Remembering Malcolm-Jamal Warner — and Theo Huxtable
As Theo Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner had to represent young Black men on the highest-rated show on television while still appealing to middle America, writes Dart Adams. Watching another creative Black...
There are so many ways to make a family
When Ruthie Ackerman first decided to use a donor egg to conceive, she worried there could be a lingering, lifelong wedge between her and her child, because they wouldn't share...
Where — and who — we come from
While on vacation with her family, Cog editor Cloe Axelson saw examples from historian Colin Woodward's book, "American Nations," at every turn.
Hope alone is never enough
Michael Ansara, the author of a new memoir, “The Hard Work of Hope,” writes, the demonstrations, sit-ins, boycotts and marches of the ’60s and ’70s were possible because of the...
Joni’s jazz and Bonnie’s blues: ‘All this time later, I still find it thrilling’
Two of my favorite musicians, Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt, are being feted in this twilight of their careers, writes Mark Schlack. I’m thrilled to see them get their due,...
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The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves
Cog editor Kate Neale Cooper is a runner. Or at least she used to be. In midlife, I’m not willing to accept that my running days are over, she writes,...
Returning to triathlons in midlife helped me return to myself
Pavithra Natarajan ran triathlons in her 20s, before she lost herself in the quotidian of being a wife and mother. Years passed, then a chance encounter nudged awake something inside...
Ranked choice voting in NYC showed us what elections could look like
The real story from the New York City mayoral primary isn't Zohran Mamdani's victory, but voters' response to a different way of voting, writes Ismar Volić, director of the Institute...
Summer is the perfect time to adopt a cat
Animal shelters, scrambling for temporary foster homes to avoid overcrowding and the resulting health issues, face myths and misapprehensions about cats that scare off potential fosters, writes Rich Barlow. Allow...
The wedding is only the beginning
The average engagement lasts 15 months, writes Kate Neale Cooper. During that time, couples often talk about bridesmaids dresses and centerpieces, first dances and seating arrangements. But what if, instead,...
The Supreme Court 'kneecapped' the lower federal courts. Or did it?
The courts continue to be the only bulwark against an overreaching executive, writes Nancy Gertner, a former U.S. District Court judge. After the high court’s ruling on nationwide injunctions, it...
I counsel women going through a divorce. Here's what they tell me
Many women who initiate divorce tell me their spouse was more like an unreliable assistant than a true partner, writes psychotherapist Oona Metz. Eventually, after years of unproductive conversations, the...
Bees, like people, need each other
When Linda Button's other half decided to become a beekeeper, he transformed their backyard. He cleared a space for the hives, lining it with rocks and building trellises with flowering...
The forgotten meaning of 'America the Beautiful'
“America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates is as much critique as celebration, writes documentary filmmaker John de Graaf. While Bates’ first verse celebrates America’s beauty, the other three ask...
With Paul Simon, I'm always homeward bound
The immigrant experience is defined by the quiet courage of reconciling where we come from with whom we hope to become, writes Evy Peña. We belong in the different versions...
Not all jobs require literacy skills. But nearly all job applications do
While literacy might not be required to do a job laying bricks or hammering nails, it is required to get it, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. From online applications to QR...
To stay on ‘nodding terms’
Theoretically, Cog editor Cloe Axelson should be great at keeping a journal. But she has a nagging (if slightly unhinged) worry that she could be run over by a bus:...
What we give — and receive — with the words, 'I'm sorry'
It’s Pride month, and Jason Prokowiew has been thinking about a high school bully — one who surprised him. It couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes, and is...
The moral imperative to show up anyway
'What good will it do?' is the question people ask upon learning I’m participating in a 40-day solidarity Fast for Gaza, writes Leah Hager Cohen. For most of us, it's...
Tuberculosis doesn't respect borders
Tuberculosis kills 1.3 million people each year, making it the deadliest infectious disease in the world, write KJ Seung and Kunda Kwabisha Mikanda. Eliminating U.S. funding to combat it around...