A Visual History of the Future

Decades ago, artists’ imaginings formed high expectations about the world to come. Were these just fantasies–or was it the work of pioneers whose visions of the future actually helped to shape it?
Darren Garrett

A Noxious Problem

Smog in cities and smoke in the home cause a huge range of short- and long-term health conditions. Why is the world’s biggest public health crisis only getting worse?
How We Get To Next

Disability Futures

We can’t think about the future-of health, of technology, of community-without centering disability; it cuts across every other kind of experience. Disability is central to all of our lives.
Kenny Fries

Beats: Space

Space is where we project our dreams–and our nightmares–of the future.

Beats: Food

Food structures our day, and food systems shape our world

Beats: Disability

“Disable” is an active verb, and disability describes the social and environmental barriers that prevent access just as much as an individual body’s physical reality.

Beats: Health

Access to health care is as much a matter of public policy as it is the size of a person’s pocketbook; within a doctor’s office, many factors affect the quality of treatment.

A still from a James Bond movie showing the evil villain Blofeld stroking his cat, but the image is edited so that Blofeld is wearing a ring with the Facebook logo.

The Real Villains of the Tech Industry

The “Who, us? We’re just a tech company/public square/conduit for your conversations” line of deflection is echoed up and down the org charts of Silicon Valley.
Elizabeth Minkel
3 min read

Quality Over Quantity: Bioethics at the Vatican

Several hundred scientists, physicians, and policymakers gathered in Rome in April 2018 for the International Vatican Conference, to discuss ethics in scientific research.
Joanne Lee
3 min read

The Global Network of DIY Tear Gas Masks

Activists across the world are using social media to share homebrew instructions for staying safe at protests.
Alice Bell
4 min read