House money
Why are countries around the world developing virtual legal tenders? Roger Huang on the origins, implementation, and implications of central bank digital currencies.
Untouchable
Why has Bitcoin become so popular with dissidents living in dictatorships? Farida Nabourema on what the emerging technology has in common with an old suitcase stuffed with cash.
Cash grab
What is financial repression? Félix Maradiaga on how autocratic regimes are using the global banking system, international law, and new technologies in an old struggle to suppress dissent and hold power.
‘They’re everywhere’
Why are there so many toxic chemicals in food? Rashmi Joglekar on where they come from and what they’re doing to people and the planet.
Lost men
Why do boys keep falling further behind girls in school? Ioakim Boutakidis on a half-century, still-elusive global achievement gap.
Divergence
Why are younger men increasingly voting for the populist right and younger women, the environmental left? Rosie Campbell on a new gender divide in the Western world.
Terminators
What are the risks of “killer robots” to civilians? Lucy Suchman on the automation of modern warfare.
American carnivores
Why are people in the United States eating record amounts of meat? Glynn Tonsor on a mysterious outlier trend in the Western world.
Addled
Why are people’s cognitive skills declining? Gloria Mark on how consumer technology is making us more error-prone, more stressed, and less productive.
