“This is demonic stuff.” “It’s downright abusive.”  “That sounds like torture to me.”  “It’s inhumane.” It causes “physical problems and psychological anguish.” These are quotes describing the pork industry’s standard practice of confining pregnant pigs in tiny crates, called gestation crates, which are so small that the pigs can’t even turn around. Millions of pigs […]

As temperatures blew past 100°F in cities across Europe last week, it was difficult to tell what was generating more hot air: the weather or the discourse around the right way to endure it. On the western side of the Atlantic, the answer was almost uniformly obvious: air conditioning. Just around 20 percent of European […]

For 36 years, the question of who ultimately ruled Iran had one answer: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While Iran has an elected president and legislature, that power is subordinate to the religious supreme leader, who has the last say over all foreign and domestic policies and is the commander in chief of Iran’s conventional […]

Some countries built their identities on their land. Some countries built their identities on a shared ethnic heritage. America, however, began with an idea on a piece of paper.  “America was an enlightenment experiment, and so that means we have to make our own identity,” said Mark Graybill, a professor of English at Widener University […]

America’s housing supply was built for a world we no longer live in. But what will replace it?  As the nation turns 250, that is one of the most important questions we face in the coming decades. Building enough homes, of the right kind, and in the right places is a prerequisite for economic opportunity […]