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The Big Idea

The Big Idea

Outside contributors' opinions and analysis of the most important issues in politics, science, and culture.

Featured stories

Is it anti-Catholic to ask a Supreme Court nominee how her religion affects her decisions?

President Trump’s nominee has written about how religious views and judicial views intersect — and sometimes collide.

By Mark Tushnet

Women are filing more harassment claims in the #MeToo era. They’re also facing more retaliation.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that sexual harassment complaints rose 13.6 percent last year.

By Alex Press

To solve climate change and biodiversity loss, we need a Global Deal for Nature

By Greg Asner

Why do we let our kids play tackle football?

By Chris Nowinski

Is America’s future capitalist or socialist?

By Ezra Klein

Online shopping is terrible for the environment. It doesn’t have to be.

By Miguel Jaller

Why letting ex-felons vote probably won’t swing Florida

By Marc Meredith and Michael Morse

Trump’s birthright citizenship proposal, explained by a law professor

By Aziz Huq

Working-class people are underrepresented in politics. The problem isn’t voters.

By Dr. Nicholas Carnes

Why labor is a foreign policy issue

By Todd N. Tucker

How to save the Supreme Court

By Daniel Epps and Ganesh Sitaraman

Why we need “blue laws,” the religious tradition that sanctifies life outside of work

By Lyman Stone

Hurricane Florence’s floods caused severe property damage. Here’s a solution.

By Miyuki Hino, Katharine J. Mach, and Christopher B. Field

What’s next for #MeToo? The McDonald’s strikes have an answer.

By Alex Press

I spoke to hundreds of American men who still can’t find work

By Andrew L. Yarrow

John McCain’s signature campaign finance law was a real achievement — for its time

By Mark Schmitt

The Pennsylvania Catholic Church report highlights the cruelty of statute of limitations laws

By Daniel Hemel

“Socialism” vs. “capitalism” is a false dichotomy

By Will Wilkinson

Omarosa’s nondisclosure agreements: what, exactly, can Trump keep her from talking about?

By Frank Fagan

Why we should abolish ICE — and the DEA too

By Kathleen Frydl

The real reason you’re not getting a pay raise

By Jason Furman

Black Americans are asserting their rights in “white spaces.” That’s when whites call 911.

By Elijah Anderson

America might be ready for democratic socialism. It’s not ready for the bill.

By Brian Riedl

The Hiroshima anniversary: 5 things you should know about nuclear weapons today

By Michael Krepon

President Trump admits he’s trying to kill Obamacare. That’s illegal.

By Abbe Gluck

Why Jeff Sessions thinks Christians are under siege in America

By Christopher Shea

Ex-Trump staffers should not get plum jobs at elite universities

By Nicole Hemmer

Is it time to do away with job applicant drug testing?

By Mark A.R. Kleiman

Elite law professors are brushing politics aside to support fellow elite Brett Kavanaugh. That’s inexcusable in the Trump era.

By Eleanor Marie Lawrence Brown

The fate of the ACA could turn on Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment

By Abbe Gluck

A historian surveys the wreckage of the Trump-Putin summit

By Christopher Shea

How teachers unions can survive

By Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Ethan Porter

The Putin paradox: he’s brutally repressive — and incredibly popular

By Zachary Jonathan Jacobson

The case for not publishing hacked emails

By Nathaniel Zelinsky

A push to shutter legal brothels in Nevada is based on misguided ideas about sex work

By Lux Alptraum

“Medicare-for-all” means something. Don’t let moderates water it down.

By Tim Higginbotham and Chris Middleman

Why you shouldn’t obsess about “overpopulation”

By Lyman Stone

The myth of the job-hopping, rootless millennial is just that — a myth

By Lyman Stone

“Get out, little punks”: racism at swimming pools has a long history

By Jeff Wiltse

6 myths about Roe v. Wade, debunked

By Scott Lemieux

It’s always been hard to say no to citizenship requests from soldiers. Trump’s doing it.

By Nicole Hemmer

Justice Sotomayor is showing her liberal peers on SCOTUS how to be a potent minority voice

By David Fontana