'The 15-Minute City' and 'Rethinking Rescue' reimagine existing systems

The world’s urban population is increasing rapidly, especially in the developing world. Our existing cities are already rising to meet the challenges of climate change, transportation, technology integration, and space constraints. The proposed solutions to future urban challenges include revegetation, wind gardens, green rooftops, cable cars, smart traffic lights, and underground developments. While these solutions might work in developed countries, they’re unlikely to be enough to sustain cities in developing countries.

In today’s fast-paced world, our lives increasingly revolve around productivity, efficiency, and work. It’s now normal for many people to answer emails during dinner and pack their days with as many tasks as possible. Yet in Do Nothing, radio journalist Celeste Headlee argues that by trying to do too much, people are working less efficiently because the human brain isn’t designed to multitask or work without rest. In addition, the culture of overworking has led to worse health outcomes and increased social isolation.

So if all this work isn’t serving us, how can we end an addiction to productivity? And if not work, what should we be doing? Headlee’s solution is to embrace true leisure—doing things just for the fun of it. In this guide, we’ll explain the historical origins of the modern work addiction, how it impacts society, and what you can do to live a healthier life. We’ll also supplement Headlee’s ideas with more context on global labor trends and tips from other wellness and productivity experts.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal shows how the fast food industry has reshaped the American economic system and imprinted itself on the nation’s culture since the 1950s. The industry has profoundly reshaped how American food is produced, marketed, and consumed. The book explores fast food’s exploitative marketing and labor practices, destruction of the nation’s independent farmers, responsibility for the spread of deadly foodborne pathogens like E. coli, and creation of a national obesity epidemic. Fast Food Nation shows us how fast food has exerted a decidedly negative influence on American life.

The world’s urban population is increasing rapidly, especially in the developing world. Our existing cities are already rising to meet the challenges of climate change, transportation, technology integration, and space constraints. The proposed solutions to future urban challenges include revegetation, wind gardens, green rooftops, cable cars, smart traffic lights, and underground developments. While these solutions might work in developed countries, they’re unlikely to be enough to sustain cities in developing countries.

In The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray argues that Western society is consumed by an ideology that’s obsessed with social justice and identity politics. This ideology insists that certain groups (notably women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals) endure widespread prejudice and oppression, and that they should therefore receive sensitivity, accommodations, and apologetic behavior from the social majority. Murray believes this ideology is hard to challenge without suffering public ridicule and shaming.

Ultimately, Murray argues that we need to combat this ideology, restore constructive opportunities for civic disagreement, and depoliticize our personal identities. Otherwise, our society could become even more fragmented and chaotic, and conceivably violent.

In this guide, we’ll examine the development of this harmful ideology, its effects, and its internal contradictions. We’ll also explore ways to detoxify society and reduce the influence of this ideology. In our commentary, we’ll compare Murray’s ideas to those in other books that discuss wokeism, intersectionality, and identity politics, such as The Coddling of the American Mind and American Marxism.

Do you ever get the sense that the world is getting worse over time? In Enlightenment Now, psychologist Steven Pinker says you might be falling prey to psychological biases that are distorting your perception. Because, he argues, things are actually getting better by every measure.

Pinker provides statistics on such factors as health, wealth, equality, human rights, happiness, peace, and freedom, to show that all of those things have improved over time, all around the world. And he says the driving forces of this progress are reason, science, and humanism— values that are derived from the European Enlightenment.

In this guide, we’ll delve into the data Pinker presents to show why he believes humanity is on the path of progress. Throughout, we’ll compare his ideas to those of other scholars, provide counterpoints, and update some of the statistics with more current data.

The world’s urban population is increasing rapidly, especially in the developing world. Our existing cities are already rising to meet the challenges of climate change, transportation, technology integration, and space constraints. The proposed solutions to future urban challenges include revegetation, wind gardens, green rooftops, cable cars, smart traffic lights, and underground developments. While these solutions might work in developed countries, they’re unlikely to be enough to sustain cities in developing countries.

Many new cities are being planned and built around the world. These cities give us the chance to start all over again in creating solutions for climate change, transportation, and space constraints. In Part II of our two-part series on cities of the future, we’ll explore how city designers are dealing with rising sea levels: by creating floating cities or relocating existing ones, seeking novel transportation arrangements, and getting around space constraints by building vertically or going under the sea. However, most of these solutions will only work for a limited number of people. We need to find ways to make sure that the world’s poorest don’t get left behind.