Archive
Cruz Takes the Plunge
Onshore Tax Havens
The first thing you notice on the cab ride from the airport to downtown Panama City is the skyscrapers. They're architecturally beautiful, but jumbled together as if there was no plan or consideration for how they might look next to one another. What you might not...
Your Chewing Gum Is Making You a Lab Rat
Whenever I'm on a long road trip, chomping down on a piece of gum helps me stay awake. I don’t choose gum because it's bright white or glossy, but because the burst of sweet minty freshness really keeps me going. Thanks to nanotechnology, I have my choice of brilliant...
Say It, Don’t Spray It
A friend of mine is a farmer out in Montana. She's also eight months pregnant with her first child. Recently she looked out her window and saw a worker spraying pesticides on her neighbor's farm. Concerned for the health of her baby, she called the neighbor about the...
King Coal Is Headed to Prison
So long, Don, it's been God-awful to know you. Don Blankenship, who was the King of King Coal, is headed toward a place he never imagined he'd end up: federal prison. The ruthless former CEO of the Massey Energy company arrogantly assumed he was above the law. For...
In OtherWords: April 27, 2016
Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Peter Certo, our new editor here at OtherWords. I'm taking over from my colleague and mentor Emily Schwartz Greco, who's leaving the Institute for Policy Studies after 13 years of incredibly hard work — half of which she spent...
A 2-Pronged Assault on Women
We heard a lot about the "war on women" during the 2012 election cycle — mostly over Republican attacks on abortion rights and birth control. While the phrase has faded in this election year go-round, the war on women has not. The only change is that now we’re...
Inequality Will Get Worse Until There’s a Revolution
Imagine, after a deep sleep, you suffered the fate of Rip Van Winkle and woke in the spring of 2040. What might you find? Among other things, maybe a presidential candidate railing against America's concentration of wealth. Except this time, it's not the 1 percent...
We Live in a Democracy, Not a Theocracy
It wasn't so long ago when one of the most powerful justifications wielded in support of segregation was religious belief. Throughout the American South, state-sanctioned Jim Crow laws legally separated blacks from whites. Schools were segregated. Restaurants were...
The Good Food Movement Needs Science, Too
Perhaps you've heard some organic food advocates say, "We should just roll back the clock and farm the way we used to" — before modern science gave us factory farms and genetically modified ingredients. Others disagree, saying that we'd all starve if we didn't use...
