The Highlight
A digital magazine unpacking the big ideas changing our present and shaping our future.
7 poets — including Saeed Jones, Alex Dimitrov, and Patty Crane — meditate on the year we’ve had, the one ahead, and our dark, persistent past.
The New York Democrat discusses his role representing new lawmakers in the House, and how the US Capitol riot is shaping his priorities.
Calls to move on with a new presidency underscore a truth: Quietly abiding our ugliest elements is the American way.
How Trump blurred the lines between politics and persona in ways that will reverberate for years.
At the conclusion of a dystopian year, we look to historians, preppers, and even the heavens in search of answers: What exactly was 2020, and what happens now?
Faced with the possibility I’d have no future at all, I abandoned lofty goals and momentum and found something far richer.
These stories have a remarkable richness — not in spite of the pandemic, but because of it.
The city I loved was shut down this year. I found comfort in the beloved TV show’s idealized version of it.
Why time felt warped this year, plus an accounting of how women’s work is (or isn’t) valued, an ode to hours spent video gaming, and more.
Between child care and homeschooling, women’s time is becoming worth less. It could take years to recover lost ground.
Was it a year, a day, or a millennium? Science offers clues to why it feels like all of the above.
1,200 hours later, I regret nothing.
Racism takes its toll in stolen days, months, years. Tired of the time taken away from me, I decided to leave America behind.
The Cleveland Indians are reportedly the latest group preparing to abandon a stereotypical name, following the Washington Redskins and Aunt Jemima this summer.
As weed hits a cultural tipping point, states face an urgent call to expunge, or erase, minor pot convictions.
Facing twin crises, four museum directors share their vision and hopes for the future.
Museum leaders grapple with a crisis like none other, plus striving for diversity, what it feels like in an empty Met, and more.
2020’s racial reckoning has rocketed through elite cultural institutions. Undoing old patterns means untangling nearly everything.
With tourists nowhere to be found, this is the eerie new reality of New York’s cultural institutions.
Once tactile and crowded, interactive spaces for families must re-imagine what “hands-on” will look like now.
As the pandemic rages on, single people are feeling the anxiety of missed opportunities.
Facing a seemingly endless pandemic and an election that has little hope of going smoothly, we’re all on a grim, existential roller coaster now.
Americans are poised to elect the oldest commander in chief ever to serve. Does that matter?
The new nesting; the shabby, messy chic of maximalism; traveling for the holidays; and what it’s like to move home with Mom and Dad.
Without specific guidance around whether — and how — to travel, some find themselves playing a game of risk roulette.
52 percent of US adults under 30 are now living at home, many because of Covid-19. Here’s how it’s going for one family.
We’re all homebodies now. And, no, it does not spark joy.
Can a single place — one that’s failed us in the past — squeeze in everything it takes to live a life?
The next big thing in home design is overstuffed, garish, and glorious.
Their presence on the political stage spotlights the truth about the American blended family.
The long and public reckoning that followed the Holocaust shows a path forward for a United States that desperately needs to confront its demons.
Covid-19 exposed fractures in our economy yet also offers an opportunity. From defunding police to fixing housing, this is how we can prepare for future crises.
A blueprint exists for a more inclusive, successful nation that invests in the well-being of its citizens. We only have to look to the past.
The problem with our social safety net is clear. The solution is, too.
We have more than enough work to go around for the next generation if we address one of our nation’s biggest problems: infrastructure.
It’s time to ask why we continue to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on police misconduct lawsuits and billions more on policing that yields poor outcomes.
A massive boom in new construction would create countless jobs and help finally end the legacy of racist housing policies.
We must bail out the industry that allows millions of parents to work.
Can you remember your first experience with the police? For these 9 Black and brown people, the encounters would shape their sense of safety forever.