I went to Donald Trump's inauguration to see if people there felt the same pride and promise that I did four years earlier. We met at a common intersection, then went very separate ways.

When small town New Englanders embrace Dixie kitsch…

At age 59, and deep in debt, Mark Twain went on an around-the-world stand up comedy tour. We’ll hear what he had to say.

President Barack Obama sits down with David Axelrod to discuss their shared history together, how President Obama managed to stay grounded during turbulent moments of his childhood and adolescence, wh...

The long read: How did a substance that falls from the air, springs from the earth and comes out of your tap become a hyperactive multibillion-dollar business?

[Content warning: hate crimes, Trump, racism. I have turned off comments to keep out bad people who might be attracted by this sort of thing. Avoid sharing in places where this will attract the wro…

WHEN Donald Trump vowed to “Make America Great Again!” he was echoing the campaign of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Back then voters sought renewal after the failures of the Carter presidency. This month the...

Commonwealth Club of California Podcast: Jack Welch

In 2000, Republican lawyers, desperately seeking a way to stop the recount in Florida, crafted a brilliant Equal Protection argument against the method by which the Florida courts were recounting…

David Remnick writes about Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, and what President Barack Obama’s reaction to the new political landscape is.