What kinds of jobs would you describe as enviable? Is teaching assistant on your list? Probably not. In the Mississippi Delta communities around Greenville, however, the position of teaching assistant ranks quite high. Miriam Hall, education fellow at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, explains why in this January 2016 article in Slate. Read it here: Hall, …
Continue reading Not that Delta: Miriam Hall on education aspirations in rural Mississippi
Calvin Klein underwear models, definitely eye candy. But what effect do underwear ads have on our own body image? Spencer Althouse and BuzzFeed set up a project with seven everyday guys, some Calvins, and a studio photographer. The participants’ comments on the experience (along with the photos!) are in this August 2015 post. Read it …
Continue reading Me in my Calvins: BuzzFeed on body image and underwear ads
When food security pops up in the news, as it does frequently these days, it usually refers to having two things: a grocery store nearby and money to spend there. For Inuit people in Alaska, however, food security means something very different. The Seattle Times published this December 2015 report by Alaska-based Associated Press reporter …
Continue reading Not one-size-fits-all: Dan Joling on food security in Alaska
If you haul a backpack full of textbooks all day, you might appreciate an e-book version of some of the heavier ones. Technology writer Clive Thompson appreciates reading on a small screen, but for different reasons. He posted this essay on his blog, Collision Detection, in February 2014. Read it here: Thompson, "“Why 18th century books …
Continue reading Size matters: Clive Thompson on the benefits of small screen reading
Retail jobs are famously low-paying, with erratic schedules and sometimes shift changes without prior notice. Little wonder, then, that an hourly-paid retail worker would aspire to be promoted—to a salaried low-level management position with its promise of an ascent up the corporate ladder. But it doesn’t always work out so nicely, as writer Virginia Sole-Smith …
Continue reading Dreams in overtime: Newsweek on labor laws for salaried workers
Every day we “gotta eat,” right? Smartphones and apps have paved the way for a variety of new businesses designed to feed customers’ bellies and entrepreneurs’ bank accounts. Writer Robin Sloan discusses two such businesses and the deeper implications of their operating models in this November 2015 article in the Atlantic. Read it here: Sloan, “Why I …
Continue reading My neighbor’s kitchen: Robin Sloan on buying prepared meals
Free tuition in Tennessee, that’s genuinely wonderful. And we don’t mean to be ungrateful or greedy, but is it enough? How do the bills get paid in the meantime? And what about academic preparation? Alana Semuels, staff writer for the Atlantic, explores these questions in her October 2015 report on the Tennessee Promise. Read it …
Continue reading A Big Promise: Alana Semuels on Tennessee’s ambitious tuition program
If you were to write “you have one messages” in an essay, you would probably lose points for your error. But the machines we deal with every day use such phrases, and we pay no attention. Not all of us, however, let these statements go unnoticed. Linguist Geoffrey Pullum criticizes what he calls “artificial stupidity” …
Continue reading “Artificial stupidity”: Geoffrey Pullum on user-interface software
They tell her Tinder sucks, all the while with eyes that never leave the screen, thumbs that never stop swiping. Vanity Fair writer and editor Nancy Jo Sales interviewed dozens of twentysomethings in several states as well as assorted academics and experts for this in-depth September 2015 report on dating apps and hookup culture. Read …
Continue reading “So easy”: Nancy Jo Sales on dating apps and hookup culture
Student loan debt in the U.S. is at a record high. What’s more, the levels of civic engagement and civic literacy are shockingly low. In this September 2015 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Purdue University law and public policy professor Sheila Suess Kennedy proposes a new federal program that would solve both problems …
Continue reading ‘Tour of duty’: Sheila Suess Kennedy on a bold plan
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