The FBI’s first director built the agency around some of his own worst instincts.

Some post-Covid symptoms may be produced by the brain. Does that make them any less real?

A look back from the future at how it all went so wrong

The problem isn’t “polarization.” The problem is white supremacy.

It’s also an individual one.

Maybe the United States was doomed from the start. And Jean-Jacques Rousseau can explain why.

The way to a stronger democracy starts with reforming our massive criminal justice system.

Fixing gerrymandering isn’t enough to build an equitable, multiracial society. We need dialogue.

Alas, we can’t fix this democracy without amending the U.S. Constitution. The process for that is almost impossible.

How many rich moderates would join the MAGA far right if redistribution policies threatened their wealth?

Amid the threats of climate change and civil war, the “solidarity dividend” benefits everyone.

Structural reforms like ranked-choice voting could take decades. The right leader could expedite the process and save the republic in the meantime.

Responsive organizing is essential to achieving policy reform.

We asked 12 writers for their predictions—and recommendations for how to save democracy.

A second conversation with Niccolò Machiavelli

Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Divorce” offers a model for dealing with America’s irreconcilable differences.

For 26 years, Eliot wrote intense, passionate letters to Emily Hale. Should they change the way we read his poetry?

The Passenger is an unusually loose, warm novel—full of theories and anecdotes, memories and stories.