Check out these recent articles from around the web:

Inside America’s Death Chambers by Elizabeth Bruenig: “On the night of September 22, 2022, I gathered with Miller’s family to count down the hours until midnight—after which Miller’s death warrant would legally expire. It was the first occasion I’d had to observe how a family experiences a loved one’s execution. Miller’s family members were down-to-earth, genuine people. I had expected that they would be somber—and they were—but they also displayed a kind of gallows humor. Given the circumstances, any questions I had were ill-timed, but the family put me at ease and answered them. We were sharing something intimate: this preemptive mourning, this encounter with death.”

Karol Nawrocki’s narrow win in Poland highlights liberal vs. populist challenge by MSW: “Believers also recognize we need a better alternative than populist authoritarians in the MAGA mold. In the absence of such a better alternative, however, many believers will choose the authoritarian over the libertarian. Especially for working-class believers, for whom neoliberalism not only enshrined libertarianism but produced an economy that sold them down the river, this choice is not as repugnant as it seems to those lucky enough to have flourished under neoliberalism.”

America might finally make childbirth free by Rachel Cohen Booth: “Democrats for Life and Americans United for Life teamed up, and in January 2023 the two organizations released a white paper, fleshing out the “Make Birth Free” policy in more detail. The authors thanked Bruenig in the acknowledgements for pushing them to take on the idea, and it was this white paper that caught Vance’s eye in the Senate.”

Virtue ethics – after Alasdair MacIntyre by Jason Blakely: “Alasdair MacIntyre – the great Scottish moral philosopher, Catholic convert, and Notre Dame professor – died on 21 May at the age of 96. He was the most creative and philosophically innovative defender of Aristotle and virtue ethics of the twentieth­ century. So much so that after living just shy of 100 years, his thought nevertheless achieved the enviable age-defying feat of somehow seeming ever-new, attracting ranks of young and energised readers while retaining a momentous tone of omen or even prophecy. Indeed, MacIntyre’s defence of Aristotle in many ways anticipated our own politically fraught moment decades in advance: foreseeing the plight of liberalism, the crisis of technocratic and expert authority, the so-called “return” of religion, and the rise of new post-liberal ideologies of the right and left.”

From Ayn Rand to Donald Trump by Paul Baumann: “What is especially frightening in our own political moment is the refusal of Republicans to oppose Trump even when he is flouting long-cherished conservative principles and policies. As Trump eagerly embraces the role of Big Brother, his partisans remain silent. Their once-principled opposition to concentrated political power has given way to uncritical support for the Randian antics of a made-for-TV Übermensch.”

Dignity at Home by Tim Shriver: “My mom decided to teach children with intellectual disabilities to swim because she believed that the rest of us would be awakened to their dignity if we could see their skill and the bravery and joyfulness in becoming swimmers. My dad launched the Peace Corps because he believed that young Americans would see the dignity of people from a multitude of backgrounds and beliefs if only they lived eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart. I think civil rights activists and community organizers and teachers, and business leaders, all of whom visited my childhood home, shared this belief. Together, they were convinced that the world could become more just and more joyful if we learned how to treat each other with dignity. And they made history.”

Democrats set out to study young men. Here are their findings. by Elena Schneider: “The focus groups found that young men feel they are in crisis: stressed, ashamed and confused over what it means to be a man in 2025. They vented about conflicting cultural messages of masculinity that put them in a “no-win situation around the meaning of ‘a man,’” according to the SAM project memo. They described how the Covid pandemic left them isolated and socially disconnected. They also said they now feel overwhelmed by economic anxiety, making “traditional milestones,” like buying a home or saving for kids’ college, “feel impossible,” an analysis of the research said.”

$4,785. That’s how much it costs to be a sports fan now. by Joon Lee: “Sports is one of the last activities that can still be a shared American experience that cuts across class, race and geography, unfolding live, unscripted and in real time, in the real world with real people. But instead of uniting us, it’s been carved up. The wealthy can sit courtside, stream everything and pass down season tickets like heirlooms. For everyone else, belonging is for sale.”

In AI focus, Pope Leo targets ‘ravages of globalization and inequality’ by James C. Benton: “Global challenges, like those posed by AI, wealth concentration, inequality and economic and social displacement, require a global response. If Pope Leo’s words and actions can inspire greater solidarity in service to addressing the economic issues of our time, we will be one step closer to building a world where workers are more likely to gain and enjoy the rights and dignity that is rightfully theirs.”

The Mass Trauma of Porn by Freya India: “What does growing up with limitless online porn do to our ability to love, to form lasting relationships? To our desire to start families? To our capacity to see people as people, instead of objects? My generation was taught to see each other not only as content to consume, and products to shop through, but as categories, sex objects, things to get pleasure from. We grew up watching what were often sex trafficking victims, likely seeing rape and abuse — and are somehow expected to file that away, to fall in love in the real world, to have romantic experiences just the same as previous generations did, to be tender and gentle and loyal, to know how.”