Salon

Is it time to take a well-earned break from other people?

Blame it on the "spontaneous fluctuations".

And that's upending our understanding of consciousness.

The complexities of successful teaching.

Exploring the idea that inanimate objects have consciousness.

The perfect antidote for overwork?

The plutocrat space race is not serious.

The challenge is figuring out what could replace it.

How our prehistoric inheritance gives us our love of beauty.

An unexpected side effect from the material.

How money shapes the mind.

Why dreaming may be key to machine learning.

Why thinking clearly matters.

Anastasia lives in the Bronx and cleans homes for a living — the pandemic has magnified her struggles.

This mouthy "Clone Wars" breakout questioned the Jedi Order long before Luke did it onscreen.

Quantum entanglement makes some scientists question the nature of reality — this is why.

Epstein's lawyers are signalling his most powerful friends' secrets are safe with him - but are they?

They both examine how memories, trauma and resentment can be passed along generations.

She saw how the industry works, but she couldn't foresee the impacts of oxycontin on her own son.

"Friends" and "the Sims" celebrated landmark birthdays in 2019, so what's their legacy?

"I Love You, Colonel Sanders" is here.

Exposing the depth of women's professional marginalisation.

Kitty litter is getting into the ocean, and killing marine life.

Count your steps, calories, dates, friendships? Is this any way to live?

A new adaptation trailer is getting fans excited, it's time to reappraise the original.

Why do these selfie challenges take over our timelines?

An old bus card or a battered notebook - what stories lie in our most cherished possessions?

'There are no easy answers to the problem of feeling purposeless'.

"While my father died in a galaxy far, far away, "Return of the Jedi" began filming a few miles from my house."

"A lot of times, I feel they have taught me more... Chief among the lessons: control is overrated."

Rarely is a tale told of coming out being anything short of terrifying. But for Brian Perrin, after coming out in High School, he thrived. Writing in Salon ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, he writes this beautiful reflection on community and courage.

Keith A. Spencer, writing in Salon magazine, argues that although it has become in vogue among millennials to mock the Baby Boomer generation as out-of-touch, reactionary, and complicit in destroying the planet, there are actually a lot of lessons to be learnt from the original counterculture generation.

Amanda Marcotte, author and politics writer, interviews the Harvard law professor, Cass Sunstein on “how change happens”. In this in-depth interview published in Salon, they discuss the importance of social movements and how they allow for broad social change to become possible.

It can also develop after being involved in, or witnessing, traumatic events.

Who is really benefiting from Yelp reviews? Restaurants or customers or both? Joshua Sperber, writing in Salon magazine, looks at how the surveillance performed happily by anonymous Yelp reviewers is actually making workers miserable.

"Simplicity and impulsivity don't translate to thoughtful conversations on Twitter."

The fight to save some of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

"Dr King influenced my grandma, who in turn influenced me."

From "Russian Doll" to "What Men Want", we are seeing the rise of the antiheroine on our screens. Finally seeing women suffering magical trials usually reserved for men is changing the way we perceive these stories - and we love it.

How to live a meaningful life in an unfair world.

Whether it’s Finance or Philosophy, Princeton or Penn State, is there any point in going to an elite college if climate change alters everything we know about life in 30 years?

The old joke goes “did you know that Paul McCartney had a band before Wings?” - Kenneth Womack takes a look at the new reissue of "Wild Life" and "Red Rose Speedway" from Wings which reveals a much more interesting sound behind the originals.

The case for breaking meat rules on vacation.

As the fight against the abuse of power continues, Victoria Shorr examines the testimony from a monk who served as the young French martyr's confidante who claims she was assaulted in the dungeon.

Noah Carney, writing in Salon reminds us how David Bowie and novelist William Boyd masterminded "the biggest art hoax in history" and how the art world fell for it.

What did I want? What the guys had. When did I want it? Now. How would I

Vijay Prashad and Kambale Musavuli, writing in Salon examine why The Democratic Republic of the Congo is both, one of the richest countries in the world, and one of the poorest.

Of course I’m not in an abusive relationship, I told myself. If I worked hard enough, I could fix all of this.” Reema Zaman shares her powerful story through a psychologically abusive relationship and why her voice is, ultimately, her freedom.

What can we learn from the change incited by the youth of a country?

Amanda Marcotte, writing in Salon, explains why '70s-era feminism is back in style and how the fight for a constitutional amendment on gender equality is real.

James McEnteer, writing in Salon, remembers his former housemate and Grateful Dead songwriter, John Perry Barlow, and a long, weird trip they took together in 1969.

Tony Platt, writing in Salon, chronicles the repressive outcomes of US criminal justice reform over the years and contends that under the First Step Act, incarceration will be not so much reduced as diversified.

Nicole Karlis, writing in Salon, argues that the rise in screen time in our lives runs parallel to a craving to indulge in self-care.

The unwavering question that took over this family's meals.

Abusive, pompous men are being spurned across the corporate world. Keith A. Spencer, writing in Salon, examines why the tech industry is an exception to this rule.

Developers are treated like trash. Matthew Smith, writing in Salon, argues that it’s time for video game makers to unionize.

Alex Rosenberg, writing in Salon, uses science to explain why even the best histories fail to identify the real causal forces that drive events.

Nicole Karlis, writing in Salon, reveals how YouTube became a powerful far-right propaganda organ.

Nicole Karlis writes in Salon about a tech company’s plans to implant microchips under the skin of its employees.

Noah Charney, writing in Salon, exposes the unlikely reason the Nazis stole almost 200 million books during World War II.

Fan of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Kesha? This is what today's top pop stars owe to Dolly Parton.

Keith A. Spencer, writing in Salon, explains why it’s not fake accounts on Facebook that you should fear– it’s Facebook itself.

Hannah Kirshner writes in Salon about the time she went day- drinking with Japanese TV and comics creator Masayuki Qusumi.

Ian Leslie, writing in Salon, shows us the neuroscientific evidence which explains why Google makes us all dumber.

Silvia Foti writes in Salon about discovering that her grandfather, a famous Lithuanian World War II hero, was actually complicit in the Holocaust.

Leslie Schwartz, writing in Salon, shares how her time spent in jail led her to a radical sense of religious enlightenment.

Our family histories are becoming the provenance of Silicon Valley’s data miners. Writing in Salon, Jason Rhode wonders: is this really a good idea?

David London, writing in Salon, shares the mystery of how his aunt Vida vanished in New York City while wearing a quarter of a million dollars worth of jewels.

Lisa Wells prefers to be rich in time rather than in money. Writing in Salon she advocates working as little as possible.

Following the attack on the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election, it appeared that hackers could shape the fate of nations. But Jason Rhode, writing in Salon, wonders whether instead of being scared of ‘hackers’ we should actually be scared of how vulnerable those in power are to common tricks.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, but others have it worse.” If I had a nickel for every time people I shared my hardships with responded this way, I’d have... well, a lot of nickels. Surely, what matters is how it made you feel? In light of celebrated designer Kate Spade’s apparent suicide in June 2018, Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing in Salon, explains why minimizing people’s legitimate suffering because other people suffer differently is callous and harmful.

When the Israel–Hezbollah War broke out, the celebrated chef Anthony Bourdain, who died in June 2018, was in Beirut to film a TV show about the city’s vibrant culinary and cultural scene. In 2006 he wrote in Salon about how he and his film crew stood on the barricades of their hotel balcony and watched it all go up in smoke — again.

“We can do better than capitalism,” is the main gist of Chapo Trap House, the cult-hit satirical podcast that lambasts the Trump administration and much of American culture. Lori Barrett, a middle- aged mother disillusioned by a dismal job market, writes in Salon about how the podcast helped turn her into a radical.

I’m sure you’ve had at least one of those moments where you’ve considered quitting your job, giving up all earthly possessions and travelling the world with nothing but a backpack, Eat, Pray, Love style. But you didn’t go through with it. Because you weren’t sure how everything would turn out. Well, here it is: Raj Gill, writing in Salon, shares what he and his partner learnt when they quit their jobs, packed up their kids aged 3 and 5, and headed for the other side of the world.

Kim Brooks immunized her young children against everything, limited their screen time, slathered them in sunscreen on sunny days and even sliced their hotdogs lengthwise. But writing in Salon, she tells the story of how one split-second decision got her involved with the police.

Lucian K. Truscott IV is a journalist, novelist and screenwriter who has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He writes in Salon about a far more personal story - about Helen, the person who could seemingly always read his mind and yet be unaware of what he was really doing.

‘This is How You Lose Her’ by Pulitzer-prize winning author Junot Díaz has been hailed as an essential read in the canon of feminist literature ever since its publication in 1996. So what happens when, twenty-two years later, at the peak of the #MeToo movement, allegations of sexual misconduct and misogynistic behaviour emerge against him? Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo, who in his adolescence clung to ‘This Is How You Lose Her’ like he’d never clung to a book before, writes in Salon about the slow and painful process of letting go of one of his heroes.

How important are names when it comes to businesses and corporates? Even back in 1999, when Ruth Shalit wrote this article in Salon, it sometimes cost $75,000 to buy a suffix. Is the trend continuing even today?

From the moment we are born we are taught that youth is everything, and that our twenties are the most glorious decade of our lives. But Jonathan Rauch is out to debunk this with his 2018 book, "The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50." Mary Elizabeth Williams interviews the author for Salon.

“AI stands for As If,” says Jason Rhode. Writing in Salon, he argues that the things we call AI, including facial recognition and surveillance, are a far cry from android sentience, and explains why creating self-aware minds is an impossible feat for humanity.

“A book can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness.”

Big boom. Life on Earth as we know it is thought to have sprung from a planetary collision billions of years ago. Jon Wenz, writing in Salon, explores the possibility of similar such events and asks what would happen if two black holes were to merge near our fragile planet.

Forgers are the art world’s antiheroes.

Cryptocurrency is enabling people to make large sums of money from the comfort of their homes. Except it isn’t as egalitarian as it sounds. Keith A. Spencer, writing in Salon, explains how this new regime of money only favours those with computational and mathematical skills.

Israeli writer Moshe Sakal identifies as an Arab Jew. Writing in Salon he tells a story he feels committed to telling—that of his diverse family’s history and their contribution to Israel’s melting pot.

“A city for tech bros means that real human concerns will fade into the background.”

If you decide to delete Facebook on due to data privacy concerns, just know that it’s a privilege. For much of the world, Facebook is the only way to connect to family, friends and business. Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing in Salon, discusses some of the reasons why it is so difficult to quit the social media platform.

It’s true, Amazon’s Alexa and other voice-activated virtual assistants are a cheaper alternative to having actual servants in the house. But Jason Rhode, writing in Salon, argues that the cost of letting these silicon souls into our lives outweigh the benefits.

“It’s alive!” Have Twitter, YouTube and Facebook taken on a dark life of their own? Jason Rhode, writing in Salon, explores the new dangers that these three companies pose, and whether their creators should be held accountable.

Anybody is allowed to climb Everest. The mountain has been democratised—but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Lucinda Bradlow, writing in Salon, looks at the mortal dangers brought about by Himalayan ego tourism.

Why is it that successful people so often have such problematic personalities? Could it be possible that “cruelty equals success”? Jason Rhode, writing in Salon, debates whether Steve Jobs’ failings of character, as seen in Walter Isaacson's biography of the legendary founder were a necessary component of Apple’s success.

Her success is an inspiration, but what about her predecessors?

Could Erik Killmonger be the single most important political philosopher to appear in a major film?

Don’t you just hate it when stupid people make bad decisions? Don’t you just wish they all just stopped existing? Farhad Manjoo, writing in Salon in 2006, looked back on a time when intellectuals seriously considered eugenics as a way of cleansing the US of morons.

Why are the parents of young children so darn competitive? Your little son will not become the next tech superstar, your daughter will not be President. Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing in Salon, merely raised decent happy children. Who needs more?

Talk to your lightbulb, listen to your toothbrush. The internet of things is coming and it’s going to get scary. Jason Rhode, writing in Salon, explores the dangerous potential of a world where everything is watching you.

Losing a friend used to really hurt. But in the age of smartphones and social media, we mourn differently. D. Watkins, writing in Salon, wonders if, like our music, we are streaming our relationships: easily putting them on pause or muting them forever.

Just imagine inventing the idea of being thirsty: the brainwave, the genius, the exorbitant amount of venture capital. Keith A. Spencer, writing in Salon, looks at Silicon Valley’s ridiculous tendency to repackage existing things as “new inventions”.

It’s biblical, but if a whale swallowed you whole, could you survive? Ben Shattuck, writing in Salon explores the plausibility of the story of Jonah, through an entertaining trail of old archives and fishermen’s tales.

Like a surprisingly high number of men, Tony Calvin visits prostitutes. Writing in Salon, he explains why he does so and why it matters that stories like his are also heard.

The celebrated author Vladimir Nabokov had a gay brother. Lev Grossman, writing in Salon, traces the forgotten story of the other Nabokov, Sergei.

It is widely accepted that fake news, filter bubbles and nefarious bots contributed to the election of Donald Trump. But Amanda Marcotte, writing in Salon, argues that the solutions to these problems will not come through technology.

Building your own company is a common ambition, but engineering an entire city takes a whole different mind-set. Keith A. Spencer, writing in Salon, looks at why Bill Gates’ plan to build his own city will probably fail.

Scientology is often not well received, but how many of us are familiar with its founders’ beliefs? Laura Miller, writing in Salon in 2005, reads and reviews Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard.

A mystery in plain-sight, he appears to be the loneliest man in the world. Sarah Vowell, writing in Salon in 2000, tries to understand the appeal of the actor Tom Cruise.

How good was J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings? Despite its cold reception amongst literary critics, Andrew O'Hehir writing in Salon in 2001, argues that is was the greatest book of the 20th Century.

Andrew O'Hehir believes that the Lord of the Rings should be considered as the greatest literary work of the 20th century. In this the second half of his essay in Salon, he holds up Tolkien’s masterpiece to the challenge that Middle Earth is little more than a parochial, occasionally racist, fantasy.

There was a time when divorce was easy and seemed harmless. Then came Judith Wallerstein’s research. Joan Walsh, writing in Salon, profiles America’s divorce czar.

In November 2017, it was revealed that Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore had dated girls as young as 16 while in his thirties and been accused of sexual assault by many others. In response, Amanda Marcotte, writing in Salon, argues that the age of consent should be normalized across the US to prevent predatory men from exploiting legal loopholes.

In 2001, the nascent internet found a new way to connect customers with what they wanted: the webcam. Katharina Mieszkowski, writing in Salon, looks at the then burgeoning industry of young girls showing skin in exchange for gifts.

In 1999, a deadly school shooting provoked a huge debate around gun control and the violence of youth subculture. Dave Cullen, wrote in Salon in the immediate aftermath of the Columbine massacre.

Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? Gavin McNett, writing in Salon in 2002, considers the theory that Christopher Marlowe was in fact responsible for the great bard’s work.

A 19th-century rivalry between palaeontologists escalated to the point of espionage, and led to “fake” dinosaur myths that persist to the day. Katherine D M Clover, writing in Salon, tells the story of the bone wars.

How should anyone decide who gets to own a gun? D. Watkins, writing in Salon, proposes a radical option: every prospective gun owner should first be shot.

You can’t bomb us back into the Stone Age. We’re already there. But you can start a new world war, and that’s exactly what Osama bin Laden wants. Tamim Ansary, writing in Salon in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 speaks out against the war in Afghanistan.

With his perfect use of language, he torments his characters and readers alike. The author Mary Gaitskill, writing in Salon, reflects on Vladimir Nabokov’s exquisite literary cruelty.

The 11th of September, 19 years later: did America hide from the harsh realities of the attack?

After being diagnosed with a melanoma, Mary Elizabeth Williams was offered the chance to trial some new anti-cancer treatments. Writing in Salon, she describes her life as a lab rat.

The night that Obama was elected President in 2008, Andrew O'Hehir stayed up watching Fox News. Writing in Salon, he describes seeing history unfold on the faces of distraught TV hosts.

All of us are potentially murderers and bigots. All of us have wanted to strangle what we find threatening. Donna Minkowitz, writing in Salon, explains why she seeks out and writes about the people she fears the most.

Consumers of the world unite! Corporations should let us fix our belongings! Jim Hightower, writing in Salon argues that it is wrong that we aren’t allowed to repair our own iPhones.

Autism. Rarely discussed, even less understood. Scot Sea, writing in Salon, describes his experience raising a daughter with autism, in all its heart-wrenching detail.

A story about the oscillation of heart's concern, from the global to the personal.

If you’re going to erect a monument of the Ten Commandments, you better be ready for a full-size-demon-goat-god-statue right next to it. Valerie Tarico, writing in Salon, looks at how The Satanic Temple is taking on the might of the US religious right.

High rent, student debt, medical bills. Even for a young professional working full-time, it can be tough to make ends meet. Terry K, writing in Salon, explains his ingenious solution for keeping costs down: secretly living in his office for over a year.