Photo by Matthew Fassnacht on Unsplash There’s no class in high school on how to not be a shitty boyfriend or girlfriend. Sure, they teach us the biology of sex, the legality of marriage, and maybe we read a few obscure love stories from the 19th century on how not to be. But when it comes down to actually handling the nitty-gritty of relationships, we’re given no pointers… or worse, we’re given advice columns in women’s magazines. Yes, it’s trial-and-error from the get-go. And if you’re like most people, it’s been mostly error. But part of the problem is that many unhealthy relationship habits are baked into our culture. We worship romantic love — you know, that dizzying and irrational romantic love that somehow finds breaking china plates on the wall in a fit of tears somewhat endearing — and scoff at practicality or unconventional sexualities. Men and women are […]

The most important report on child poverty in years is finally out. California Democrats Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Barbara Lee in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on January 16, 2019. Rep. Lee helped spearhead the push for the National Academy of Sciences’ study on child poverty. Finding the best ways to do good. Made possible by The Rockefeller Foundation. In late 2015, Congress agreed as part of a bipartisan funding deal to produce a landmark, $750,000 report on how to cut child poverty in America. The result of pressure from California Democratic Representatives Barbara Lee and Lucille Roybal-Allard, the provision called for the National Academy of Sciences to convene a group of experts to produce “a nonpartisan, evidence-based report that would provide its assessment of the most effective means for reducing child poverty by half in the next 10 years.” That group has now, more than three years later, produced […]