY

At a recovery high school, graduation is a huge step on a treacherous journey

IDEAS | ALEXANDRA STYRON

The problem with campus protests is not cruelty but ignorance

A band called Magazine Beach performed at an underground venue in Allston known as Wonderland on Feb. 12, 2023.

IDEAS | Morgan Evelyn Arnold

There’s a gaping hole in Boston’s live music scene

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

Freelance journalist James Foley in Aleppo, Syria, on Nov. 5, 2012. He was taken hostage a few weeks later and killed in 2014.

IDEAS | DANIEL BROCK JOHNSON

James Foley’s last gift

IDEAS | OLIVER EGGER

In Florence, an exhibition dedicated to remembering abandoned children

IDEAS | JOHN BENJAMIN

The problem with Zionism

Maureen Flores, the interim residential program director of DOVE, in the organization’s waiting room. Because of the state's housing crisis, DOVE is converting its shelter for domestic violence survivors into rent-free long-term apartments for those fleeing abuse.

IDEAS | SHIRA SCHOENBERG

The Mass. housing shortage is making life even harder for survivors of domestic violence

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

technology

IDEAS | JOSÉ M. MUÑOZ

Picking up good vibes from a stranger? That might be your neurons aligning.

IDEAS | JEREMY KAHN

Soon, AI will book your flights and order your groceries. It’ll be convenient — and risky.

IDEAS | Michael Serazio

ChatGPT’s uncanny valley of the mind

Long gone but fondly remembered: Fowle's, in downtown Newburyport.

IDEAS | ANDRE DUBUS III

The town I swore I’d never go back to is now the town my children want to come home to

IDEAS | RACHEL AMENT

Parenting is so hard that I turned to ChatGPT for help

IDEAS | Miles Howard

Free coffee and a place to make friends in real life? Sounds like social utopia.

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.