The Best Articles in Society
The most useful articles and videos in Society from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Society Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Society by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
CLARITY Is POWER: Yuval Noah Harari
Ultra-athlete Rich Roll talks with bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari about the most pressing issues currently facing mankind. For more, go here👉🏾http://...
Shortcuts are killing humanity. It’s time to meet the alternative.
Short-term thinkers take shortcuts. Take the longpath instead, explains futurist Ari Wallach.Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/chan...
Is marriage dying?
Why marriage is thriving — and dying — in different American classes, with journalist and scholar Richard Reeves.Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://...
The 99% Is a Myth—Here's How It Really Breaks Down
When it comes to the division of wealth, many Americans believe that the country is split between the 1%, which possesses a significant share of the country’...
How America lost its mind—and how to get rationality back
Washington University professor John Inazu tells us how we can make peace inside a raging culture war.Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube...
How to ...?
How to Build Public Spaces for Teen Girls
Teen girls have unique needs and experiences that are often left out of our built environment. Explore three projects across the world as they share how they are transforming public spaces for teen…
How to Approach Strangers at A Party
A party at the house of a friend, eleven o’clock, on a still-warm evening. A metre away from you, a group of people are chatting animatedly. Someone is telling an anecdote, it might be something about…
How to Protect Species and Save the Planet—at Once
A major new report calls on humanity to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises simultaneously. Here's what that might look like.
«HUMANITY IS STRUGGLING to contain two compounding crises: skyrocketing global temperatures and plummeting biodiversity. But people tend to tackle each problem on its own»
How to fight racism using science
Misguided assumptions about race are going mainstream, but hard facts can help you combat entrenched attitudes
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Society on Refind.
Some Things I Think
The fastest way to get rich is to go slow. Many beliefs are held because there is a social and tribal benefit to holding them, not necessarily because they’re true. Nothing is more blinding than…
«We should be careful praising winners or criticizing failures, because they often made similar decisions with different degrees of luck.»
Here...comes...INDIA!!!
The world has a new largest country, and it's on the move.
The Great Alcohol Health Flip-Flop Isn’t That Hard to Understand—if You Know Who Was Behind It
More than 30 years ago, the "French paradox" got America bleary-eyed.
The Mental Illness Crisis Has Hit Millennials
Why It Happened and Why It’s Bad For Democracy
We should be fighting for our cognitive liberty, says ethics expert
Sensors capable of detecting and decoding brain activity are already embedded into everyday devices, said experts at a webinar.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Society—all under 10 minutes.
10 Propaganda Techniques: How to Manipulate the Masses (Part 1)
A reflection on propaganda techniques; methods used to manipulate perception and opinion to further an agenda. But it's not that simple.
What Is Emotional Labor, and Why Does It Matter?
A new book explains how devaluing emotional labor—disproportionately done by women and other disadvantaged groups—perpetuates inequality.
AI will end the west’s weak productivity and low growth. But who exactly will benefit?
The clock is ticking on the development of policy to meet this huge societal challenge, says Larry Elliott, the Guardian’s economics editor
Conspicuous (non) consumption
One way to show status is by demonstrating how many resources you have. A bespoke suit, a huge graduation party, a fancy building… A bully who physically intimidates or an angry driver who cu…
Why Smart People Hold Stupid Beliefs
Intelligence is not rationality
«Without the right personal qualities, education and IQ won’t make you master of your biases, they’ll only make you a better servant of them.»
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Society.
Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest
Evidence for Lukianoff’s reverse CBT hypothesis
The radical idea that people aren't stupid
OR, the toilet spoke and I understood the truth
«And third, there’s correspondence bias, the tendency to attribute other people’s actions to their personalities rather than to their situations.»
The Body at Work: Why Self-Control is the #1 Rule of the 21st-Century Economy
The first time I recognized that my body should be controlled was when I was eleven or twelve years old. Thanks to some particularly nasty asthma medication, my body was already well on the “after”…
10 Charts That Capture How the World Is Changing
From Loneliness to ChatGPT, Startup Valuations to Office Occupancy
Tech guru Jaron Lanier: ‘The danger isn’t that AI destroys us. It’s that it drives us insane’
The godfather of virtual reality has worked beside the web’s visionaries and power-brokers – but likes nothing more than to show the flaws of technology. He discusses how we can make AI work for us,…
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Society, including:
zeynep tufekci
Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @Columbia professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter @insight http://www.theinsight.org

Ida Bae Wells
Reporter @nytmag//Creator #1619Project//EP #1619Hulu//Co-founder @IBWellsSociety //Founder @c4jdhowardu //Knight Chair @howardu//

danah boyd
sociotechnical researcher | Microsoft Research, Georgetown, Data & Society | zephoria@zephoria.org | (@zephoria@mastodon.social) | https://zephoria.substack.com
World Economic Forum
The international organization for public private cooperation.

Ibram X. Kendi
Partner • #GirlDad • Scholar @BU_Tweets • Dir @AntiracismCtr • @NationalBook Award Winner • #1 NYT Bestselling Author • MacArthur Fellow • Surviving Cancer 🐍
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Society, including:
Scott Galloway
Product of big government @ucla @ucberkeley | Prof Marketing @NYUStern | Right of Center-Left | #ProfGPod @PivotPod | Strategy Sprint @section_school
Current Affairs
A magazine of political commentary, analysis, and amusements.
Pew Research Internet
Nonpartisan, non-advocacy @pewresearch data about technology and the internet
n+1
n+1 is a print and digital magazine of literature, culture, and politics.
Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦
Writes about economics, tweets about rabbits. Subscribe to my Substack: http://noahpinion.substack.com Email: noahpiniontwitter@gmail.com
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Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
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It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
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The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
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How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Which sources does Refind monitor in Society?
We monitor hundreds of sources in Society, including Scott Galloway, Current Affairs, Pew Research Internet, n+1, Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦, and many more.
Who are the thought leaders in Society?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Society, including zeynep tufekci, Ida Bae Wells, danah boyd, World Economic Forum, Ibram X. Kendi.
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