Tag Archives: Society

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Science, Society

Culture: The American Scholar – Winter 2025

December 3, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (December 2, 2024): The latest issue features ‘From Atop The Magic Mountain’ – One-Hundred years later, Thomas Mann’s epic remains as prophetic as ever.

Under a Spell Everlasting

Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, published a century ago, tells of a world unable to free itself from the cataclysm of war By Samantha Rose Hill

Aging Out

Many of us do not go gentle into that good night

The Fair Fields

Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil

Analysis, Foreign Affairs, Politics, Reviews, World Affairs

World Affairs: Trend Magazine – Fall 2024

October 18, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Trend Magazine (October 17, 2024) – How to Restore Trust in Elections , Media Mistrust Has Been Growing for Decades, Can Science and Health Care Gain What’s Missing?; How Better Policies Can Help Build Trust

Americans’ Mistrust of Institutions

Trust in our nation’s institutions has never been lower. And experts tend to blame our politically polarized society, which certainly contributes to the deep unease that is being felt by a majority of…

Data Behind Americans’ Waning Trust in Institutions

If mistrust were a disease, the United States would be facing an epidemic. Over the last half-century, trust in American institutions has steadily declined, and this mistrust has rapidly increased in…

The Founding Debate on Trust in America

As our nation grapples with growing mistrust of all institutions, including the federal government, it’s important to remember that this is not a new debate, but one that has been embedded in the American…

5 Ways to Rebuild Trust in Government

Only 1 in 5 Americans trust the federal government—so how do we restore public confidence? For more than two decades, the Partnership for Public Service has worked across presidential administrations to…

Nobody Roots for Goliath: Why Americans Trust Small Business

We root for David, the underdog facing impossible odds, who stands in contrast to Goliath, the big bully. So maybe it’s not surprising that Americans root for small business in contrast to big business.

Politics: The Progressive Magazine- October 2024

October 1, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

theprogressive Magazine (October 1, 2024): The latest issue features…

How to Make a ‘War Reserve’ Nuclear Bomb

The dark art of crafting nuclear ‘pits’ was almost lost. Now it’s ramped up into a multibillion dollar industry.

Child Care Does Not Need To Be a Crisis

Our system leaves parents with unreliable waitlists and mortgage-size payments, while teachers go overburdened and underpaid.

Can Democrats Ride Ballot Initiatives to Victory?

The party realizes that progressive issues win voters, even when their candidates don’t.

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Science, Society

Culture: The American Scholar – Autumn 2024

September 10, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (September 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Queen of the Night’ – Behold the wonders of a Carolina moonflower…

Moondance

Experience the marvel that is night-blooming tobacco By Leigh Ann Henion

In western North Carolina, the mountain growing season is short, and autumn is already tossing yellow-and-red confetti against my windshield as I drive the back roads to my friend Amy’s homestead. Curve after curve, I find locust trees that are a few shades lighter than they were last week. Buckeyes also seem well on their way to change. It is now hard to tell the difference between orange leaves falling and monarch butterfly wings rising. The signs of summer and fall, all intertwining.

Thoreau’s Pencils

How might a newly discovered connection to slavery change our understanding of an abolitionist hero and his writing?

By Augustine Sedgewick

Look Out!

Why did it take so long to protect spectators of America’s favorite pastime?

By Debra Spark

Teach the Conflicts

It’s natural—and right—to foster disagreement in the classroom

By Mark Edmundson

Culture, Journalism, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The Progressive Magazine- Aug/Sept 2024

August 5, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Progressive Magazine - Reporting the truth since 1909. - Progressive.org

theprogressive Magazine (August 5, 2024):

Dark Money Uncovered

Corporate news media too often miss the pervasive influence of unaccountable election spending.

‘None of the Above’: Exposing Election Year News Abuse

As framed by corporate news media, presidential elections have become as formulaic as a Hallmark holiday movie.

Navigating the Digital Democracy

Social media has the power to influence voters.

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Science, Society

Culture: The American Scholar – Summer 2024

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THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (June 4, 2024): The latest issue features ‘An Olympian for the Ages’ – Why George Eyser’s feats at the 1904 Games deserve to be celebrated today; Joshua Prager on a forgotten Olympian, Mickalene Thomas and the art of remixing, new poetry from Ange Mlinko, and more…

A Forgotten Turner Classic

Who was George Eyser, the one-legged German-American gymnast who astounded at the Olympic Games?

Femmes Fantastiques

Mickalene Thomas and the art of remixing

We Are the Borg

Is the convergence of human and machine really upon us?

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil

In the fall of 2014, an MIT cognitive scientist named Tomaso Poggio predicted that humankind was at least 20 years away from building computers that could interpret images on their own. Doing so, declared Poggio, “would be one of the most intellectually challenging things … for a machine to do.” One month later, Google released an AI program that did exactly what he’d deemed impossible.

Culture, Journalism, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The Progressive Magazine- Feb/March 2024

February 5, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

theprogressive Magazine February/March 2024:

Breaking’s Storied Road to the Olympics

From the South Bronx to the Summer Olympics, this urban dance style finally gets its due.

By MARCUS REEVES

Forging a New Path as Partners with Latin America

A group of U.S. lawmakers recently visited South America with a fresh perspective on U.S. foreign policy in the region.

By JEFF ABBOTT

Middle America: Getting Beyond ‘Us Versus Them’

We’ve become increasingly alienated from one another. It’s time we get back in touch with each other, get out of our heads, and reconnect with our common humanity, writes Ruth Conniff.

RUTH CONNIFF

Culture, Journalism, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The Progressive Magazine – December 2023

November 27, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

theprogressive Magazine December 2023/January 2024:

Tunnels for Safety and Tunnels for Death

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An underground nuclear arsenal in Israel dwarfs the tunnels alleged at a Gaza hospital.

It’s one thing to burrow beneath the ground, digging to construct a tunnel for refuge, a passage of goods, or to store weapons during a time of war. It’s quite another for a small child to use one hand to dig their way out of the rubble that has collapsed on them.

Vox Populist: Planet Wins; News Wins

Words from populist author, public speaker, and radio commentator Jim Hightower.

Which Path Will You Choose?

Editor’s Note for the October/November 2023 issue.

Gen Z Is Taking the Reins

A variety of young candidates are signing up to run for elected office at local, state, and national levels.

Culture, Design, Lifestyle, Magazines, Reviews, Society

Design/Culture: Monocle Magazine – November 2023

October 23, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Monocle Magazine (November 2023) – The new autumn design issue profiles the best new chairs, tables and accessories available this season, interviews architectural luminaries including Renzo Piano and hits the road in Czechia to meet the makers forging a new gold standard in craft. We also assess France’s waning influence in Africa and unlock the secrets of the world’s safest safes.

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Science, Society

Culture: The American Scholar – Autumn 2023

August 23, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR – AUTUMN 2023:

Will the Real Vergil Please Stand Up?

Making sense of the life of a poet about whom we know so little

by Sarah Ruden

Great works of literature are sly and powerful beasts that pounce on their readers, grabbing them by the neck and shaking them back and forth. The young Augustine looks like a typical victim of Vergil’s Aeneid. The schoolboy being brought up as a Christian in fourth-century CE North Africa found the first-century BCE epic poem of pagan Rome the most impressive thing in his cultural life to date. Tellingly, his reaction shows no interest in the poem’s theme of individual sacrifice in the name of imperial destiny; rather, into middle age, the great theologian and founder of institutional Catholic monasticism remembered weeping for Dido, who commits suicide after her lover, Aeneas, abandons her at the end of Book IV.