Every Child Has the Right to a Free School Meal
Co-published with Jacobin. When schools offer universal free meals, hungry kids eat. They also have better academic performance, behavior, attendance, and psychosocial functioning.
How the Horatio Alger Lie Helped Shape the Myth of American Upward Mobility
Co-published with Rolling Stone. An exclusive excerpt from the new book Bootstrapped explodes the fantasy at the heart of the American dream.
How Ditching America’s ‘Bootstraps’ Myth Can Open Up Politics
Co-published with The Washington Post. Politicians are beginning to more regularly challenge the "bootstraps" model.
Bootstrapping Has Always Been A Myth. The New American Dream Proves It
Co-published with TIME. Relentless individualism has been part of America's ethos. Not anymore, writes Alissa Quart.
We All Depend on Someone. Let’s Celebrate That.
Co-published with The New York Times. Americans are taught that they have to go it alone. That’s a dangerous myth.
Washed Away: How Disaster Relief Leaves Kentucky’s Landslide Victims Behind
Co-published with Grist. Landslides are one of Kentucky's costliest natural disasters. Climate change is increasing their danger.
If the Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action in College Admissions, Diversity Could Be Expanded
Co-published with The Boston Globe. Looking at equity and equality through class could level the playing field for low-income students of all backgrounds.
Across The Tracks: What Life Is Like in Fresno’s “War Zone”
Co-published with The Nation. A community of migrants and unhoused people call the shuttered downtown of this California city home.
Special Report: Emergency SNAP Benefits End Nationwide
Co-published with Erie News Now. Nearly 41 million Americans will see the pandemic boost to their SNAP benefits expire on March 1st, including folk here in Pennsylvania.
A Highway That Doesn’t Exist Is Strangling a Black Neighborhood
Co-published with Bloomberg City Lab. In the Louisiana city of Shreveport, residents of Allendale have spent decades fighting a highway expansion. Even if they succeed, the neighborhood is …
The Myth of the Socially Conscious Corporation
Co-published with The New Republic. The argument that corporations have historically been a force for good—and can be again—is wishful thinking.
Ten Years Into the Fight for $15, Workers Are Still Fighting for A Living Wage
Co-published with The Intercept. In Part 2 of “Insecurity,” we meet Eshawney Gaston, a fast-food worker who joins the wave of labor uprisings sweeping the country during …