scorecardresearch Skip to main content
The section that asks “what if?” and “why not?”
IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

Biden’s real reelection problem isn’t his age. It’s his waning popularity.

Millennials like me and other young voters are likely to wonder how good a Biden presidency is if it means a world in flames.
IDEAS | DOUG SMITH

The last thing my father told me

A posthumous essay about facing a parent’s too-early death and, decades later, facing one’s own.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

The deficit has doubled — to $2 trillion. This economist says worrying about it is silly.

Brown University’s Mark Blyth says worries about the national debt are ‘nonsensical.’
IDEAS | GRACE RUBENSTEIN

The next frontier in baby-making

More successful IVF, egg cells from men, and sperm cells from women? Biotech researchers aim to greatly expand reproductive opportunity.
IDEAS | Leslie McCall & Jennifer Sherman

It’s time for an expansive new labor movement

Redistributing wealth through higher wages — rather than government spending — is likely to appeal to people across the political spectrum.
IDEAS | JASON PACK

Qatar is the key to peace in postwar Gaza

American and British diplomats should be working on creating a pan-Arab coalition to administer postwar Gaza — and Qatar’s role would be particularly important.
Submit to Globe IdeasSend a letter to the Editor

The Globe Ideas Team

special projects

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

How Uphams Corner got wealthier without getting whiter

The scrappy Dorchester neighborhood has fulfilled the community activist’s dream: development without displacement.

Where did all the workers go?

For two years, employers have been desperate for workers — and there’s no indication the labor shortage will soon change. What are we losing — and possibly gaining — as a result?
IDEAS | PETER THOMSON

The radical, forgotten experiment in educational integration that changed my life

In 1971, kids from Roxbury and Lincoln spent half the year attending school together in the city and the other half in the suburb. Fifty years later, I tracked down my fellow students to see how it shaped them — and whether something like it could work today.
Public health
IDEAS | ANNE ZINK

Syphilis, the ‘Great Pretender,’ is back

IDEAS | AMIRA SKEGGS

Rethinking our lonely heroes

IDEAS | KAT MCGOWAN

When love is deeper than blood: New recognition for families of choice

democracy under siege
IDEAS | Boštjan Videmšek

‘If we stop fighting, we, Ukrainians, will be gone’

IDEAS | ALISSA VALLES

‘1984’ was meant as a critique of the USSR, but it really fits Putin’s Russia

IDEAS | Hollie Russon Gilman and Amy Eisenstein

It’s like jury duty, but for getting things done

politics
IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

Biden’s real reelection problem isn’t his age. It’s his waning popularity.

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

The unexpected opportunity in the House’s nasty speaker’s fight

IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

Liberals need a clearer foreign policy

civil rights

inequality
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

The deficit has doubled — to $2 trillion. This economist says worrying about it is silly.

IDEAS | Leslie McCall & Jennifer Sherman

It’s time for an expansive new labor movement

IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

Probation is supposed to be an alternative to prison. It might be a trapdoor instead.

climate crisis

IDEAS | VANESSA NAKATE

Why I became a climate activist in my native Uganda

IDEAS | VERONIQUE GREENWOOD

Apples of the future take root in the nation’s strategic fruit repository

IDEAS | JOHN GOVE

Extreme weather forces New England farmers to be more collaborative than ever

education

IDEAS | HOWARD AXELROD

On college campuses, a new form of pressure: to take a stand

IDEAS | ANDREW REINER

The trouble with boys isn’t boys

IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

How to get the most out of college — and save liberal democracy

development
IDEAS | KARA MILLER

All those empty office buildings could spell trouble for you and me

IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

Lynn is trying to reinvent itself. Will inertia at the MBTA derail its plan?

IDEAS | MILES HOWARD

Evictions are rising again. It’s time to get creative.

history
housing
IDEAS | MILES HOWARD

Making too little to get affordable housing — and other problems with trying to stay in Boston

IDEAS | CLAIRE DUNNING

The unintended consequences of Boston’s nonprofit-led urban development

IDEAS | STARRE JULIA VARTAN

Consider the small landlord

technology

IDEAS | JOY BUOLAMWINI

How I accidentally became a fierce critic of AI

IDEAS | MITCHEL RESNICK

Transforming screen time: Kids can use smartphones to enhance their creativity

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

Don’t expect the government to save us from misinformation

essays
IDEAS | DOUG SMITH

The last thing my father told me

IDEAS | RICHARD D. ZBORAY

I had a small boat, and I sold her

IDEAS | SUSAN HALL

Planning for my vulnerable son’s future without me

more special projects

IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

How the MBTA went off the rails

Nearly everything about Boston has changed in the past few decades, yet the T has the same big problem — a failure to prioritize the rider experience above all.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.

The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

Editing the Constitution

The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

The Future of Work

The pandemic is still shattering expectations of what workdays look like. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

The Future of Food

What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before.

Massachusetts Works

We turn the typical model of journalism on its head — instead of focusing on what’s broken, we’re taking a look at what Massachusetts gets right.