Essays Archive - Page 32 of 131

The Orchids That Bloom in the Dark

The migrant domestic workers of the U.K. organization Waling Waling are fighting for their dignity and human rights

November 17, 2021 • by Annelise Orleck

On a warm, wet London Saturday, a group of Filipina women meet in Regent’s Park. They are joined by a few friends from North and West Africa, several small children, and a couple of men recording the event on camera. They spread blankets on the grass which they quickly cover ...

Politics

The Politics of Infrastructure

How the Lebanese struggle for public infrastructure is a lesson for all

November 17, 2021 • by Joanne Randa Nucho

Last month, Lebanon’s national electricity grid went dark—and this tiny Mediterranean country, known for its elite educational institutions, tourism and banking, but struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and corruption, found itself in newspaper headlines around the world again. The state’s two power plants had run out of fuel. Having ...

Feminism

Getting an Abortion in Buffalo

I terminated a pregnancy in my twenties. Decades later, I’m still learning the full truth of reproductive justice.

November 16, 2021 • by Christen Clifford

My boyfriend told me he wanted to keep it—he wanted another chance at fatherhood. He was 45 and I was 20. He’d left a daughter a few years younger than me behind in Dublin. He drank. And I was in fucking college. At Women’s Health Services on Main Street in Buffalo, ...

Politics

What Kyle Rittenhouse Teaches Us

Whatever the Kenosha jury ultimately decides, the American right’s embrace of citizen violence, and the effects of their propaganda on boys, is far more troubling

November 16, 2021 • by Claire Potter

I watched Kyle Rittenhouse’s testimony last week, and as he crumpled up in tears, I thought: what a sad, stupid story. For anyone who has missed the background to the Rittenhouse trial: this is the guy who, at 17, decided to go to Kenosha, Wisconsin, from his home in Antioch, Illinois, ...

Interviews

Can We Talk about Race?

An award-winning journalist says yes—it isn’t easy, but everyone can learn to do it

November 10, 2021 • by Celeste Headlee and Gregory Coleman

Celeste Headlee, an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter (Harper Wave, 2018), and Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving (Harmony, 2021) met (virtually) with Public Seminar editorial intern Gregory Coleman to discuss writing about the difficult conversations that need to happen ...

Race

Speaking of Race

In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, Celeste Headlee shows how two determined friends opened a white supremacist’s mind

November 10, 2021 • by Celeste Headlee

First is the story of Derek Black, godson of David Duke (former grand wizard of the KKK) and son of Don Black, who founded the neo-Nazi online forum Stormfront in 1996. Derek was raised in a tradition of hate and became a true believer in the white nationalist cause. Then ...

Media

Has the Press Corps Learned Nothing?

Journalism, when done right, should change a person

November 9, 2021 • by John Stoehr

Members of the Washington press corps like to tell a story about the heroes of the Washington press corps “holding power to account.” This seems noble, and it can be, but more often than not, it’s not noble. In practice, what “holding power to account” means is countering the dominance over ...

Podcast

The NYC Marathon and the History of Long-Distance Racing

Past Present Podcast, Episode 300

November 9, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The fiftieth New York City Marathon was canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus, but the race has returnedthis year.Natalia referred to historian Dylan Gottlieb’s Public Seminar article about the origins of the race and to runner Kathrine Switzer’s memoir, ...

Politics

The Horrifying Right to One’s Own Context

Seven rules of culture warfare

November 8, 2021 • by Ondrej Slacalek

Anybody can become a cultural warrior, even unwillingly. With common grounds diminishing and liberals and conservatives dead-set against each other, is the Left doomed to fail? “Culture wars” has become a rather annoying expression, encompassing far too much while explaining far too little. At the same time, it seems to be ...

The Horrifying Right to One’s Own Context

Technology

Water Is Life, and Also a Trade Secret

Google won’t tell you how much water it uses and an Oregon city has its back

November 5, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

Google may have been cowed into turning down subsidies for new office buildings in a few major cities, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t up to its usual shenanigans outside of those metro areas. Out in Oregon, in fact, Google is embroiled in a controversy in which it’s gotten a town to ...

Reviews

Titane: Transformative Gender and Intimacy

The winner of the 2021 Palme d’Or takes us through hell and out the other side

November 3, 2021 • by Melinda Freudenberger

The following review contains spoilers. My friend has a phrase she likes to use about her new dog. “I look at him from across the room,” she says, after talking to me about all the piss pads littering her apartment floor, “and I can tell he’s having bad dog thoughts.” Something ...

<em>Titane</em>: Transformative Gender and Intimacy

Uncategorized

How COVID-19 Became a Crisis

To understand what went wrong, look at how the problem is framed

November 3, 2021 • by Janet Roitman

We are in crisis. Nothing could be more self-evident: a global pandemic has ravaged the human species. But wait—what does it mean to call an open-ended event that is playing out over a period of years a “crisis"? If humans live with viruses, how is Covid-19, and the diseases it triggers, a crisis for the human species and our ...

Essays

The Orchids That Bloom in the Dark

The migrant domestic workers of the U.K. organization Waling Waling are fighting for their dignity and human rights

The Politics of Infrastructure

How the Lebanese struggle for public infrastructure is a lesson for all

Getting an Abortion in Buffalo

I terminated a pregnancy in my twenties. Decades later, I’m still learning the full truth of reproductive justice.

What Kyle Rittenhouse Teaches Us

Whatever the Kenosha jury ultimately decides, the American right’s embrace of citizen violence, and the effects of their propaganda on boys, is far more troubling

Can We Talk about Race?

An award-winning journalist says yes—it isn’t easy, but everyone can learn to do it

Speaking of Race

In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, Celeste Headlee shows how two determined friends opened a white supremacist’s mind

Has the Press Corps Learned Nothing?

Journalism, when done right, should change a person

The NYC Marathon and the History of Long-Distance Racing

Past Present Podcast, Episode 300

The Horrifying Right to One’s Own Context

Seven rules of culture warfare

Water Is Life, and Also a Trade Secret

Google won’t tell you how much water it uses and an Oregon city has its back

Titane: Transformative Gender and Intimacy

The winner of the 2021 Palme d’Or takes us through hell and out the other side

How COVID-19 Became a Crisis

To understand what went wrong, look at how the problem is framed

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