The US Government’s Role in Regulating Social Media Disinformation
This article was written prior to Elon Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter. In a 2020 report, the Department of Homeland Security named White supremacists as the single greatest domestic terror threat facing the US. In 2021, QAnon supporters, the Proud Boys, and other extremist groups carried out a direct attack on democracy in plain sight. […]
The Dark Past and Uncertain Future of Nuclear Energy in Japan
In October 2020, then-Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide declared that Japan would reach net-zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050, an extremely high hurdle for the country to achieve in just thirty years. Japan is among the world’s largest carbon emitters, with forty percent of its emissions coming from energy production; in 2019, fossil fuels composed 88 […]
Musical Artists Against the Brazilian Military Dictatorship: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Chico Buarque
The Brazilian military dictatorship—a politically tumultuous period lasting from 1964 to 1985—is mostly known for the government’s numerous crimes and many artists’s countless peaceful protests. The oppressive government lacked democracy, suppressed basic human rights, pervasively censored arts and literature, and persecuted those who opposed the dictatorship, including musical artists. Singers, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto […]
Episode 15: “American Democracy Doesn’t Represent You” with Milton Posner
Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Spotify | Via Apple Podcasts Milton Posner joins Max & Ariana to discuss what he sees as the critical flaws in American democracy and how we can start fixing them. This includes voter suppression, gerrymandering, and the structure of the Senate. Milton also joins Ariana for “Class Struggle.” Make sure to […]
A Lost Generation and the Breakdown of (Civil) Society as We Know It
I have never asked my neighbor for a cup of sugar, nor have I ever invited them over for dinner or done anything more than return their mail when it gets delivered to the wrong address. I wouldn’t attribute this to poor character, since a majority of Americans only know some of their neighbors and […]
The United States Is Not a Real Democracy
We have to look past the circling buzzards. After Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September, many observers lamented the Republican leadership’s rank hypocrisy in immediately filling her seat despite stonewalling Merrick Garland four years earlier. But the critical problem wasn’t the GOP’s disregard for the rule they’d concocted. It was their normalized […]
Coming of Age in the Age of Trump
As Donald Trump leaves office, those of us who learned politics during his administration must reckon with what he’s taught us.
Episode 8: “The 2020 Elections”
Photo by Adam Schultz Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Spotify | Via Apple Podcasts In the wake of the 2020 Elections, Max sits down with a panel of NUPR contributors to discuss the results and implications of the elections. Alex Jarecki, Stephanie Luiz, Noah Colbert, and Taraneh Azar address questions about why the election turned out […]
Episode 5: “Mail-in Democracy” with Alex Jarecki
Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Spotify | Via Apple Podcasts This week, Max talks with Alex Jarecki, one of the magazine editors at NUPR, about some of the major barriers to voting and participating in American democracy both historically and specifically in 2020. They discuss some of the challenges regarding voting in 2020 as well as […]
What Global Principled Disobedience Means
In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen represents a covert rebel alliance attempting to topple a repressive regime. When the series was adapted for the big screen, it became a pop culture phenomenon and helped catapult its leading actress, Jennifer Lawrence, to stardom. It also became a symbol of massive anti-government resistance in Thailand. After General […]