🖤 Donations of all sizes power our public service journalism Give Now

From This Collection

“Everything you know about home economics is wrong”

May 6, 2021
In her new book, “The Secret History of Home Economics,” Danielle Dreilinger challenges common perceptions of a once-thriving profession.
A home economics lesson in 1953. In a new book on the history of home economics, author Danielle Dreilinger writes about how the profession created a “back door” for women in science, business, and engineering.
Photo by Harrison/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

What happened to America’s public toilets?

Apr 13, 2021
In an excerpt from her new book, science journalist Chelsea Wald writes on the unintended result of a movement to ban pay toilets.
In her new book, “Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet,” Chelsea Wald explores the problem and promise of toilet technology.
Christof Koepsel/Getty Images

Capitalism's response to school shootings

Apr 5, 2021
In his new book, "Children Under Fire," John Woodrow Cox writes about how gun violence affects children and the nearly $3 billion market for school security.
Kindergarten students during a lockdown drill in Hawaii in 2003.
Phil Mislinski/Getty Images

Is the tax code racist?

Mar 23, 2021
Professor Dorothy Brown of Emory University became a "detective," searching for data on how the tax code impacts Black Americans.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Searching for meaning in the North Dakota oil boom

Feb 16, 2021
In a new book, Michael Patrick F. Smith reflects on his time working on an oil field in North Dakota.
An oil drilling rig in North Dakota in 2013.
Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Public pools used to be everywhere in America. Then racism shut them down.

Feb 15, 2021
In her new book, "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together," Heather McGhee looks at how racism drained not only public pools, but also public support for universal healthcare and other "big government" policies.
A child holds a sign at a Black Lives Matter protest in New York City on June 9, 2020.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

The “afterlife” of mass incarceration

Feb 1, 2021
In a new book, sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller explores the punishments formerly imprisoned people face after their release. Read an excerpt here.
Inmates worship during Christmas Mass at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles. In a new book, sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller examines the effects of incarceration after it ends.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Who gets to decide what “feminism” looks like?

Jan 5, 2021
Read an excerpt from the new book “White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind,” by Koa Beck.
"Like any sorority, white feminism does have specific parameters for anyone who wants to join their cause," writes Beck. "Just ask those beyond the parameters." Above, a woman removes two masks after disinfecting a hospital room used by a COVID-19 patient.
Karen Ducey/Getty Images

COVID-19 is putting the economy on fast-forward

Nov 24, 2020
Will that make it better or worse? Scott Galloway, professor at the NYU Stern School, weighs in with his new book, "Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity."
People wait in line to receive donated groceries on May 6, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York City.
Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

The economic power of royal fashion

Nov 17, 2020
In this book excerpt, veteran style journalist Elizabeth Holmes writes about how Meghan Markle used fashion to respond to media criticism.
The royal family celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday in 2016. Color is an essential part of Queen Elizabeth II's wardrobe, writes Elizabeth Holmes.
Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images