Was the Human Gut Healthier in Ancient Times?

The microbiome isn’t what it used to be in many parts of the world. The shift may be affecting the well-being of people in industrialized countries.

Friday Nite Videos | October 9, 2026

Kimberly Guilfoyle Grifts | The Daily Show. Buddy Guy and Big Mama Thornton | “Ball And Chain”. Putin’s Winter Campaign Won’t Decide the War. Protests Erupt in NYC After ICE Agents Shoot Father. "60 SECONDS" - Hegseth Talks Competence.

Latino Turnout May Chart Trump-MAGA’s Political Demise

A new analysis by a Democratic data firm shows that Latino turnout in early voting is outpacing 2024—a presidential year. That could be a big problem for Trump and the GOP.

Why Doesn’t Iran Concede? The Limits of Coercion

Pressure and surrender are not the same thing. If Washington wants a diplomatic outcome, it may need to understand what kind of agreement Iran can accept without seeing it as a loss of sovereignty and national dignity.

French Communists: New Direction for Education System

Students have taken to the streets of France in their millions against an outdated school system. The left is trying to offer radical solutions.

Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read

“We Need To Tell The Story”: Literary advocates nationwide reflect on five years of relentless attacks on the freedom to read.

USPS Hires Security Service With History of Abuse

Almost 1,000 armed security officers have been sent to at least 55 post office facilities. The security officers were contracted through multinational private security company Prosegur, according to a Raw Story investigation.

From NYC to Berlin: The Rise of Left Politicians

The people of New York decided earlier this year that the person they most trusted to decrease the cost of living is Zohran Mamdani. Just a few months later, the craze for a leftist mayor crossed the Atlantic and reached the German capital Berlin.

Universities Systematically Suppressed Pro-Gaza Speech

The 322-page joint report from the ACLU and Amnesty International claims that the University violated free speech rights and imposed more punitive punishments for pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Reader Comments & Tidbits, Oct. 8, 2026

Reader Comments: Rape Culture and the Cornell Seven; Dilemmas of Socialist Governance of a Capitalist State; Measles; Statement From Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani on the Third Anniversary of October 7; Hands Off Cuba - Let Cuba Live Virtual Event; more
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Culture

poetry

Questionnaire

Wendell Berry
Poet Wendell Berry asks the questions that our leaders, in their eagerness to confuse and exploit us, neglect to ask.

books

Snow Globe Palimpsest

Shaul Magid Los Angeles Review of Books
Benjamin Moser delivers biographical sketches of Jews who refused to abandon the Diaspora.

food

Food Stamp Catastrophe

Natalie Pattillo The Bittman Project
A distribution station of the Food Bank for New York City, 2025 In the wealthiest country on earth, we are experiencing a human-made nutrition crisis. Since H.R.1 (House Resolution) passed in July 2025, an estimated 5 million people, including 1.5 million children, have lost SNAP benefits.

poetry

[to be crippled means to be institutionalized]

Jennifer Bartlett
Connotation. Denotation. Few words have as many meanings as the word "cripple." Poet Jennifer Bartlett, a longtime disability justice activist, unpacks some of them for us.

books

The Elusive Harold Cruse

Paul Buhle Portside
Reviewer Buhle explores a new biography of one of the most important and controversial Black intellectuals of the 1960s.

Labor

labor

Federal Workers Notch Win Against Illegal RIFs

Whitney Curry WimbishAmer The American Prospect
Organized labor won a major victory last month in a settlement ordering the Trump administration to announce that it has abandoned its attempt to illegally fire millions of federal workers.

labor

Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Campaign Lit a Spark Beyond Elections

Eric Blanc Jacobin magazine
Electoral campaigns can feed workplace struggle by politicizing people, raising their expectations, bringing activists together, and giving them experience organizing others. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns did all four.

labor

It’s Time To Boycott Starbucks

Lisa Watson Inequality.org
Organizers with Starbucks Workers United have been trying to get a contract finalized for five years. Enough is enough.

Friday nite video

video

Bob Dylan | A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall

The intended meaning of this classic -- if any -- is obscure, but the lasting impact of its brooding sense of impending catastrophe, or righteous settlement of debts, is huge. Many questions about tomorrow, and no clear answers.

video

The Corruption at Starlink Is Shocking

The U.S. was supposed to spend $40 billion to build internet in rural America, then Elon Musk got a huge chunk of that money redirected to Starlink.