Is Air Quality Getting Worse? The Truth About Pollution, Policy, and Power in the U.S.
To understand why air quality feels like it is worsening, even after decades of improvement, we need to examine the full system that produces it now.
World Events
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Why Stress, Burnout, and Fatigue Are Surging: The Systems Behind the Symptoms
Stress, burnout, and fatigue are rising to unprecedented levels in 2026, with search data showing record highs for terms like “feel overwhelmed,” “burnout at work,” and “cortisol.” This piece examines how economic pressure, AI-driven workloads, fragmented time, and post-pandemic instability are driving chronic stress at a systemic level. Here we explore why this surge is happening and what it reveals about modern life.
Mass Shootings and Gun Deaths: Power, Profit, and the Systems That Sustain The Violence
Mass shootings sit at the intersection of political power, economic incentives, mental health, global dynamics, and specific responses.
Online vs Retail Sales in 2026 and What It Means for Society
Explore how online vs retail sales in 2026 influence societal trends and reflect deeper patterns in consumer behavior and wealth distribution.
The Global Divide: How Income Inequality Differs Across the World’s Most Powerful Economies
Here we explore how income inequality differs across the world, focusing particularly on the ten most powerful economies and examining the policies and structures that shape their income distribution.
Ending Daylight Saving Time Permanently: Mental Health, Society, and the Global Economy
Twice every year millions of people experience a small but disruptive event: the clocks move forward or backward. The practice, known as Daylight Saving Time (DST), was originally intended to conserve energy and make better use of daylight hours. Yet over the last several decades, research in medicine, psychology, and economics has increasingly questioned whether…
Bias, The Hidden Skew in Everything We Know
Our picture of reality is shaped by our history and our existing understanding, revealing the hidden skew in everything. That is what makes up bias.
Unofficial Recession Indicators: Cottagecore, Lipstick, Strippers, Mosquitoes, and the Economy We Feel
Unofficial recession indicators are everywhere but is the United States in a recession? As of February 2026, the technical answer is no. Real GDP growth remains positive, with current nowcasts for Q1 tracking roughly in the 2.4 to 3.1 percent range annualized. Full-year forecasts cluster near 2.5 to 2.8 percent. Initial jobless claims have ticked…
Bot Farms and the Synthetic Internet: Power, Perception, Labor, and the Philosophy of Attention
Most people know bots exist. They have seen spam replies, suspicious follower spikes, strange comment threads, and engagement that feels artificial. The surprise is not that bots are online. The surprise is how much of the internet they now occupy, and how deeply they shape systems that affect politics, wealth, labor, culture, and even mental…