What is effective altruism?
My story on rage-bait chefs for The Verge got a shout out in the Quartz weekly brief newsletter
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The ultimate residence for the hybrid post-Covid lifestyle
The Set, a new residential property in New York City’s Hudson Yards district, is reconfiguring the Manhattan apartment for the post-covid era. Designed for busy professionals commuting into a New York City office just two to three times a week, The Set is offering leases as short as six months, …
How to entice employees back to the office
Client: Steelcase It might be time to put hot desking—the popular practice where in-office employees sit at any available workstation instead of an assigned desk—on the back burner.
What a conference in the metaverse looks like
Remember in-person conferences? It wasn’t so long ago that attendees would fly to far-flung destinations with promises of inspiring conversation, networking, free food and maybe even a good panel or two. Then along came the pandemic and shifted in-person events to Zoom and other digital platforms which felt, well, flat. …
African workers in Lebanon are stuck and unpaid by Kafala system worsened by Covid
The future for Yemi, a Nigerian former student, was laid out in a contract written in Arabic which she signed in an office in Lagos in June 2019 to enable a recruitment agency bring her to work in Lebanon.
What do we call Hong Kong’s nameless “2019 protests” in 2020?
As Hong Kong’s protest movement passed the six-month mark and the year drew to a close, the question of what name to give a movement that began in June 2019 becomes a vexed one for editors and reporters, academics, and commentators.
The fight against Nigeria’s northeast terrorism is also a battle against climate change
Boko Haram, poverty and lack of prospects force many Nigerians to flee – especially in the Lake Chad area. Climate change is driving the crisis further.
Singin' About A Revolution
The soundtrack of this year's Hong Kong protests marks a somber turn from the Umbrella Movement
To understand America, don’t separate Republicans and Democrats statistically
Americans are fixated with the Republican-Democrat divide. But Republicans are a significantly smaller group.
What’s so special about Beto?
O'Rourke's whole campaign against Ted Cruz in Texas is about subverting the stereotypes that have polarized America.
Meet your next-door, English-speaking, home-owner undocumented immigrant
More than 60% of undocumented immigrants have been living in the US for 10 years or more.
Why Trump’s math on immigration is all wrong, in 7 charts
The rising numbers of people caught at the border are a sign of a bureaucratic crisis, not an immigration "invasion."
The definitive 21st-century guide to the fight in Venezuela
The "good guys" are not necessarily those who are democratically elected. Post Cold War dictatorships have donned new clothes.
The latest refugee crisis is not happening anywhere near a war zone
Venezuela is not at war, yet it’s starting to look like Syria based on the exodus of people fleeing the country.
Video: Over 1,000 Frida Kahlos celebrated the late Mexican artist’s birthday
Who knew a unibrow could be such a popular look?
Illegal immigration into the US is collapsing
Genaro López's plan was to cross the Rio Grande and to find work in an American farm. He was caught and deported, but he is thankful for that. He now lives in Monterrey, Mexico, an industrial hub some 150 miles from the US border. He earns less than what he …
A Cuban man built the world’s tallest bike, but can’t afford to ride it
Seemingly simple tasks, like buying a bicycle chain, are still incredibly difficult to achieve on the island.
A new party wants to break Bosnia’s political deadlock using computer science
A fledgling political movement called Platforma za progres, Bosnian for “Platform for Progress,” is trying to fix Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political deadlock using computer modeling and data analytics, a toolbox that decision-makers around the world are increasingly experimenting with.
Photos: Colombia’s “lost city of marijuana”
As Colombia's civil war draws near its end, pot farmers in poor regions are afraid of losing their livelihoods.
If you want to get to Cuba “before it changes,” you’re already too late
That's a good thing: It's a much friendlier and happier place than 15 years ago.
If you want to make money in Cuba, join a band
If Jorge Guevara worked as a doctor in the US, he’d likely have a six-figure salary. But this is Cuba, and as a drummer hammering out tropical standards for sunburned tourists in the resort town of Varadero, Guevara earns several times more than he once made practicing medicine. “In Cuba, …
Welcome to the new Cuba, where dog baths cost what some state workers make in a whole paycheck
Newly affluent Cubans want middle-class services, from pet grooming to tattoo removal.
A conspiracy theory about sex and gender is being peddled around the world by the far right
From France to Mexico, conservatives are using the same coded words to fight progress.
Here’s a way the US could get a better deal out of Nafta without changing it
There are two ways of looking at Laredo, Texas, a border city at the southern edge of the US. One is as barren outpost of the US economy, condemned by geographic misfortune to a marginal existence. The other is as part of one of the most dynamic economies in North …
Donald Trump believes manufacturing equals prosperity. Our data analysis proves him wrong
We collected years of data for every state and province in North America, and the conclusion is clear: US president Donald Trump’s belief that manufacturing equals prosperity doesn’t hold up.
Globalization tore through my city and this is how we survived
While Monterrey has proved to be a master at racking up NAFTA winnings, it's been pretty incompetent at administering them.
The origin of your TV set is a simple lesson in the dangers of ignoring globalization
The type of protectionist policies favored by Trump helped hasten the decline of a once-mighty American industry.
Hurricane Irma will likely cover South Florida with a film of poop
The prospect of poop-laden water pooling around Miami is scary enough, yet it’s just a symptom of a much bigger problem that plagues hurricane-prone Florida. Rising sea levels are upending its ability to deal with floodwater.
A Houston homeowner has spent $100K on flood prevention. It’s probably not enough
Atul Vir is ready for the next Hurricane Harvey. His plan includes a living room designed to let floodwaters flow through and a "helipad" for rescue. “It’s the law of the jungle,” he says. “Survival of the fittest.”