A late October evening in Denver, and a software designer named Marcus sits at his kitchen table scrolling through his… Read more
What Happens When Apple, Cadillac, and Democracy Walk Into a Pit Lane
Night in Las Vegas behaves like a living thing. The Strip glows with gold and neon. Light swallows the stars…. Read more
The Big Ten’s Payday Loan
College football functions as civic ritual as much as sport. The stadiums resemble cathedrals. The rituals resemble holidays. Generations of… Read more
The Wisdom of the Ward and the Decline of Institutional Memory
There is a county clerk in Wisconsin who can tell you, without looking, which precincts always flip their absentee tallies… Read more
Curiosity is an act of courage
Thank you. That is the only honest way to begin. The past week brought a surge of new readers to… Read more
When Disinformation Becomes a Business Model
The video opens the way these things usually do. A blurred screenshot. A whispery narrator. The suggestion of a hidden… Read more
The Day Duty Quietly Won
Democracy doesn’t collapse overnight. It erodes, step by step, pushed along by leaders who see rules as obstacles instead of… Read more
The Last Train to Somewhere: Chicago Has a Transit Problem. Illinois Has a Math Problem.
Chicago has always had a kinetic pulse. Stand at any Loop corner and you feel it: the steel skeleton of… Read more
The Housing Program So Effective That Lawmakers Are Fighting Their Own Party to Save It
There are moments in Washington when the ideological theater goes quiet and something like common sense breaks through. This is… Read more
The NBA’s Global Bet: How Basketball Became America’s Most Valuable Export
The NBA tipped off another season last night, and for those of us who have followed the game since Reggie… Read more