Columns old

Spongebob: Product or Porifera? In my junior year of high school, I applied to QuestBridge, a non-profit made to help disadvantaged high school students get into college. As a part of my application, I was asked to write about a historical figure I would like to meet and a question I would ask them. I … Read more

America’s built environment is dominated by pavement. Boasting over a billion parking spaces, not including any home parking, the country has four times as many spaces as cars. In New York City alone, the amount of curbside parking is equivalent to the area covered by 10 Central Parks, and nearly double that when including off-street … Read more

Campbell Erickson worked under U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf and with the NGO Integrity Initiatives International as an advocate for the International Anti-Corruption Court. There is no denying it: for much of the world, corruption is a crisis. Corruption has run rampant in governments for as long as governments have existed. And as global inequality … Read more

Even before Hillary Clinton officially announced her candidacy for president in April 2015, she was widely favored to win the Democratic nomination. As such, the explosive popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was not nearly as well known as Clinton at the time, came as a surprise to many onlookers. Sanders cast himself … Read more

As the coronavirus pandemic has progressed, some have blamed a specific urban culprit for increasing the transmission of the virus: population density. The case of one badly-hit American city, New York, has fueled this layman’s theory of viral transmission. “It’s very simple,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press conference. “It’s about density. … Read more

Harvard spends a great deal of effort to obfuscate its decision-making. This past week, Harvard sent out a series of opaque emails that only doubled down on its efforts to do so in the time of COVID-19: “With more time to prepare, we are confident we can create a better, more engaging experience for the … Read more

The non-governmental organization (NGO) has been one institution among many caught in the crossfire of growing discontent with neoliberal capitalism. Large, multinational NGOs became the hallmark of international development in the postwar era, especially as foreign aid became critical during the wartime collapse of public goods. NGOs that filled the gaps left behind by conflict … Read more

There was a time in my life when I’d wake up at the crack of dawn to debate nuclear weapons proliferation for 18 hours, then go home to sleep so I could start again at the same time the next morning. I’d pace up and down the corridors of whatever random Texan high school my … Read more

“Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow.” This old saying highlights how today’s policy can dramatically impact the future, causing immense damage to generations not yet physically on the scene. When considering current policy proposals, we have to consider how we can fairly weigh the wellbeing of future people against that of present people, since trade-offs … Read more