Joe Biden officially won the Democratic primary on June 6th, smack in the sticky middle of the summer’s racial justice protests. Though he was leading in the state primaries, the timing still felt odd. In the midst of a furious fight against systemic, violent racism, summer voters chose a fabulously lukewarm candidate with a spotty record on progressive voting. Biden’s greatest selling points through primary season were his willingness to reach across the aisle, years in congress, slow-and-shameless approach to social progress, and his willingness to fight hard against Trump. …

On Thursday January 7th, just one day after the attacks on the Capitol, Facebook announced that it was banning Trump’s page for at least two weeks. A day later, after much pressure, Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account. Other companies have followed the trend since. Apple and Google removed Parler, a micro-blogging service heavily used by Trump supporters, from their app stores; Amazon recently canceled its hosting services to Parler; YouTube banned Steve Bannon’s channel; Reddit banned the main Trump subreddit; Discord banned a Trump-centric server; Shopify stopped processing payments for Trump’s campaign and personal brand stores; and Twitter also banned Trump’s campaign account, his campaign manager’s account, and other right-wing figures. …

Fiction

It’s late 2021 and the vaccine didn’t work. After the second, third, and fifteenth waves of COVID-19 flooded New York, millions of New Yorkers rode that wave straight out of the city and vowed never to return. Those who remained and persisted were eventually convinced to pack up their tiny apartments by the tidal wave of viral ‘New York Is Dead’ articles. The nail in the city’s coffin being a New York Times piece penned reluctantly by Jerry Seinfeld from his new home in Texas: ‘Okay, okay, I get it now, New York is dead.’

The Knicks moved to New Zealand. Woody Allen moved to Austria and even the rats migrated across the border. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop me from living my dream and moving to the Big Ol’ Apple. …

It’s a fair question to ask what made me decide I needed to buy this mug. After all, I have so many. In the game that my kids play, “How many ways can we make fun of mom?”(lovingly, of course), my extensive mug collection has been a frequent landing place. And that was before adding my new mug.

I believe why this mug called out to me is that I have been building up my bravery to go places in my writing that I have not historically gone. …

At the 2019 World Economic Forum, a daring historian berated the rich in the audience for not paying their taxes. Then, he went viral.

Although popularly known as the scourge Davos, Rutger Bregman is perhaps most famous for his work Utopia for Realists, a manifesto for universal basic income and a world without borders. His little spiel at the conference really stung the rich where it hurts, as he showed the world in a televised panel that they talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.

The WEF is an elite networking event that gathers up the most powerful leaders of the world in Davos, a small ski town in the Swiss Alps. Its mission is to engage the “foremost political, business, cultural, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.” Every year in January, diplomats, CEOs, billionaires, and prominent thinkers fill up the world’s most luxurious business shindig on the premise of solving the planet’s greatest challenges. …

When the news of the recent violence at the Capitol reached me in London, it was late in the evening. I had just finished brushing my teeth, the taste of synthetic mint still in my mouth, when my fiancé pointed his phone at me, alarmed, and started scrolling through pictures of the rioters published on the BBC News website. I rushed to check my phone, nine notifications by the New York Times app stacked blunt against the blue, appeasing background.

“Can you believe it?” my fiancé said, his eyes still fixed on the phone.

I could.

In a country wounded by a history of social and political abuses — a country born with an act of violence and raised as a trade colony with the only purpose to generate wealth — Trump’s presidency and its ensuing, nationalistic ideologies come as no surprise. When you grow up listening to your parents yelling at each other, you begin to develop a biased idea of what relationships look like. Civilization is no different. …

When we look back and comprehend how far we have come as a human race, it appears utterly remarkable. From hunting and huts to cars and cash, we have certainly conquered a long road. While we know this road is never-ending, let’s take a pause and think of our progenitor brothers. How did they live? How difficult was it? Are we capable of living how they lived?

Well, if you ask me, I don’t think we can pull off that kind of life. But there are some tribes still alive, who have lived all these years in isolation, and are still following the life of the past. …

When you think of the word prolific, filmmaker Ryan Murphy is probably not the first person who immediately comes to mind. He likes to discuss how he arrived in Hollywood from Indiana with just $55 dollars in his pocket. With over a dozen shows and movies under his belt and a lucrative deal with Netflix, prolific is exactly what he has become.

The creator of American Horror Story (2011 — present) and Glee (2009–2015) is known for making campy, over-the-top works with a distinctive flair. You can recognize the hallmarks of a Murphy production before his name ever appears on screen: his characters have larger-than-life dialogue; his costumes and set designs have dazzling palettes; his characters’ motivations and desires are all intense as they claw their way to fame, mayhem, and maybe even a little murder. …