'Helpless fury': January 6, four years laterRather than being called to account for his crimes on Jan.6, Donald Trump arrives back on the Capitol steps triumphant and unscathed. His election to a second term dramatically shifts...Jan 3, 2025The triumphant and tragic life of Maria CallasThere is much to love about Netflix's “Maria”, a biopic about soprano Maria Callas, including the film’s visual splendor, writes Paul Wink. But the film misses opportunities to illuminate the...Jan 3, 2025Public trust in science is ebbing — and will have real-world consequencesAnti-science attitudes have historically encumbered societal progress in the U.S., often with serious ramifications, writes Frederick Hewett. The scientific community is now bracing for upheaval as the Trump administration prepares...Jan 2, 2025Jimmy Carter won my vote with his inspired idealism — he’d win it againAt times throughout his presidency, political and economic circumstances forced President Carter to subordinate his impulse to protect the living world. But his accomplishments outweigh his failures, writes Frederick Hewett,...Dec 30, 2024Jimmy Carter’s humility hurt his political career. It also made him remarkableI will always remember Jimmy Carter for the sense of decency that he brought to the Oval Office and for his tireless post-presidential efforts to do good throughout the world,...Dec 30, 2024AdvertisementCog's best essays of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In their own way, these essays help us avoid staggering through life without really seeing it,...Dec 22, 2024Cognoscenti's best stories of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In Cog’s best stories of the year, our authors wrote about politics and heartbreak, mass transit,...Dec 20, 2024My mother’s jewelry, a tree and a new Christmas traditionWhen Christine Willmsen’s mother died, her strongest memories were about their troubled relationship. This year, though, her mother’s jewelry — and a small tree — led the way to a...Dec 19, 2024Time travel with us: The Cog 2024 playlistIn 2024, 27 Cog essays featured music. The right song, even just a few notes, can take us back in time to another version of ourselves. These songs are the...Dec 18, 2024Welcoming the light in this season of darknessHanukkah and Christmas fall on the same day in 2024, a calendar coincidence that's happened only nine times since 1900 and won't happen again until 2052. The light from both...Dec 18, 2024The sacred spirit of Christmas — at my local drug storeDr. Seuss’s Grinch found redemption in a simple insight: Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. But, writes Rich Barlow, each year my local pharmacist provides a Christmas meal —...Dec 17, 2024Why I’ve come to appreciate snoring, sort ofAny pretense we had 25 years ago, about how we might need to contort ourselves to accommodate each other, has given way to understanding and a certain acceptance, writes Cloe...Resume03:49Dec 13, 2024Just the right mix of books for 2024As the co-owner of a bookstore, The Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Hannah Harlow reads for a living. These are the books that stuck with her in 2024. Dec 13, 2024Netflix’s ‘Joy’ tells the story of families like mineScience made me a mother, writes Jennifer Handt. And while nothing about the process felt particularly easy, natural or guaranteed, I never had to wonder whether it could work because...Dec 12, 2024The coat my mother never woreAfter her mother died, Karen Propp was determined to return the brand new coat her mother had never had a chance to wear. My mother was gone. I wanted something...Dec 11, 20243 things the U.S. climate movement must do differentlyA majority of American voters are concerned about the climate crisis, but almost nobody votes based on it, writes Nathaniel Stinnett. If we don’t embark on a crash course to...Dec 10, 2024The gift of marking timeWhat I’m trying to remember, in the blur of parenthood and work and change, is that while I can continue to try to record time as it passes me by,...Dec 8, 2024Some people keep a notebook. As a musician, I keep a very long listDavid Tanklefsky has been a performing musician for more than 20 years. He has a list of every show he’s played — all 900 of them — along with each...Resume04:13Dec 6, 2024Trump’s presidential immunity won’t protect the men and women who carry out his ordersPresident-elect Trump has vowed a mass deportation program that requires National Guardsmen to detain migrants and appears to be stacking his cabinet with poorly vetted loyalists. Under these troubling circumstances,...Dec 5, 2024Joe Biden and the precedent of preemptive pardonsPreemptive pardons are unusual, but legal, writes Amherst College political scientist Austin Sarat. President Biden's pardon of Hunter was partly motivated by a justifiable fear of what Trump’s Justice Department...Dec 4, 2024Next Page
'Helpless fury': January 6, four years laterRather than being called to account for his crimes on Jan.6, Donald Trump arrives back on the Capitol steps triumphant and unscathed. His election to a second term dramatically shifts...Jan 3, 2025
The triumphant and tragic life of Maria CallasThere is much to love about Netflix's “Maria”, a biopic about soprano Maria Callas, including the film’s visual splendor, writes Paul Wink. But the film misses opportunities to illuminate the...Jan 3, 2025
Public trust in science is ebbing — and will have real-world consequencesAnti-science attitudes have historically encumbered societal progress in the U.S., often with serious ramifications, writes Frederick Hewett. The scientific community is now bracing for upheaval as the Trump administration prepares...Jan 2, 2025
Jimmy Carter won my vote with his inspired idealism — he’d win it againAt times throughout his presidency, political and economic circumstances forced President Carter to subordinate his impulse to protect the living world. But his accomplishments outweigh his failures, writes Frederick Hewett,...Dec 30, 2024
Jimmy Carter’s humility hurt his political career. It also made him remarkableI will always remember Jimmy Carter for the sense of decency that he brought to the Oval Office and for his tireless post-presidential efforts to do good throughout the world,...Dec 30, 2024
Cog's best essays of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In their own way, these essays help us avoid staggering through life without really seeing it,...Dec 22, 2024
Cognoscenti's best stories of 2024We published 245 pieces of original writing in 2024, by nearly as many contributors. In Cog’s best stories of the year, our authors wrote about politics and heartbreak, mass transit,...Dec 20, 2024
My mother’s jewelry, a tree and a new Christmas traditionWhen Christine Willmsen’s mother died, her strongest memories were about their troubled relationship. This year, though, her mother’s jewelry — and a small tree — led the way to a...Dec 19, 2024
Time travel with us: The Cog 2024 playlistIn 2024, 27 Cog essays featured music. The right song, even just a few notes, can take us back in time to another version of ourselves. These songs are the...Dec 18, 2024
Welcoming the light in this season of darknessHanukkah and Christmas fall on the same day in 2024, a calendar coincidence that's happened only nine times since 1900 and won't happen again until 2052. The light from both...Dec 18, 2024
The sacred spirit of Christmas — at my local drug storeDr. Seuss’s Grinch found redemption in a simple insight: Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. But, writes Rich Barlow, each year my local pharmacist provides a Christmas meal —...Dec 17, 2024
Why I’ve come to appreciate snoring, sort ofAny pretense we had 25 years ago, about how we might need to contort ourselves to accommodate each other, has given way to understanding and a certain acceptance, writes Cloe...Resume03:49Dec 13, 2024
Just the right mix of books for 2024As the co-owner of a bookstore, The Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Hannah Harlow reads for a living. These are the books that stuck with her in 2024. Dec 13, 2024
Netflix’s ‘Joy’ tells the story of families like mineScience made me a mother, writes Jennifer Handt. And while nothing about the process felt particularly easy, natural or guaranteed, I never had to wonder whether it could work because...Dec 12, 2024
The coat my mother never woreAfter her mother died, Karen Propp was determined to return the brand new coat her mother had never had a chance to wear. My mother was gone. I wanted something...Dec 11, 2024
3 things the U.S. climate movement must do differentlyA majority of American voters are concerned about the climate crisis, but almost nobody votes based on it, writes Nathaniel Stinnett. If we don’t embark on a crash course to...Dec 10, 2024
The gift of marking timeWhat I’m trying to remember, in the blur of parenthood and work and change, is that while I can continue to try to record time as it passes me by,...Dec 8, 2024
Some people keep a notebook. As a musician, I keep a very long listDavid Tanklefsky has been a performing musician for more than 20 years. He has a list of every show he’s played — all 900 of them — along with each...Resume04:13Dec 6, 2024
Trump’s presidential immunity won’t protect the men and women who carry out his ordersPresident-elect Trump has vowed a mass deportation program that requires National Guardsmen to detain migrants and appears to be stacking his cabinet with poorly vetted loyalists. Under these troubling circumstances,...Dec 5, 2024
Joe Biden and the precedent of preemptive pardonsPreemptive pardons are unusual, but legal, writes Amherst College political scientist Austin Sarat. President Biden's pardon of Hunter was partly motivated by a justifiable fear of what Trump’s Justice Department...Dec 4, 2024