Feature Archives - Page 24 of 150

Feature

The KonMari Method as Consumer Theory

How Marie Kondo helps us re-learn to love the things we buy

February 11, 2019 • by Andrew C. McKevitt

This essay was originally published on February 11 2019. I first sat down to watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo only after “Bookgate” had already erupted and passed. In early January, a series of viral tweets criticized Kondo and her “KonMari” tidying method for the suggestion that one ought to keep no more ...

Feature

What Would New York’s ‘Guaranteed Health Care Plan’ Actually Accomplish?

Mayor de Blasio’s proposal is designed to take advantage of New York City’s large public hospital system to offer a different non-insurance option to the uninsured

February 10, 2019 • by Barbara Caress

In his State of the City address last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised a “guaranteed health care plan” for New York City residents. It’s designed to address the fact that currently roughly one in 10 working-age New Yorkers – some 600,000 adults – is uninsured, a figure derived from ...

What Would New York’s ‘Guaranteed Health Care Plan’ Actually Accomplish?

Feature

Vladimir Putin’s Mirror Image

Alexei Navalny and his populist political representation

February 8, 2019 • by Konstantin Koryagin

In March 2017 the largest anti-corruption rallies in the last five years were held in Russia. What was most surprising about these rallies was the age of the participants: many of those protesting were students and pupils, who took to the streets with a sense of excitement in their eyes. ...

Feature

A Place of Grief and Revolution

A Review of Gina Apostol’s Filipino novel, Insurrecto

February 7, 2019 • by Jen Mediano

When you crack open Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto, there’s an old-timey cast of characters and a listing of parts and chapters set off by florid fonts and curlicues. The reader thinks this will serve to orient her. If I use this key, you think, I will know who the main and minor ...

Education

What’s So “Jewish” About The New School?

Inventing a parable of pluralism

February 7, 2019 • by Val Vinokur

So what’s so Jewish about The New School? Well, it depends on what you mean by “Jewish.” The simplest -- and most awkwardly Nixonian -- way to answer the question is to count the Jews. When King David tried to do that in 2 Samuel 24, God smote the Israelites with three ...

Feature

After the ‘American Dream’?

How Mexico Responds to U.S. Deportations

February 6, 2019 • by Guadalupe Chavez

“Fixing” the “illegal” immigration “problem” has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s rhetoric from the first weeks he took office until today. Despite Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, undocumented persons across the U.S. are taking to the streets in protest, demanding that politicians uphold their rights, and seeking sanctuary ...

Feature

Howard Schultz, Gay Priests, and Ted Bundy

Past Present Episode 165

February 5, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss Howard Schultz’ presidential bid, gay men in the priesthood, and the enduring fascination with serial killer Ted Bundy. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Starbucks founder Howard Schultz has announced he is running for the presidency in 2020. Natalia referred ...

Howard Schultz, Gay Priests, and Ted Bundy

Feature

Political Storytelling and the State of the Union

An examination of the role and limits of storytelling in American political life

February 5, 2019 • by Erin A. Dolgoy, Kimberly Hurd Hale and Bruce Peabody

With the government shutdown at an end, at least for the next few weeks, President Trump and Speaker Pelosi quickly agreed to hold the State of the Union on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Of course, some commentators have openly wondered how much the address still matters, especially in an age of constantly shifting news ...

Political Storytelling and the State of the Union

Blue Monday

Mitch McConnell and the “For the People Act of 2019”

Thoughts on power grabbing and democracy

February 4, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This is the Democrat plan to restore democracy? A brand new week of paid vacation for every federal employee who’d like to hover around while you cast your ballot? A Washington-based, tax-subsidized clearinghouse for political campaign funding? A power grab. It’s smelling more and more like exactly what it is. Thus ...

Mitch McConnell and the “For the People Act of 2019”

Feature

The Politics of Female Sexuality in ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’

What a recent Bollywood film can tell us about risk, pleasure, desire and feminism.

February 4, 2019 • by Shiv D. Sharma

In an advisory issued by the Information and Broadcasting ministry in December 2017, the Indian government banned the telecast of condom advertisements across all television channels until 10 pm on the contention that some of them were “indecent and can impact children.” The implicit idea behind the advisory is that anything involving ...

The Politics of Female Sexuality in ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’

Feature

Brexit, Dark Money and Big Data

An investigation into the financing of Brexit

February 3, 2019 • by Adam Ramsay

An investigation by openDemocracy into the financing of the Brexit campaign in 2016 has raised far-reaching questions about connections between neoliberal elites, the tech industry and the private intelligence sector. Adam Ramsay, one of the journalists involved, summarizes a story vital to understanding how Britain has ended up where it ...