Culture

Are We All ‘Cat Persons’ Now? How Modern Dating Destroys Intimacy 0
- Culture
- March 6, 2019
In our previous Public Discourse essay on the #MeToo movement and hookup culture, we argued that careful attention to human experience can teach us important and surprising things about the meaning of sex. The same can be said for popular culture. It often tells the truth about sex, in spite of itself. Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat
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Sorry, Marie Kondo. Most People Have Too Little Stuff.0
- Culture
- March 5, 2019
Marie Kondo’s Netflix show “Tidying Up” is a hit. Apparently, Americans love watching other people throw stuff into trash bags – saying “thank you” to each item first, per the KonMari method. In each episode, Kondo cheerfully sweeps into a new family’s home like a Japanese Mary Poppins and teaches them how to declutter their
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Arresting Homebirth Midwives Just Reduces Women’s Birth Choices 0
- Culture
- March 5, 2019
After being arrested and charged with practicing midwifery without a license last fall, a midwife in upstate New York is wondering whether or not she will go to jail for the work she has done for decades. Elizabeth Catlin is a beloved certified professional midwife (CPM) who has caught hundreds of babies in the tight-knit
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Quiz: How Strong is Your Thriftiness Quotient?0
- Culture
- March 5, 2019
Ben Franklin knew a lot about—preached and practiced — thrift. So how do you go about measuring thrift or any individual‘s thriftiness quotient? I get asked this question all the time, so I devised this handy Thrift Meter. Try it and pass it along. Is there an Index or some gauge that can give you a reliable account
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Schools Renormalize Raising Adults 0
- Culture
- March 4, 2019
Many of us are old enough to remember how childhood used to be. Our afternoons were spent outside playing with the neighborhood kids—no adults or cell phones in sight. Sometimes we got hurt, with occasional scraped knees or hurt egos, but we worked it out. We always knew we could go home. We had paper
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Netherlands Moving Towards Euthanasia for the Healthy 0
- Culture
- March 4, 2019
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia in 2002. Today, they are still the global pioneers. The Dutch keep pushing the boundaries wider and wider. Euthanasia is becoming increasingly common. In 2017 (the last year for which figures are available), doctors reported administering lethal injections to 6,585 patients. In 2010,
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