Society

A collage featuring the text "Forgotten Hardships," with images of distressed people, a graph with a declining trend, and various historical imagery in red and black tones.

Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed

9 minutes of cruel history may cure the anti-progress delusion.

Jason Crawford

Global Development

A new vision for the advancement of humanity

The world needs a moral defense of progress based in humanism and agency.

Jason Crawford

A person holds up a cardboard sign with the message "psychedelics are not a crime" in a crowded room.

Drugs

Psychedelic drugs and the law: What’s next?

The push to legalize magic mushrooms, MDMA, LSD, and other hallucinogens is likely to heighten tensions between state and federal law.

Ben Seal | Knowable Magazine

Criminal Justice

Norway helped remake a US prison. Here’s what happened.

With single cells, a communal kitchen, Nordic-like furnishings and a landscaped, outdoor green space, it looks unlike any other U.S. prison.

Synøve Nygaard Andersen and Jordan Hyatt

Psychology

The missing apex of Maslow’s hierarchy could save us all

In his later years, psychologist Abraham Maslow added a new apex to the pyramid of human needs: self-transcendence.

Robby Berman

Homelessness

New tiny home village for unhoused people to open in 2023

Salt Lake City is building a new tiny home village to help Utahns experiencing chronic homelessness get off the street permanently.

Kristin Houser

Criminal Justice

Biden pardons federal cannabis possession cases, urges states to do the same

The Biden administration is pardoning federal possession offenses, encouraging states to do the same, and reexamining its drug scheduling.

B. David Zarley

Psychology

Americans are becoming more likely to cooperate with strangers, not less

Americans are more likely to cooperate with strangers today than they were in the 1950s, according to the American Psychological Association.

Kristin Houser

Drugs

San Francisco decriminalizes plant-based psychedelics

San Francisco joins Oakland, Santa Cruz, DC, and Denver in decriminalizing some psychedelics.

B. David Zarley

Poverty

Fighting poverty with direct cash payments

GiveDirectly has delivered over $500 million in cash to impoverished people, letting recipients decide how best to meet their needs.

Zach Winn | MIT News Office

Psychology

To make great changes in your life, follow the philosophy of kaizen

Kaizen asks us to make small changes, slowly and over time. It's a hard skill to master in an age of instant gratification.

Jonny Thomson

Psychology

Mathematicians suggest the “37% rule” for life’s biggest decisions

Mathematicians tell us that, to maximize the chances of the best outcome, we ought to ditch the first 37% of any options.

Jonny Thomson

Homelessness

Debunking stereotypes about mobile homes could make them a new face of affordable housing

People see manufactured housing parks as problems. We recognize them as part of the solution to housing crises.

Linda Shi and Jason Spicer and Zachary Lamb

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