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The Highlight

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Against doomerism

It’s boom times for doom times but there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic that the future will be better — if we make it so.

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The case for slowing down AI

The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past

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The very cute, totally disturbing tale of the American “it” dog

How the quest to own the nation’s most popular, most Instagram-worthy pup has bred a world of problems.

Progress Report: America’s Schools

Nobody knows what the point of homework is

The racist idea that changed American education

Conservatives’ war on emotions in the classroom

America’s after-school afterthought

The other long Covid: The damage done to a generation of schoolchildren

Why Teslas keep catching on fire

The glories of dining out alone

We pulled pandas back from the brink of extinction. Meanwhile, the rest of nature collapsed.

You may be thinking about animals all wrong (even if you’re an animal lover)

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Saving species, and other stories

What’s lost when focusing on the cute and charismatic. Plus: Why Teslas keep catching on fire, the progressive case for more people, and others.

Yes, you can have kids and fight climate change at the same time

New Zealand’s Māori fought for reparations — and won

When humor becomes armor

A joke with a literal cost

Why do people still think women aren’t funny?

Is the right winning the comedy wars?

The very serious science of humor

Toward a unified theory of “millennial cringe”

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What’s so funny?

A status symbol, a political battleground, an emotional tool — humor is anything but a joke.

Poor countries are developing a new paradigm of mental health care. America is taking note.

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AI experts are increasingly afraid of what they’re creating

How one man quietly stitched the American safety net over four decades

Will America continue to turn away from vaccines?

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The world to come

Earth’s population passed 8 billion this month — now what? Plus: the rise of an anti-vaccine America, the looming dangers of superintelligent AI, the shifting landscape of higher ed, and more.

The incredible shrinking future of college

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Back to the future

Rethinking old ideas about what we eat, where we live and work, and how we power our communities.

The future of the office is a lab

The wasted potential of garbage dumps

The end of a battery’s life matters as much as its beginning

Under the hood of the electric vehicle revolution

Inside the fantastical, pragmatic quest to make “hybrid” meat

Our buildings are making us sick

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Ruben Gallego’s ready for a fight — even if the Democratic Party isn’t

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The power and potential of Latino voters

Latino voters’ growing power, what the parties get right and wrong about them, and a brash Congress member on what Democrats need to do better.

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A practical guide to winning Latino voters