Why We Should Pay Attention to the Slow Decay of America’s Forgotten Cities
American poverty is stacking up in particular cities, towns, and counties. When local governments are populated mostly by low-income people, there is typically much less money for public services. …
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Unhealthy, Smelly, and Strange: Why Italians Avoided Tomatoes for Centuries
Just when did tomatoes arrive in Europe? We can pinpoint many events of the Spanish Conquest down to the hour, but historians haven’t been able to determine even the decade that tomatoes made landf…
What Science Can Tell Us About How We Express Ourselves
When Bara parents on Madagascar tell their children to show tahotsy, or label their children’s behavior as tahotsy, they introduce their children to the cultural goal of obedience in the hierarchy.…
How It Feels To Chase a Tornado Across Three States
In the moments before entering every supercell thunderstorm, there’s a moment of pause that washes over me. It usually comes as daylight vanishes, a few seconds after I turn on my headlights; just …
How Death Masks Blur the Lines Between Art, Mourning, and Remembrance
Nick Reynolds spent his childhood on the run in Mexico with his father, the infamous Great Train Robbery mastermind Bruce Reynolds, and now lives not far from me in London—in a flat on the second f…
Why Smarter People Might Be More Prone to Irrational Biases
Are some people less susceptible to bias? How about those who are typically considered smart? We might like to think that people who are more intelligent can discern what is right or wrong and appl…
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Equality of opportunity has been a founding principle of the American Republic. However, in an eye-opening, self-deprecating cover story for The Atlantic magazine, Matthew Stewart uses statistics and personal anecdotes to describe how privilege in the United States is becoming increasingly inheritable. If you consider yourself part of a meritocratic middle class, getAbstract believes Stewart might change your mind.
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Around the world, chip-eaters encounter flavors like hot pot and poulet roti. In America, we’ve been stuck with sour cream and onion and the one-note burn of "Flamin’ Hot."
America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good
The great “convergence” of the mid-20th century may have been an anomaly.