“The rise of the worker wellness program, along with the visceral backlash to it, has revealed the limits and small humiliations of this neoliberal approach to health care. It offers, in implicit contrast, an argument for a more humane strengthening of the social safety net—while demanding a collective worker-based response to the various ways employers […]
Catherine Cusick
Addicted to Fines
Governing, a national magazine and media platform devoted to policy, politics, and management in state and local government, is shutting down this week after nearly 33 years of public-sector reporting. For its final cover story, data editor Mike Maciag digs into the cities, towns, and counties nationwide that over-rely on fines and fees to fund local […]
How the Unchecked Power of Judges Is Hurting Poor Texans
“In Texas, the crisis is exacerbated by a key structural flaw: indigent defense is largely overseen by judges. Contrary to the American Bar Association’s principles of public defense, which call for defense lawyers to be independent of the judiciary, judges in most Texas counties decide which lawyers get cases, how much they are paid, and […]
Elizabeth Warren’s Classroom Strategy
“Warren believed that the law and its remedies should not be simply the domain of the already powerful, and her approach to communicating with her students — and later, as a more public figure, with a wider audience — came back to her drive to make seemingly complicated concepts available to those who didn’t already […]
“Your Judge Is Your Destiny”
“The judge keeps a low public profile, but among attorneys in Louisiana, her reputation is feared. According to data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees our nation’s immigration courts, Judge Reese has presided over more than 200 asylum hearings during the past five years. The applicants who have stood before her have […]
The Hiding Place: Inside the World’s First Long-Term Storage Facility for Highly Radioactive Nuclear Waste
In an excerpt from his new book Underland, Robert Macfarlane asks if we are being good ancestors on a visit to Onkalo, a Finnish “experiment in post-human architecture” designed to be the world’s most advanced underground repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Shady Numbers And Bad Business: Inside The Esports Bubble
“There’s big money in esports, they say. You’ve heard the stories. Teenaged gamers flown overseas to sunny mansions with live-in chefs. The erection of $50 million arenas for Enders Game-esque sci-fi battles. League of Legends pros pulling down seven-figure salaries. Yet there’s a reason why these narratives are provocative enough to attract lip-licking headlines in […]
The Wealth Detective Who Finds the Hidden Money of the Super Rich
“Thirty-two-year-old French economist Gabriel Zucman scours spreadsheets to find secret offshore accounts.”
The Curious History of Crap — From Space Junk to Actual Poop
Ziya Tong writes a brief history of human waste — from “night soil” to space junk — in an excerpt from her new book, The Reality Bubble.
At UNTUCKit, Clothes Make the Man, and the Man Needs Help
Do men just want a uniform, someone to dress them, or both?
