Political Satire in the Era of Trump

Donald Trump, reality TV star and celebrity billionaire, is shown on television descending down an escalator inside one of his infamous hotels, announcing to an adoring crowd that he will run for the office of President of the United States. When writer Dan Greaney wrote this scene into an episode of The Simpsons sixteen years […]

Never Again and Other Lies

I don’t remember when I became aware of the reality of the Holocaust. At some point, between heavily censored history books with veiled allusions to the fact, an unprecedented access to the Internet, and Zlata’s Diary, my presumably too-young mind was forced to grapple with the systematic murder of millions of people. Millions. Numbers are […]

The Troubling Lack of Rage from the Right

As soon as Donald Trump stepped off of his escalator and announced his candidacy for President of the United States last June, we knew he was not going to be a typical candidate. If you were critical of him, you called him an inexperienced reality star who was not to be taken seriously. But from […]

David Foster Wallace and the Election That Made Fun of Itself

On the 20th anniversary of the late-author’s Infinite Jest, an inquiry into satire. Viking Penguin offices, New York City, 1986.  The twenty-three year old sitting in editor Gerry Howard’s office is wearing a U2 t-shirt and sneakers so untied Howard is afraid that the kid (who eschews “Gerry” in favor of “Mr. Howard”) will trip […]

Political Satire in the Era of Trump

Donald Trump, reality TV star and celebrity billionaire, is shown on television descending down an escalator inside one of his infamous hotels, announcing to an adoring crowd that he will run for the office of President of the United States. When writer Dan Greaney wrote this scene into an episode of The Simpsons sixteen years […]

Colombia’s Eternal War May Finally Rest in Peace

What do you first think of when I say I’m Colombian? Coffee? Sofia Vergara? James Rodríguez? Maybe. But I would be surprised if most of you didn’t first think about cocaine, Pablo Escobar, or Netflix’s Narcos. Truth be told, that image is not entirely unreasonable. There was a time during the 1980s and 1990s when […]

The Overlooked Racial Complexities of the Opioid Epidemic

Prescription opioids and heroin (from this point on summarily referred to as opioids; despite differences in legality, they both have opiate bases and fall under a shared political umbrella) have created the latest substance-related epidemic in America.[1] In a rare frenzy of bipartisanship, the House of Representatives passed 18 opioid-related bills during one week in […]

Felon Disenfranchisement in Light of Unjust Laws

The New York Times recently published a “Room for Debate” on the topic of felon disenfranchisement with Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, arguing for felon disenfranchisement, and Janai S. Nelson, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, arguing against it. The debate centered on the […]

Avoiding a Lost Generation in Syria Through Tech Education

As the war in Syria continues, many fear that we are experiencing a “lost generation” of Syrian youth who will be uneducated and unable to rebuild the country, even after the war ceases. If a large-scale intervention occurs, in which Assad is deposed and the Syrian civil war ends, Syria will be left with a […]

UN Climate Summit 2015

The 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place from November 30 to December 11, 2015 in Paris, France.[1] More than 150 nations submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) outlining plans for decreased carbon emissions and increased energy efficiency.[2] The goal of this conference was to […]