fb-pixelOpinion - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

columns

Joan Wickersham

I hate Smart Reply, and I’m not turning it off

It doesn’t care how the writer thinks or what the recipient feels. It blows people off with a kind of staggeringly bland algorithmic sang-froid.
Alex Beam

The magnificent Epsteins

The Epsteins are simultaneously great and commonplace.
SCOT LEHIGH

Why is it so hard to quit politics?

Unpopularity or fear of losing may be the real reason, but it is seldom the explanation offered when an elected official calls it quits. Even when the truth is obvious, big egos need a face-saving cover story when they beat a retreat.
JOAN VENNOCHI

How much did Democrats and the press know about Biden’s decline before the debate?

Instead of country-first thinking, it looks like the first instinct of Democrats was to protect Biden's and the party’s chances of winning in November.

op-eds

Adrian Bonenberger

No army for young men

Ukraine recently lowered its minimum age for conscription. Should the United States raise its maximum age for enlistment?
John Evangelakos, Jason H.P. Kravitt, and William Schmalzl

To restore Harvard’s reputation, faculty should speak up

In countries like China and Russia, one is punished if they present an idea that is classified as antipatriotic. Is this truly the direction that Harvard should now be turning?
Roxana Shafiee and Daniel Schrag

Heat pumps can help meet climate goals but can hurt pocketbooks

Our research shows that in most places across the state, heat pump adoption for homes that use natural gas will increase annual bills.
Raymond J. La Raja

The perils of choosing a nominee at the Democratic convention

Democrats would be asking untested delegates to organize a process, deliberate, and unify around a candidate. The party could be in for a rough ride in full display before the entire country.

editorials

The Declaration of Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.

Why Biden should step aside

For the good of the country, the president should graciously bow out of the race and free his delegates to cast their votes for someone else at the Democratic National Convention.

Supreme Court immunity ruling means more than a delay of the Trump trial. It could make future despots untouchable.

It is hard to fathom that this outcome was what the Framers of our Constitution had in mind.

letters

Secretary Tibbits-Nutt — take the commuter rail

Take a housing-first approach to homelessness

One child hurt by racial bias is one too many, says METCO president

We must defend the freedoms the founders gave us

🎧 Beating Burnout: A four-part series from ‘Say More’

Part 1: We’re in a Burnout Epidemic. There’s Hope.Part 2: Cal Newport says We’re Thinking about Productivity WrongPart 3: Krista Tippett on the Power of Getting QuietPart 4: Emily Nagoski Connects Sex and Stress

Read our editorial series on higher education →

With US college-age population falling, luring more international students could help schools surviveThe ‘demographic cliff’ is coming. Colleges must be prepared.
Meet Globe OpinionSubmit a letter to the EditorSubmit an Op-Ed

Editor's picks

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

We’re in a burnout epidemic. There’s hope.

The Globe’s Say More podcast is launching a four-part series, Beating Burnout, to spotlight insights and advice from leading experts on the topic, from a Harvard stress doctor to “On Being” host Krista Tippett.
EDITORIAL

What friends of Israel and the Palestinians should be demanding now

The fighting needs to stop. Hostages must return home. Israel and the Palestinians both need new leaders. And the diaspora of both sides should be pressing for lasting peace in the form of a two-state solution.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Trump is not the problem

It’s his followers. It’s always been his followers.
Renée Loth

Florida, the new nanny state

For a guy who crusades against nanny-state overreach, Governor Ron DeSantis is doing an awful lot of finger-wagging lately about other people’s lives.
IDEAS | ZACH RAUSCH

Why are religious teens happier than their secular peers?

Here’s what we can learn from the way faith communities stay rooted in the real world — and diminish the harms of the virtual one.
IDEAS | KAT ROSENFIELD

A 1920s doctor with a phony insanity cure was hailed as a hero. It’s a cautionary tale for today.

A combination of self-delusion and self-righteousness is a surefire way for experts to lose our trust.

Cartoons

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

To Biden or not to Biden

Sage Stossel

Anxiety in the air

Christopher Weyant

Debate recovery

Kirsten Barrett

To confine and contain: The many lives of Penikese Island

Christopher Weyant

Getting ready for the big debate

Patrick Chappatte

When Putin meets Kim

More from Globe Opinion

John Evangelakos, Jason H.P. Kravitt, and William Schmalzl

To restore Harvard’s reputation, faculty should speak up

In countries like China and Russia, one is punished if they present an idea that is classified as antipatriotic. Is this truly the direction that Harvard should now be turning?

Roxana Shafiee and Daniel Schrag

Heat pumps can help meet climate goals but can hurt pocketbooks

Our research shows that in most places across the state, heat pump adoption for homes that use natural gas will increase annual bills.

JOAN VENNOCHI

How much did Democrats and the press know about Biden’s decline before the debate?

Instead of country-first thinking, it looks like the first instinct of Democrats was to protect Biden's and the party’s chances of winning in November.

EDITORIAL

Why Biden should step aside

For the good of the country, the president should graciously bow out of the race and free his delegates to cast their votes for someone else at the Democratic National Convention.

JEFF JACOBY

The solution to America’s gerontocracy

Vote for candidates who aren’t addicted to power.

RENÉE GRAHAM

Biden needs to come clean about his health

His advocates should also stop belittling Democrats’ legitimate concerns after the president’s dismal debate.

SCOT LEHIGH

The Great Trumpkin confronts the most terrible time of the year

How he hated the Fourth of July and all it stood for!

Raymond J. La Raja

The perils of choosing a nominee at the Democratic convention

Democrats would be asking untested delegates to organize a process, deliberate, and unify around a candidate. The party could be in for a rough ride in full display before the entire country.

Sign up for Globe Opinion newsletters →

SPECIAL PROJECTS

IDEAS

Blueprints for a new downtown Boston

It's time to reimagine the identity of the city's core — and we've got ideas.

When accidents happen: True stories from an ICU nurse

An interactive comic that explores how medical mistakes can happen in the chaotic environment of an ICU.

Not so fast, fashion

How to be fashionable and equitable while saving the planet from climate change.

Teens Speak

We asked. They delivered. Teens from across the country offer a candid look at how they’re navigating life, school, friendships, social media, expectations, and so much more.

Blue sky Boston: Where inspiration meets aspiration for the city’s future

Sustainable living. Gondolas. A science expo. Evaluation of student humanity. Here’s what a Boston of the future could be.
ERNESTO BARBIERI WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESS RULIFFSON

Tenderness and brutality: True stories from an ICU nurse

An illustrated opinion piece that examines the porous border between healing and suffering in one hospital’s intensive care unit.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

How Uphams Corner got wealthier without getting whiter

The scrappy Dorchester neighborhood has fulfilled the community activist’s dream: development without displacement.
IDEAS

Where did all the workers go?

For two years, employers have been desperate for workers — and there’s no indication the labor shortage will soon change. What are we losing — and possibly gaining — as a result?
Explore the project ➞
IDEAS | PETER THOMSON

The radical, forgotten experiment in educational integration that changed my life

In 1971, kids from Roxbury and Lincoln spent half the year attending school together in the city and the other half in the suburb. Fifty years later, I tracked down my fellow students to see how it shaped them — and whether something like it could work today.

Globe Opinion’s 2022 Top 10

The readers have spoken: Take a tour through The Boston Globe opinion section’s top 10 most read columns, editorials, cartoons, letters, and Ideas stories of 2022.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Remembering trans lives taken in 2022

Even before a gunman killed five people and injured nearly 20 last month at Club Q, a popular LGBTQ nightspot in Colorado Springs, Colo., 2022 was already a deadly year for trans and gender nonconforming people. At least 35 have been killed nationwide, most of them Black trans women.
TIMELINE

Assault on American democracy

Jan. 6, 2021, was one of the most alarming days in American history. Boston Globe Opinion columns, editorials, letters, and cartoons untangle the continuing aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol.
IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

How the MBTA went off the rails

Nearly everything about Boston has changed in the past few decades, yet the T has the same big problem — a failure to prioritize the rider experience above all.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.

Soaring housing costs, a broken T, and other existential problems require sweeping fixes that meet the moment.

Young people and the power of social media

Social media holds enormous power over young people. Can they find a way to navigate safely through its ever-changing landscape?

How do we memorialize the pandemic?

As the United States neared its one millionth COVID-19 related death, artists, architects, and community leaders are calling for a permanent memorial to honor all those touched by COVID. Globe Opinion asked several artists for their vision of what a COVID memorial could look like.
Explore the rest of the project →
IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

Editing the Constitution

The Constitution is undergoing massive changes in the Supreme Court. It’s time to put the founding document in the hands of the people.
ideas

The Future of Work

The past year has shattered expectations of what workdays look like. Parenting while Zooming. An uncrowded T. Wary interactions with customers. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

The Longevity Hub

The Boston Globe Opinion section and MIT's AgeLab present The Longevity Hub, an ongoing series seeking to spark Greater Boston's transformation into the Silicon Valley of aging.
EDITORIAL

Future-proofing the presidency

Donald Trump brought our democracy to the brink and exposed its weak spots. Here’s how to thwart the next American tyrant.
EDITORIAL

A battle for affordable housing in Massachusetts

The Globe editorial board's 2020 series on the need for inclusive housing reform in Newton and across the Commonwealth.

Brave New Planet

Brave New Planet is a podcast that delves deep into the most exciting and challenging scientific frontiers, helping us understand them and grapple with their implications. Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is host.

The future of food

What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before. In this special issue, we celebrate the role of food in our communities and explore how it can be tastier, more accessible, and healthier for us and the planet.
Letters

Postcards from the pandemic

Invited to take a walk, in fact, lots of walks; dining room table repurposed — a snapshot of how readers were coping.
An archive of conversations with the experts writing thought-provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

The Other swing voter

Political coverage often focuses on voters who oscillate between political parties in a few key swing states. Here we feature perspectives and opinions from and about demographics of Americans — young voters and Black and brown voters —who swing between voting and not voting.
From voter suppression to gerrymandering to foreign interference, the integrity of US elections is under attack. In a three-part weekly series, Globe Opinion examines how the nation arrived at this moment and what needs to be done to protect voting rights.
Thomas E. Patterson

Trapped: Why the GOP's death is imminent

The Republican Party is destroying itself. Thomas Patterson of the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center explains the five traps the party has set for itself and warns that the party's future is in peril without reform.

Black voices now

Globe Opinion seeks to amplify the perspectives and the voices of Black community members, scholars, activists, doctors, teachers, business leaders, students, and parents as op-ed and letter writers, and as innovators and provocateurs featured in Globe Ideas. Here we feature Black voices from the community amid the historic protests following the killing of George Floyd. We aim to amplify yet more Black voices going forward.
IDEAS

Massachusetts Works

We turn the typical model of journalism on its head — instead of focusing on what’s broken, we’re taking a look at what Massachusetts gets right.

Legal Lens documentaries

Law and documentary film may seem far apart, but they actually share many connections. With the guidance of filmmaker and producer Joseph Tovares and support from the Hewlett Foundation, 12 Harvard Law School students from eight countries have worked since January on the Legal Lens project. You can view the films here on BostonGlobe.com.

Choosing, using, and losing your health care: A policy first-aid kit

In a four-part weekly series, Globe Opinion offers a baseline assessment of health care as well as prescriptions for fixing the industry.

Journalists are not the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.”
National Student Essay Competition winners announced