Did Baby Talk Give Rise to Language?

The way that human adults talk to young children is unique among primates, a new study found. That might be one secret to our species’ grasp of language.

The Oligarchs’ Prize in Trump’s Budget-Busting Bill

Avoiding an income-tax increase is nice, but that’s not the bill’s greatest gift to the rich.

The Parrot in the Machine

The artificial intelligence industry depends on plagiarism, mimicry, and exploited labor, not intelligence.

Cautionary Tales From the New Left

In a new memoir, New Left leader Michael Ansara wants to impart lessons from his own time as a campus activist to today’s protesters. But his later role in a corruption scandal that set back Teamsters reform for decades offers its own cautionary less

I’ve Worked at Google for Decades. I’m Sickened by It.

For the first time, I feel driven to speak publicly, because our company is now powering state violence across the globe.

Donald Trump’s UFC Stunt Is More Than a Circus.

MMA was once used to curry favor with Putin. Now, Trump is using the UFC to project a nationalist cult of masculinity

Soldiers Are Taking a Stand Against Trump’s Abuses

On the Fourth of July, members of the military are calling on Congress to protect service members who disobey the president’s immoral or unlawful orders.

July 4th in the Face of Fascism

This 4th of July, may we all gather with Fannie Lou Hamer and the moral fusion family closest to us – both the living and the dead – to recommit ourselves to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

WFP and Mamdani Campaign

Along with the turnout of 50,000 volunteers who embraced the Mamdani campaign, the NY WFP, achieved the following: Knocked 7,750 doors; made 126K phone calls; organized 300 early voting poll site and over 200 election day poll site visibility shifts.

Democratic Party: Biden and Mandami

For many Democratic operatives, the victory of the Left in the Democratic Party, now represented by Sanders, the Squad, and Mamdani, would be a catastrophic blow, at least as obnoxious as MAGA and Project 2025. 
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Culture

books

“World Without End” Unveils a World With Hope (Still)

Toby LeBlanc Southern Review of Books
"This book is needed," writes reviewer LeBlanc. "Instead of sharing hard-and-fast edicts, the kind desired by those with a fundamentalist frame of mind, Park advocates for courage and conversation."

film

28 Years Later and the Social Life of Catastrophe

Eileen Jones Jacobin
The latest installment of the 28 Days Later franchise returns with more than zombies — it explores the strange new norms that follow collapse. It’s a vision of survival horror that focuses not just on the infected but on the ways humanity adapts.

food

The Secret Life of Government Cheese

Colleen Hamilton Ambrook Research
The U.S. government encouraged producers to produce cheese and the USDA began stockpiling the surplus. Some of the same companies that benefited from USDA dairy surplus purchases now rent space in the very caverns once used to house that surplus.

poetry

Jerusalem Revisited

Mary Mackey
In "Jerusalem," William Blake vowed to fight the 'dark Satanic Mills' of early capitalism. Answering Blake, poet Mary Mackey recognizes contemporary capitalism's failures, but vows to embrace what's still good in life, not just belabor what's awful.

Labor

labor

Stealing From the Poor

Heidi Shierholz Economic Policy Institute
The radical Republican budget bill steals from the poor to give tax cuts to the rich

labor

PSC, Higher-Ed Unions Slam Federal Research Funding Cuts

Crystal Lewis The Chief
President of PSC and other members rally with signs saying "stop the war of universities". th In addition to the grants already defunded, the Trump administration has proposed setting a 15-percent cap on indirect cost reimbursements, leaving a gap many public colleges and universities would be unable to cover, the advocates said.

labor

Abundance That Works for Workers—and American Democracy

Kate Andrias and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez Roosevelt Institute
In order to be effective, abundance policy must benefit and build power for working- and middle-class Americans—rather than enriching and empowering concentrated economic interests and generating populist backlash that undermines democracy.

Friday nite video

video

'The House I Live In' | Paul Robeson

These lyrics were written by Abel Meeropol (who later adopted the children of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg) under the pen name Lewis Allen (1943); the music was composed by Earl Robinson. This 1947 cover by Paul Robeson includes all the original verses.

video

Gaza | Along the Green Line: Episode 3

In the third and final episode of Along the Green Line, reporter Matthew Cassel heads to the south of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.