I broke up with plastic, and you can too
“Zero Waste” is a worthy goal—and a hot hashtag—but a giant leap for most of us. Is it possible to do your part to save the planet without going off the deep end?
How Deep Brain Stimulation Could Change Medicine
Already employed to treat neurological-based movement disorders, the procedure could soon be used on everything from depression to addiction.
Why we need to talk about miscarriages
As one woman learned, there are powerful reasons not to hide the experience.
The Power of Ideas
We shine a light on Boston’s new power class: the visionaries, idealists, and thinkers among us whose insights are transforming the way we live, work, learn, and play.
Power of Ideas: Cassius Cash
The superintendent of two of Boston’s national parks is shaping the way we think about the city’s history.
Power of Ideas: Diana Hwang
She’s created the country’s first leadership initiative to get young Asian-American women into politics right here in Boston.
Power of Ideas: Jascha Franklin-Hodge
City Hall’s new chief information officer is the tech-savvy guru who ran the Web component of Obama’s campaigns.
Power of Ideas: Vanessa Kerry
She’s changing how we provide healthcare to the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Power of Ideas: Gilad Rosenzweig
How a Canadian-born architect plans to expand tech innovation in the city.
Gerald Chertavian Is Bridging the Opportunity Gap with Year Up
Nearly 7 million young Americans lack the skills or education to get a job that will pull them out of poverty. But with the formation of the nonprofit Year Up, Gerald Chertavian has created a solution that’s steering thousands of low-income young adults into Fortune 500 companies. What comes next may change your ideas about higher education.
Giving Up the Gun
In Boston’s most dangerous neighborhoods, criminals routinely use women to traffic and hide illegal guns. Can Operation Lipstick, a new education campaign, make a difference?
The Cure: Third Rock Ventures’ Groundbreaking Idea
Local firm Third Rock Ventures has an idea that might make it easier to get groundbreaking therapies to patients—and revive the biotech industry here in Boston.
Base Boston: Rape and Sexual Assault in the Coast Guard
It’s the headquarters for the Coast Guard’s entire First District. It’s where many victims of sexual assault in the service get sent. And it’s where, all too often, their military careers then come to an end.
The End of Ownership: America's New Sharing Economy
After defining ourselves for generations by possessions, a dramatic cultural shift is under way. In the wake of a collapsed economy, what matters to a growing number of Americans is not so much ownership as access. That's made Boston ground zero for a powerful new force: The sharing economy.
Mind Massachusetts' Wage Gap
Why does Massachusetts—perhaps the most progressive state of them all—have one of the country's biggest wage disparities between men and women?
So Appy Together
Siri, the iPhone's sassy personal assistant, was just the beginning. Right now, behavioral scientists are racing to develop a new generation of apps and programs that can mimic compassion, concern, and sympathy—technology they hope we will form relationships with, even fall in love with. Janelle Nanos goes inside this brave new world to find out how our ever-smarter phones are changing what it means to be human.
Is College Over?
The American system of higher education, long the envy of the world—and a profound influence on this city's landscape—is under siege. New books and reports raise questions about the staggering dropout rates, sky-high costs, and lack of evidence that anybody is actually learning anything on our university campuses. Suddenly, some very smart people are asking whether the temple of learning is anything more than a shady facade.