Can California Bring Everyone up to Internet Speed?

Broadband Is a Must for 21st-Century Life, and the Golden State Is Uniquely Poised to Tackle Its Digital Divide

Imagine you’re a senior citizen in the midst of the pandemic. You don’t know how to book a vaccine online, so you’ve been on hold for hours. Or imagine you’re a small business owner, eager to expand your business. You invest in a new point-of-sale system to streamline your payments and launch a website to attract customers outside of the state. But it turns out that your town does not have strong enough internet to process a credit card transaction. These scenarios are part of what has come to be …

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There Is No ‘I’ in the Climate Crisis

Connection and Interdependence Can’t Capture Carbon But Can Get to the Root of the Problem

The environmentalist Paul Hawken says, “The most complex, radical climate technology is the human heart and mind, not a solar panel.” What would it mean to imagine the heart and …

How Would Emperor Tiberius Have Handled Silicon Valley Bank?

A First-Century Roman Bailout Holds Lessons for Today's Financial Institutions, and Their Regulators

The recent failures, and subsequent government rescues, of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic, prompt us to consider an ancient question: How do banks prevent the actions of very rich …

The Fight to Save Stockton

In the Once-Bankrupt City, a Stanford Scholar Finds That People Are Poor Because Their Governments Are Poor

If California wants to curb poverty, its local governments must become richer.

That may be the most important lesson of the recent history of Stockton, as recounted by Stanford Law School …

Welcome Back, Mermaidcore

For a Century, a Collective Love of Tails and Fins Has Helped Women Transgress on Land and Sea

Shell-adorned bikini tops. Fishtail skirts. Starfish accessories. Seafoam green eyeshadow. Expect to see all of this and more riding the waves of Disney’s latest live-action blockbuster, The Little Mermaid.

In other …

Old People Still Want Their ‘Ham and Eggs’

A 1930s California Campaign Set the Stage for Today’s Debates Around Aging, ‘Entitlements,’ and Debt

How did Americans learn the value of being paid in retirement?

If you’re an American, you’ve almost certainly heard of Social Security. But you probably haven’t heard of its predecessor, the …