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05:21Dec 3, 2021

Let Black men run

I will forever run with Ahmaud Arbery, just as I walk in a world not designed for me, writes Jeff Davis, who founded the Boston chapter of Black Men Run.

Gov. Charlie Baker acknowledges applause as he takes the stage to address the Massachusetts Republican Convention at the DCU Center in Worcester on April 28, 2018. (Winslow Townson/AP)

Charlie Baker's empty suit

Dec 3, 2021

Abortion rights advocates holding cardboard cutouts of the Supreme Court Justices, demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington, as the court hears arguments in a case from Mississippi, where a 2018 law would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Why you should get off the sidelines of the abortion debate

Dec 2, 2021

Anita Diamant was recently slipping into a winter funk. Then, miraculously, came Hanukkah. (Getty images)

Searching for light in this season of ‘meh’

Dec 1, 2021

Support the news

Charlie Baker's empty suit

A Holiday Season Gutted By The Pandemic: We're Trying To 'Celebrate And Grieve At The Same Time'

Why you should get off the sidelines of the abortion debate

Let Black men run

We Asked 10 People To Imagine Life After The Pandemic. Here's What They Said

The Hanukkah Ham, And Other Morsels Of Religious Ignorance

In Case You Missed It

Lindsay (left) and Sophia Cook at a memorial benefit for their father, Dennis Cook, who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. (Courtesy Lindsay Cook)

As ‘9/11 Kids,' We Only Have The Stories Other People Tell Us About Our Dad

12:33Sep 10, 2021

Protesters hold up signs at a protest outside the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)

They Laughed When We Warned A Ban On Abortion Was Coming. Now It's Here

Sep 1, 2021

The author’s grandmother, Marie Moran, in Breezy Point, 1947.

I Know The Water Is Coming. But I Can't Bear To Sell My Family's Cottage

05:08May 28, 2021

Nikole Hannah-Jones speaks on stage during the 137th Commencement at Morehouse College on May 16, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)

I Am A Black Woman In Academia. Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Tenure Saga Isn't Unique

04:36Jul 9, 2021

On Air Commentaries

Dr. Michael Nguyen tends to a patient in a hallway at the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital on August 18, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

After So Much Uncertainty And Loss, We Need The Grace Of Connection

05:54Aug 30, 2021

The author and her daughter Maya at the beach, with "big banana," the surfboard. (Courtesy Sara Shukla)

When I'm Out In The Water With My Daughter

04:45Sep 24, 2021

Jack Thomas on his sailboat, The Butterfly (Courtesy Geri Denterlein)

'I Just Wish I Could Stay A Little Longer': Jack Thomas Considers The End Of His Life

07:09Aug 13, 2021

After so much hardship and loss, the psychological recovery from this trauma will be long, writes Dr. Molly Colvin. (Klaus Vedfelt/Getty)

Why You Can't Shake Pandemic Anxiety

03:26Mar 9, 2021

Politics

Members of a non-government organization make a red ribbon, the universal symbol of awareness and support for those living with HIV, with candles on the eve of World AIDS day in Ahmedabad, India, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (Ajit Solanki/AP)

Dec 1, 2021

HIV cases spiked this year. We need more screening

The biggest challenge we face is that HIV continues to spread in the shadows, writes Stephen J. Kerrigan. One of 7 people with HIV don't know they have it.

Display of banned books or censored books at Books Inc independent bookstore in Alameda, California, October 16, 2021. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

The danger of 'safe spaces'

Nov 30, 2021

Amy McCoy reads a book to preschoolers as they finish their lunch at her Forever Young Daycare facility, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021, in Mountlake Terrace, Wash. Child care centers once operated under the promise that they would always be there when parents have to work. Now, each teacher resignation, coronavirus exposure and day care center closure reveals an industry on the brink, with wide-reaching implications for an entire economy's workforce. (Elaine Thompson)

The child care crisis is a wage crisis

Nov 24, 2021

"While proclamations and funding for new programs are appreciated, real systemic change in our health care and caregiving systems are what caregivers like me really need," writes former Mass. Gov. Jane Swift. (Pascal Pochard/AFP via Getty Images)

Being a family caregiver is enormously hard. Here are three reforms that would help

Nov 23, 2021

A woman walks past a pharmacy providing rapid antigen COVID-19 tests in Toronto, Canada, on Nov. 15, 2021. (Zou Zheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Why rapid COVID tests should be free

Nov 23, 2021

More From Cog

Stephen Sondheim, songwriter/lyricist, listening to music in the recording control room during the original cast recording of the Broadway musical "Into The Woods", New York, 1987. (Oliver Morris/Getty Images)

Stephen Sondheim's art wasn't easy. It wasn't meant to be

One essential clue to the genius who was Stephen Sondheim, is that he never did anything twice, writes Jeremy Gerard. It was the ambivalence in that truism -- fearlessness, urged...

Nov 29, 2021

People wearing masks wait in front of Macy's holiday windows for Black Friday deals on November 27, 2020 in New York City. Unlike previous years, many retail stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving day in an effort to avoid overcrowding due to the pandemic. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

A pandemic silver lining? Most stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving

This brutal pandemic is producing at least a few tangential benefits for society, writes Rich Barlow.

Nov 24, 2021

Author Joan Didion in her Upper East Side apartment, 2003. (Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images)

A cure for the Covid winter blues? Joan Didion

Didion's work goes zing -- straight to the heart -- no throat-clearing, no platitudes. We need more of that to help make sense of this nonsensical time, writes Cloe Axelson....

05:55Nov 19, 2021

A homeless person wearing a protective mask lies asleep on the pavement in Rome's central Piazza Venezia on April 17, 2020. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images)

This pandemic will end. But the next one could be worse

COVID was only the lit match dropped into the tinderbox of inequality, writes Sandro Galea. We must address these underlying issues before the next pandemic.

Nov 18, 2021

Former president Donald Trump waves prior to Game Four of the World Series between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves Truist Park on October 30, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Michael Zarrilli/Getty Images)

Yes, the media deserve criticism for the Steele dossier. But so does the GOP for touting Trump's 'Big Lie'

Republicans are gloating because the Steele dossier has been largely discredited. But they shouldn't be too smug, writes Rich Barlow, not while they're adopting the anti-democratic tactics of fascists.

Nov 17, 2021

Students, parents and educators rally at the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, May 13, 2014, on the 60th anniversary Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down the separate but equal concept established under Plessy v. Ferguson that kept schools segregated. (AP)

America wasn't ready for Homer Plessy in 1896. Are we now?

Most people with a basic understanding of American history are familiar with Plessy v. Ferguson, the historic Supreme Court decision that established “separate but equal." (In essence, racial segregation.) But,...

Nov 16, 2021

Medical workers wait for people to come in for COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site in Chelsea, Mass., Feb. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Let’s use what worked during COVID-19 to meet addiction, housing and other challenges

Massachusetts was a national leader in its response to COVID. Let's use the lessons learned to address other looming challenges.

Nov 15, 2021

Daisies grow among autumn-colored foliage lying on a lawn in the Gardens of the World. Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images)

In my mother's garden

Conditions don’t have to be perfect for plants to flourish, or for people either, writes Kate Peltz.

Nov 12, 2021

Candles and flowers decorate a makeshift memorial for U.S. Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen at Power House Gym on August 14, 2020, in Houston, Texas. Guillen's murder, and the subsequent suicide of the chief suspect, U.S. Army specialist Aaron Robinson, has put a spotlight on sexual harassment in the U.S. military.(Mark Felix/ AFP via Getty Images)

Until our armed forces address a legacy of assault, I won't be celebrating Veterans Day

I have deeply complicated feelings about my time in the service, writes Aurora Daniel. It's a time that included both the best and worst experiences of my life.

Nov 11, 2021

The author, Grace Segran, and her granddaughter, Ella, after Grace's second chemo cycle. (Courtesy Grace Segran)

'Keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever': A grandmother wonders how to say goodbye

Writer Grace Segran was diagnosed earlier this year with incurable breast cancer. Her time with her granddaughter is short.

Nov 10, 2021

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks during the Senate Republicans news conference in the Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The 'manufactured cynicism' infecting our politics

By failing to call out the modern Republican Party’s animating principle of militant obstructionism, writes Steve Almond, the news media is deep in the business of stoking division in our...

Nov 9, 2021

An inbound MBTA Blue Line train on it's way to Wood Island Station in East Boston. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Congratulations, Mayor-elect Wu. Now could you please rethink free transit?

Making the MBTA free is a bad idea, writes Rich Barlow. More than a few transportation experts question its wisdom. So should Wu.

Nov 8, 2021

Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales, in "Spencer." (Courtesy NEON)

Why can’t we seem to get enough of Princess Diana?

Queens and princesses become screens onto which we project our beliefs about women’s worth, writes Arianne Chernock.

Nov 5, 2021

Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu departs after visiting The Underground Cafe and Lounge in Roxbury on Nov. 03. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Dear Mayor-elect Wu: Don’t forget your promise to make ‘a Boston for everyone’

It is apparent that many of us in this city do not feel seen or heard, writes Makeeba McCreary. Mayor-elect Michelle Wu must address this apathy.

Nov 5, 2021

A Ferrari drives past a mural depicting Dandelion buds as wind turbines and an overflowing bin on November 3, 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. As World Leaders meet to discuss climate change at the COP26 Summit, many climate action groups have taken to the streets to protest for real progress to be made by governments to reduce carbon emissions, clean up the oceans, reduce fossil fuel use and other issues relating to global heating. (Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Chin up, climate crusaders. We're about to rebuild America

The U.S. is on the verge of making biggest the investment in tackling the climate crisis the world has ever seen, writes Margie Alt. We should be shouting that from...

Nov 4, 2021

A man and his dog take in the fresh air and fog, in a clearing along Main Street, in the seaside town of Mendocino, CA, Monday evening, Aug. 9, 2021. The towns of Mendocino and Fort Bragg are feeling the effects of drought, in a region surrounded by water. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Access to water is a human right. When will the U.S. government agree?

Water policy should be a central concern for nations as they gather at COP26, writes Martha F. Davis. Currently, the U.S. is failing to anticipate and prevent the health threats...

Nov 3, 2021

Michelle Wu smiles as she speaks to supporters after winning the election to be Mayor of Boston, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Unlearning the 'rules' about what a leader looks like

For the first time in 200 years, Boston's mayor elect is not a white man. The idea has taken some getting used to, writes Neema Avashia, even for people of...

Nov 2, 2021

Climate change activists take part in a Fridays For Future protest near the COP26 venue at the SEC on November 1, 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. As World Leaders meet to discuss climate change at the COP26 Summit, many climate action groups have taken to the streets to protest for real progress to be made by governments to reduce carbon emissions, clean up the oceans, reduce fossil fuel use and other issues relating to global heating. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Who should pay for the climate catastrophe?

The most thorny debates on display at COP26 have to do with climate finance and justice. Rich nations have a moral responsibility to compensate poor nations for climate change harm,...

Nov 2, 2021

Housing construction in Boston's Seaport (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Boston’s building boom presents big challenges for the next mayor to solve

Traffic is terrible, we don't have enough affordable housing and construction releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Boston’s biggest building boom in generations is far from harmless,...

Nov 1, 2021

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his Build Back Better agenda from the East Room of the White House on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Ed Markey: Congress must send Biden to COP26 with a deal on climate

After four years of Donald Trump’s climate destruction and denial, President Biden has the chance to show the world that ‘America is back,’ writes Sen. Ed Markey.

Oct 29, 2021

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Let Black men run

Charlie Baker's empty suit

Why you should get off the sidelines of the abortion debate

Searching for light in this season of ‘meh’

Charlie Baker's empty suit

A Holiday Season Gutted By The Pandemic: We're Trying To 'Celebrate And Grieve At The Same Time'

Why you should get off the sidelines of the abortion debate

Let Black men run

We Asked 10 People To Imagine Life After The Pandemic. Here's What They Said

The Hanukkah Ham, And Other Morsels Of Religious Ignorance

As ‘9/11 Kids,' We Only Have The Stories Other People Tell Us About Our Dad

They Laughed When We Warned A Ban On Abortion Was Coming. Now It's Here

I Know The Water Is Coming. But I Can't Bear To Sell My Family's Cottage

I Am A Black Woman In Academia. Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Tenure Saga Isn't Unique

After So Much Uncertainty And Loss, We Need The Grace Of Connection

When I'm Out In The Water With My Daughter

'I Just Wish I Could Stay A Little Longer': Jack Thomas Considers The End Of His Life

Why You Can't Shake Pandemic Anxiety

HIV cases spiked this year. We need more screening

The danger of 'safe spaces'

The child care crisis is a wage crisis

Being a family caregiver is enormously hard. Here are three reforms that would help

Why rapid COVID tests should be free

Stephen Sondheim's art wasn't easy. It wasn't meant to be

A pandemic silver lining? Most stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving

A cure for the Covid winter blues? Joan Didion

This pandemic will end. But the next one could be worse

Yes, the media deserve criticism for the Steele dossier. But so does the GOP for touting Trump's 'Big Lie'

America wasn't ready for Homer Plessy in 1896. Are we now?

Let’s use what worked during COVID-19 to meet addiction, housing and other challenges

In my mother's garden

Until our armed forces address a legacy of assault, I won't be celebrating Veterans Day

'Keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever': A grandmother wonders how to say goodbye

The 'manufactured cynicism' infecting our politics

Congratulations, Mayor-elect Wu. Now could you please rethink free transit?

Why can’t we seem to get enough of Princess Diana?

Dear Mayor-elect Wu: Don’t forget your promise to make ‘a Boston for everyone’

Chin up, climate crusaders. We're about to rebuild America

Access to water is a human right. When will the U.S. government agree?

Unlearning the 'rules' about what a leader looks like

Who should pay for the climate catastrophe?

Boston’s building boom presents big challenges for the next mayor to solve

Ed Markey: Congress must send Biden to COP26 with a deal on climate