Each time someone buys Trumped Up Cards until Inauguration Day, I’m donating $10 to the ACLU When we started selling Trumped Up Cards to the public in September, we noted that we’d be giving all profits to charities already working to make America great. Our first area of focus will be on organizations that protect civil liberties. As…
WE MUST VOTE YES on PROP 62. In California, all executions take place in San Quentin prison. In 2010, the administrators there built a new “lethal injection room” for this purpose that has yet to be used. The medical exam table in the center of the room is outfitted with tranquil mint-green cushions and a set…
In this series, professionals attending Next:Economy share their insights on the future of work. Read the posts here, then write your own. Use #NextEconomy somewhere in the body of the post and @mention Next:Economy conference panelists when sharing. For more insight and news on the Next:Economy, sign up for the weekly newsletter here. In the U.S. alone, almost 5.9 million jobs currently go…
Earlier this year, as Donald Trump turned the Republican primary debates into an endless Friars Club Roast, my team and I started talking about this political circus and its impact on democracy. Is it good or bad to present presidential debates as glitzy, prime-time game shows? Are campaign rallies that feature more group chanting than…
In 2012, Donald Trump called President Obama “the least transparent president in the history of this country.” Then he offered to donate $5 million to charity if President Obama would release “his college records and applications” and his “passport applications and records.” Now, in 2016, Trump is facing a similar challenge from a 26-year-old Marine…
Introducing the Berggruen Philosophy Prize and my nominee for it, Robert Wright “We need more welders and less philosophers,” Marco Rubio exclaimed during a presidential debate last fall. The larger point he was trying to make was about the virtues of vocational training, and the role it can play in helping young people develop relevant skills that…
Imagine yourself one hundred years from now. Yes, you’re still alive, breathing through genetically engineered pig lungs, and having dinner at your favorite restaurant. A robot waiter rolls up to refill your glass of wine, which is equipped with a sensor that allows the restaurant to automatically deduct $10 from your Bitcoin account. Your companion, who doesn’t actually…
In Silicon Valley few entrepreneurs and technologists dream of changing the zip code, or even the state. Here, the goal is to change the world, building products that millions of people ultimately decide they can’t live without. Not all of these products are created by for-profit start-ups – think WordPress, Wikipedia, and Bitcoin just for…
The Department of Defense (DOD) isn’t just the nation’s oldest federal agency. It’s also the nation’s largest employer. Between active-duty personnel, civilian employees, and the men and women who serve in the National Guard and Reserve forces, the DOD employs nearly three million people. Every year, thousands of these individuals complete their military service and…
To guide its efforts to increase global health, security, and overall standards of living over the next several decades, the United Nations is officially adopting 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) later this year. When people consider sustainability, particularly in the face of overall population growth, they usually focus on issues like healthcare, food production, education,…
Our world is getting more and more virtualized – but ultimately the Networked Age runs on power strips, cargo ships, and Uber trips. And over the next decade and a half, as 2.5 billion people in China, India, and other developing countries come online and join the global middle class, the global demand for energy…
President Obama covered a lot of ground in his State of the Union Address. Childcare. Education. Tax codes. Terrorism. Cybersecurity. And the theme that ultimately unites all these different areas, no matter how unconnected they may seem sometimes, is something the president touched upon too: The world – and America right along with it —…
“The New Republic is frankly an experiment,” its editors wrote in its debut issue, which appeared a little over 100 years ago in November 1914. The experiment got off to a shaky start. The first issue sold just 875 copies. At the newsstand rate of ten cents a copy, net proceeds were $87.50. While circulation rose in…