Philosophy · Ideology · Essays · Macro Thinking · Intellectual History
From Polybius's cyclical theory of civilizational collapse and the enduring logic of Stoicism to the economic philosophy of Henry George and the satirical genius of Jonathan Swift, Trill News publishes essays and opinion pieces that take ideas seriously. We explore the philosophical frameworks, ideological currents, and macro thinking that explain why the world works the way it does.
The tightly integrated North American beef market, under pressure from drought and the spread of the screwworm, could get further roiled by trade uncertainty.
Read article →Last week, the Supreme Court handed an unusual — if temporary — victory to an Alabama man on death row. As Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor, writes, this is the first time in over five years that this Court r...
Read article →Dads today are spending dramatically more time with their kids than they did a generation ago. But there’s a less encouraging trend tucked into this development.
Read article →The consequences of online regulations depend on the extent to which users can circumvent restrictions or substitute toward noncompliant platforms. Since 2023, 25 U.S. states have implemented age verification laws tha...
Read article →This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the midterm elections approach, something strange has happened: Democratic politici...
Read article →Africa’s ‘coup belt’ has seen rising anti-Western sentiment.
Read article →1. On trading with AIs. 2. A treasury of book dedications. 3. Abdullah Ibrahim, RIP (NYT). 4. One part of the Iran equilibrium. 5. Economists report on Fable 5. 6. Another estimate of the productivity gains from AI. 7...
Read article →“Longevity” — a buzzy catchall for the quest for a longer life — is having a moment. Tech titans like Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos are spending billions to fund research into how to slow aging. Celebri...
Read article →An environmental engineer who mapped microplastic pollution in three of Pennsylvania’s watersheds explains what it means for our health.
Read article →In 2024, China’s NMPA approved 83 new drugs, the FDA approved 50. China’s share of new commercial clinical trials jumped from 8% globally in 2013 to 30% in 2024, just behind the US at 35%. Last year, China-based Jiang...
Read article →For decades, Florida was the archetypal presidential swing state — and as recently as 2016 and 2018, Democrats came close to winning statewide elections there. Then things took a turn. After Ron DeSantis was ele...
Read article →Enslaved people were not just enslaved physically, but mentally as well. as widespread laws in the South barred enslaved people from receiving an education.
Read article →Is it really all about the networking? Some people think so, and they are taking action: Justin Helman didn’t get his dream acceptance from the University of Florida. But that isn’t stopping him from pursuing the...
Read article →You might have particular feelings about snakes, but for millions of Americans they’re a member of the household. And their popularity as pets has only been growing: From 2018 to 2024, the number of households that ow...
Read article →Electric utilities don’t make money from selling power to customers, but instead profit from investments in power plants, wires, substations and other equipment.
Read article →Most of my Free Press column deals with Mythos, but here are some remarks on Europe: There is yet another huge problem behind all these first-order problems. Let us say, for instance, that France’s Mistral AI develops...
Read article →In a sense, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is getting what he wanted. Amodei has long argued that AI is becoming dangerously powerful — and thus, that regulatory restrictions on the technology are urgently needed. In an e...
Read article →An observatory director describes the differences between the types of rocks that fly through space.
Read article →Perhaps rewatching The Omen is better prep for this movie than thinking about UFOs? In this regard Disclosure Day is somewhat more interesting than I had been expecting. Peter Thiel, Ross Douthat, telephone! And...
Read article →One should never underestimate President Donald Trump’s ability to use sheer obfuscation to extract “victory” from a situation where the outcome is ambiguous at best. In the days to come, following Sunday’s announceme...
Read article →The rapidly growing popularity of prediction markets is sparking worries about the markets’ effects on US politics, where campaign staff has bet on its candidate’s electoral performance.
Read article →Champions of a European AI model should ask themselves if a European effort would be more effective than Meta, which this year will spend more on chips ($125 billion) than Germany spends on defense ($114 billion) and ...
Read article →I turned 48 this week, which meant it was time for my annual physical. After the usual battery of questions from my doctor — How much did I drink? Was I exercising? How was I sleeping? — it was my turn to ask a questi...
Read article →A data center could get more solar power and be kept much colder in space, but it would be extremely difficult to repair and update.
Read article →