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The age of froyo has faded. Fancy cupcakes are passé. The cronut craze is now a distant fever dream. Dessert trends can sweep by fast, and today we’re in the era of the elaborate cookie — kind of. When Crumbl first burst onto the scene, the novelty was that the company had turned a relatively ..read more

In 2021, 5-year-old Allie Hart was killed after she was struck by a van while riding a bike through a crosswalk. After the loss, her mother, Jessica, started advocating for safer streets and vehicles, arguing that no parents should experience what she did.  Allie was one of two children, and 20 people, killed walking and ..read more

In July, New York City Mayor Eric Adams convened police officials and media to proudly announce that the city had made terrific progress in its much-publicized crackdown on illegal marijuana shops.  Unlicensed shops had sprung up in empty retail storefronts with jaw-dropping speed after New York state legalized marijuana in 2021. There are the bodegas ..read more

Since Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, pundits and politicians have been trying to figure out why the country’s working class is moving to the right.  “Donald Trump Won as the Champion of Working-Class Discontent,” read one headline. “How Donald Trump Gave Democrats the Working-Class Blues,” read another. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders gave Democrats a scathing ..read more

Almost all of us know what a peak experience feels like. For some people, it’s climbing mountains or surfing; for others, it’s an intense meditation practice, or maybe it’s as simple as that sensation you get on the floor at a great concert. Call it a flow state or transcendence or whatever you want, but ..read more

The early days of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime — which came to a stunning end this weekend after 13 long years of civil war as rebel forces entered the capital of Damascus and Assad fled into exile — were defined by two famous pieces of graffiti.  The first was written by a ..read more

The stereotypical image of public housing in America is one of deteriorating buildings, urban blight, and dysfunctional housing authorities in seemingly never-ending crises. Residents routinely deal with bad living conditions, including heat failures, pest infestations, mold, and leaks. And public housing projects are often found in areas with concentrated poverty and in underserved, racially segregated ..read more

H.G. Wells is probably best known for his story about an alien invasion, “The War of the Worlds,” and some of his other fantastical science fiction. But he also dabbled in some less well known prehistorical fiction. In 1921, he published a story about early modern humans and Neanderthals called “The Grisly Folk.”  In it ..read more

Twenty-five years ago, millions of people were nervously looking ahead to New Year’s Eve. When the clocks struck midnight, they wondered, would they lose power? Would planes fall from the sky? Would banks collapse and the world order crumble? Such nightmarish fantasies were never truly based in reality, but the public genuinely feared that the ..read more