In a Very Specific and Limited Way — The last time I wrote about Brexit was a little over a year ago — Boris Johnson had just become Prime Minister, ash was not blocking out the sun in the Pacific Northwest, and very few people had ever heard of the word “coronavirus”. Simpler times. But, just in time…

For the second episode of The Rights Pod, I sat down with human rights student Shikha Srinivas to discuss Harry Potter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.We’ll be tackling some of your tough questions about the wizarding world — does the prison of Azkaban meet human rights standards? Does…

Well, it was definitely a strange year to be graduating Stanford . . . but the Class of 2020 did it! Once you’re done celebrating with quarantinis, here are ten things you should do (and advice I wish I’d had) after graduation. Set up auto forwarding and a vacation responder…

With the latest worldwide Climate Strike set for tomorrow, Alina Utrata offers some personal observations. I don’t know much about the climate crisis. I don’t, actually. But I know some facts. I know about the burning of the Amazon, the world’s biggest carbon sink. Farmers in Brazil, clearing land for…

How to Find Purpose and Direction On Your Way Through — By Ibrahim Bharmal and Alina Utrata NY Magazine recently published the article “A cynic’s guide to killing it at Stanford: How to Network Your Way Through Stanford University.” The article is a (cringe-worthy) guide for how the ambitious incoming freshmen should navigate Stanford, what they dub a “finishing school for…

IPCC issues report on climate catastrophe (it’s still a catastrophe): eat less meat and dairy now, or lose all the foods later For some reason, recommending that we stop eating meat (or even just eat less meat) makes some people go bananas. Remember when Greggs came out with a vegan sausage roll, and Piers Morgan had an absolute meltdown? They weren’t even forcing him to eat the (non-bloody) thing!

The earth’s climate continues to meltdown In case you were wondering, the earth — and life on it — is still facing a catastrophe. This July was the hottest month in recorded history and Arctic sea-ice coverage reached a near record low. The recent European heatwave saw average temperatures between 1.5°C and 3°C higher because of…

Well, Northern Ireland, did you miss me?! Yours truly is back for the Political Week in 5 Points, this time from the West Coast of the United States. I’d say “sunny California,” but it sounds like most of Europe had it hotter than we did. Let’s get to it. Heatwave terrifying example of how the planet is literally burning, politicians continue to do nothing about climate change Europe…

In Which I Try to Explain to Americans the Madness that is Brexit — UPDATE: Read Explaining Brexit to Americans Part II Since my return from the UK, many confused Americans have asked me about Brexit. What is it? What’s going to happen? Is it really that bad? And why, oh why, is Boris Johnson like this? I may only be able to answer…