In Defense of Civility
The danger of Trump is that he is completely removing the norms of public discourse—the same norms that have served to hold in check those unwilling to see their society transformed by greater equality and liberty.
Spring 2025
- Subscribe
- Magazine
- Online
- Blog
- Podcasts
- Events
- Store
- Logout
- About Us
- Donate
- Contact
- Advertise
- Newsletter
Dirty Power’s Last Stand in California?
In Oxnard, the largest city along California’s Central Coast, an immigrant community is winning the fight against what could be the state’s last fossil fuel power plant.
Making College Free Could Add a Million New Black and Latino Graduates
Bernie Sanders’s plan for higher education would go a long way toward improving graduation rates, raising incomes, and lowering unemployment among millennials—African Americans and Latinos most of all.
Belabored Podcast #99: Because of Sex, with Gillian Thomas
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal for employers to discriminate “because of sex.” We talk with Gillian Thomas, author of a new book on the history of the Supreme Court’s rulings on that little phrase, which have shaped the experiences of millions of working people.
Pulp Nonfiction
“Zippy” creator Bill Griffith’s new book Invisible Ink is a curious masterpiece, merging the real-life personal saga of his mother with the story of the forgotten pulps.
Back to the Future
Pulsating with racial and national anxieties, cyberpunk icon William Gibson’s future America is not so different from the one we know.
Booked: The Living Dead
An interview with Thomas Laqueur about his book The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains.
In Praise of Impractical Movements
Social change is seldom either as incremental or predictable as insiders suggest. Instead, movements win by changing the political weather, turning demands considered unrealistic into ones that can no longer be ignored.
The Two Lefts of Jorge Castañeda
Can the Latin American left really be divided into a moderate, social democratic “right left” and an authoritarian, populist “wrong” one?
Belabored Podcast #98: Teachers Mobilizing for Migrant Kids
Following the arrest of six children in immigration raids, public school teachers in North Carolina are rallying to protect their students from deportation.
Innovation for What? The Politics of Inequality in Higher Education
Today’s embrace of “innovation” in higher ed advances the interests of the business elite over those of educators or students.
The Next Majority
No matter who becomes the Democrats’ nominee, Bernie Sanders’s campaign marks a sea change within the Democratic Party.
Ireland’s Battle for Abortion Rights
Last May, Ireland made history by becoming the first nation to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Will abortion rights—the final stronghold of Catholic morality in the island nation—be next?
The Care Gap
While childcare costs have soared, wages in the industry have stayed flat—leaving nearly half of childcare workers dependent on public benefits to survive. Why is the labor of educating children worth so little?
Belabored Podcast #97: Building Black Futures with Janae Bonsu
Janae Bonsu, from Black Youth Project 100, talks about the group’s “Agenda to Build Black Futures,” and why we need to think of economic justice and racial justice as intertwined.
