Introduction “Studies suggest that heavy online gaming actually alters brain structures involved in decision making and self-control, much as drug and alcohol use does. Emotional development can be delayed or derailed, leaving the player with a sense of self that is incomplete, fragile, and socially disengaged — more id than superego…

“For a year, I’d organized climate strikes on the streets of Kampala, the capital and largest city in Uganda, in east-central Africa, where I live, to demand action on the climate emergency. …

Introduction “Anglo-Saxons are, essentially, Scandinavians. Well, a bit. …

Introduction “Twenty years ago, Barbara Ehrenreich published a book that did not describe the lived realities of working poverty so much as imprint them somewhere deep in your conscience. The daughter of a copper miner turned journalist, Ehrenreich temporarily left her normal, middle-class life to work in the low-wage labor market…

Introduction “Celebrations like Christmas and midsummer are generally scaled-back affairs with a strong focus on being together. In other words, our Nordic friends take their time to do things right — in a wonderful, uncomplicated way. It was at a dinner party in my adopted hometown of Malmö that I learnt…

Introduction “Part of what drove my grandparents’ food culture from the American table was official scientific opinion, which, beginning in the 1960s, decided that animal fat was a deadly substance. And then there were the food manufacturers, which stood to make very little money from my grandmother’s cooking, because she was…

“In the state of California, public colleges and universities are provided with furniture produced by prisoners, the vast majority of whom are Latino and black.” “It should also be pointed out that punishment has not been without its gendered dimensions. Women were often punished within the domestic domain, and instruments…

Introduction “NVC guides us in reframing how we express ourselves and hear others. Instead of habitual, automatic reactions, our words become conscious responses based firmly on awareness of what we are perceiving, feeling, and wanting. We are led to express ourselves with honesty and clarity, while simultaneously paying others a respectful…

“In 1971, the principal at Riverdale Elementary was perfectly within his legal rights to fire me for being pregnant. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had banned hiring and firing based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. But the courts were clear: it was just fine to hire…