Who Needs Student Debt When You Can Get Together for a ‘Conversation’?

The 19th-Century Women Who Educated Themselves Outside the Ivory Tower Offer Inspiration for Learning Today

On a dark, chilly evening in November 1839, a woman in Boston, Massachusetts, convened a party at her friend’s house. That might seem an unremarkable event, but this was not a high-society tea party or wine-tippling book club. It was a bold social experiment. The hostess was the 29-year-old journalist Margaret Fuller, and the guest list was composed of the most finely tuned minds she could collect—minds that nevertheless, by virtue of being women, were barred from attending university. Safely concealed from the prying outside world by the guise of …

More In: Essays

How a French Nobel Laureate Remembers Things Past

On Paper and Film, Annie Ernaux Probes History for Questions, Not Answers

Memory is an imperfect reflector of lived experience. We look back through a series of lenses, and our focal mechanisms shift with the light. Personal memory is shape-shifted by history—what …

The Human Costs of Building a ‘World-Class’ City

In Advance of the G20 Summit, New Delhi Has Demolished Neighborhoods and Displaced Thousands

On a hot summer day in New Delhi, a young resident of the posh area of Greater Kailash looked down from the window of his air-conditioned room.

“I don’t know how …

Will Hawai’i Succeed in Killing Me?

A Weather Forecaster on the Big Island Predicts More Disasters If the State Doesn’t Heed Scientific Warnings

Hawai‘i is a spectacular place—not just visually exciting, but also located above incredible geological forces and beneath amazing atmospheric conditions. As a meteorologist who reports on earth science news, I …

Why Corporate America Needs to Listen to Workers’ Voices

When Companies Raise Pay Without Empowering Employees, Morale and Democracy Both Suffer

Like many frontline workers across the country, Denise Kohr saw her pay at Amazon increase over the past year; as for her say, not so much.

“They don’t want to hear …

Anything ChatGPT Can Do, My Students Can Do Better

Why a Media History Professor Is Welcoming AI Into Her Classroom

Zócalo is celebrating its 20th birthday this year! As part of the festivities, we’re publishing reflections and responses that revisit and reimagine some of …