The Highlight
A digital magazine unpacking the big ideas changing our present and shaping our future.
Mindfulness is one thing. Jhāna meditation is stranger, stronger, and going mainstream.
Americans are more socially isolated than ever. Here’s how we can reconnect.
TikTok has made itself into a hub for Gen Z political expression. But as Zoomers change politics, how is the app changing them?
What doulas, midwives, and policymakers are doing to end the maternal mortality crisis.
Our obsession with self-improvement is making us miserable.
Converting malls could create hundreds of thousands of badly needed homes.
They’re great for the fast food industry — but not so great for us.
Cancer used to be a disease of the old. Not anymore.
What the UN is missing with its plan to save the seas
Raising an independent child is about empathy.
Couples get hundreds of legal and economic privileges single people don’t. If that feels unfair, it’s because it is.
It was once normal for economists to imagine a world with less work. What happened?
Medications can help the 1 in 12 people who suffer from alcohol use disorder. But most will never be treated.
How the US is preparing to fight — and win — a war in space
Opioid addiction doesn’t get as many headlines as it used to, but the crisis is as bad as ever. It doesn’t have to be.
A ‘day in the life’ at the end of a life
Can special lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
Suicides are up among Black adolescents. Sherry Molock, a clinical psychologist and ordained minister, believes Black churches could be their salvation.
We shouldn’t give up on others so easily.
From blue liquid to glass vaginas, period stigma shapes our products — and hurts our health.
Whales and dolphins are smart, social, and thrive in the open sea. Why do we force them to live in tiny pools?
Mud can be surprisingly clear.
Compassionate ways to let a friend or family member know you’re looking out for them.
How to stop checking on your ex — and everyone else you love to hate — on social media.
Companies are opting for shorter weeks. But without worker power, they’re just another employer perk.
Millennials are facing an elder care crisis nobody prepared them for.
We finally have good data on what makes people happy. Why are we afraid to use it?
Three mind-bendy conversations about glass later, I see the sublime in my windowpanes.
“Young blood,” starvation, fruit-only diets: How the rich are striving to “age in reverse”
Some types of air pollution slow global warming — but at the cost of millions of deaths a year.
You don’t need to be a tourist to appreciate where you live.
Primary care is the foundation of American medicine — and it’s withering.
Why did it break through after decades of effort — and what comes next?
The dehumanizing philosophy of AI is built on a hatred of our animal nature.
From R.U.R. to Mrs. Davis, humans have feared — and identified with — robots for over a century.
Fiction has long wondered if AI can love. We just might find out.