Ideas

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. A pro-Trump mob later stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Five people died as a result.

I, Too, Was Once a Soldier of the Apocalypse: Why White Evangelicals Must Choose Between Reform and American Extremism

In my small Pentecostal church, we all expected the guillotine to be set up...

In my small Pentecostal church, we all expected the guillotine to be set up in the parking lot, probably by the One World Government. It was Arkansas in the early 1980s, and to our youth...

What We Learned About Ourselves In the First Year of the Pandemic

And why March may be our psychological turning point

Octavia St. Laurent attends a Drag Ball in New York in 1988.

The Ballroom Scene Has Long Offered Radical Freedoms For Black and Brown Queer People. Today, That Matters More Than Ever

Marginalized by prejudice, violence, housing insecurity, and HIV infection ...

Marginalized by prejudice, violence, housing insecurity, and HIV infection rates among other burdens, Black and brown transgender and gender-nonconforming people face particular challenges in establishing secure, nourishing communities—both within LGBTQ spaces and in society at...

Islamist Terrorism Is Not Done With Us, Warns Former al Qaeda Hostage Theo Padnos

Remember ISIS? How about al Qaeda? It was not long ago (on the calendar, at...

Remember ISIS? How about al Qaeda? It was not long ago (on the calendar, at least) that either name could summon, if not profound discomfort, at least a hint of the queasiness that swept over...

Maddie Ziegler in 'Music' (center); Ruth McCabe and Daniel Day-Lewis in 'My Left Foot' (top left); Freddie Highmore in 'The Good Doctor' (top right); Kevin McHale in 'Glee' (bottom right); Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in 'Rain Man' (bottom left)

Sia's Golden Globe-Nominated Music Isn’t Just Offensive. It’s Also Bad Art—and the Distinction Matters

When I watched the teaser trailer for Music back in November, my first impr...

When I watched the teaser trailer for Music back in November, my first impression was one of distaste. In tone and intent, I found Sia’s sensory-overloading musical film about a non-speaking autistic girl—which is up...

Members of the National Guard help drivers at a COVID-19 vaccination site on the campus of California State University of Los Angeles in Los Angeles County, California, the United States, Feb. 22, 2021. Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, is experiencing a large decline in new COVID-19 cases as vaccination rollout continues, local health authorities said Monday.

We'll Probably Never Eliminate COVID-19 from the U.S. It's Still Worth Trying

2021 got off to a grim pandemic start in the U.S. A huge surge in COVID-19 ...

2021 got off to a grim pandemic start in the U.S. A huge surge in COVID-19 cases followed the holiday season, peaking at around 300,000 new cases on Jan. 8, 2020. More than 20,000 Americans...

What It's Like to Accuse a #MeToo Hero of Abuse

Tanya Selvaratnam hesitated before coming forward with allegations of abuse...

Tanya Selvaratnam hesitated before coming forward with allegations of abuse against former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a 2018 New Yorker story. Schneiderman had built his career, in part, by advocating for women....