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Where’s Harvey Weinstein Headed? It’s a Place I Know

Published by Daniel Genis

Many people want to know where Harvey Weinstein is headed, especially now that it’s been revealed that he’s been infected with COVID-19. He recently was transferred from New York...

April 4, 2020

Land Repossessions Were Disastrous for Zimbabwe. Will South Africa Repeat the Same Mistakes?

Published by Marian L. Tupy

On March 6th, 2020, the government of Zimbabwe “gazetted new legislation under which former landowners may opt for repossession [of confiscated land] or monetary compensation [for confiscated land]. The...

April 2, 2020

“Amazon Empire” Struggles Under Its Own Contradictions

Published by Steven Volynets

Editor’s note: Quillette receives a small amount of revenue from Amazon affiliate advertising. A review of Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, Frontline, PBS, February 19,...

April 2, 2020

The Erdoğanization of Hungary

Published by Shay Khatiri

Earlier this week, ostensibly in light of the COVID-19 crisis, the Hungarian parliament granted the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, rule by decree. With fewer than 500 confirmed cases...

April 2, 2020

Europe, Security, Top Stories, World Affairs

COVID-19, Health, Philosophy, Spotlight

Sickness and Stoicism

In less than three months, COVID-19 has changed from a peripheral concern, barely registering in presidential debates, to the greatest global crisis since World War II. We are living...

Canada, COVID-19

I Run a Family-Owned Construction Firm. Here’s What COVID-19 Did to My World

When a crisis hits, sometimes just a day or two can feel like a lifetime for a small business owner. That’s how it felt for me when much of...

COVID-19 Updates, Podcast

PODCAST 84: Talat Chughtai, Director of the Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Hamad General Hospital, on Treating COVID-19

Talat Chughtai, Director of the Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Hamad General Hospital, talks to Jonathan Kay about COVID-19, the strain it’s putting on health-care systems, and what we’ve...

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Science Update for March 31st: Wear a Mask, Georgia’s SSE, Kinsa’s Fever Map

This article constitutes the March 31st, 2020 entry in the daily Quillette series COVID-19 UPDATES. Please report needed corrections or suggestions to jon@quillette.com. Today’s data According to statistics compiled...

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Science Update for March 30th: The Planet’s Deadly Viral Baseline

This article constitutes the March 30th, 2020 entry in the daily Quillette series COVID-19 UPDATES. Please report needed corrections or suggestions to jon@quillette.com. According to statistics compiled by Our...

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Science Update for March 29th: Keep Your Voice Down

This article constitutes the March 29th, 2020 entry in the daily Quillette series COVID-19 UPDATES. Please report needed corrections or suggestions to jon@quillette.com. According to statistics compiled by Our...

COVID-19, Spotlight

Denmark’s Weapons Against COVID-19: Early Action, High Trust—and a No-Nonsense Queen

It’s early spring in Denmark, a welcome relief after months of murky, rainy darkness. Even Copenhagen’s less-affluent districts are covered with carpets of blue wildflowers. It’s also the third...

COVID-19, Economics

The Case for Economic Hibernation during the COVID-19 Lockdowns

The extreme social distancing measures required to arrest the spread of COVID-19, especially the lockdown and isolation, are presenting economic policymakers with an unfamiliar challenge. The economic slowdown, caused...

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Science Update for March 28th: Bergamo’s Decimation, More SSEs, and the Case for Masks

This article constitutes the March 28th, 2020 entry in the daily Quillette series COVID-19 UPDATES. Please report needed corrections or suggestions to jon@quillette.com. According to statistics compiled by Our...

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Science Update for March 27th: Super-Spreaders and the Need for New Prediction Models

This article constitutes the March 27th, 2020 entry in the daily Quillette series COVID-19 UPDATES. Please report needed corrections or suggestions to jon@quillette.com. According to statistics compiled by...

COVID-19, Health, Science / Tech

Social Distancing and Stay-Home Orders Are Likely To Save Millions

A new study by influential researchers at Imperial College, London finds that COVID-19 is more infectious and deadly than scientists had thought. The new Imperial study finds that had...

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Science Update for March 26th: Five Trends Shaping Medium-Term Policy

This article constitutes the March 26th, 2020 entry in the daily Quillette series COVID-19 UPDATES. Please report needed corrections to jon@quillette.com. Until today, these updates have begun with a...

April 4, 2020

Sickness and Stoicism

In less than three months, COVID-19 has changed from a peripheral concern, barely registering in presidential debates, to the...

by Roy Wayne Meredith III

April 3, 2020

Alex Salmond’s Moral Corruption

Corruption in government is usually thought of, and investigated, as the appropriation of public funds for private purposes. There...

by John Lloyd

April 2, 2020

The Erdoğanization of Hungary

Earlier this week, ostensibly in light of the COVID-19 crisis, the Hungarian parliament granted the country’s prime minister, Viktor...

by Shay Khatiri

April 2, 2020

‘10% Less Democracy’—A Review

10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less by Garrett...

by Adam Wakeling

March 31, 2020

Romance, Race, and Retribution

I “This is a crisis of epic proportions,” wrote an alarmed Romance Writers of America (RWA) board member on...

by Jamie Palmer

March 30, 2020

Warehouse Work in an Age of Contagion

As regular readers of Quillette will know, I work at a warehouse in West Sacramento, California, where every workday...

by Kevin Mims

March 30, 2020

Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family—A Review

A review of Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family by Sophie Lewis, Verso, 224 pages (May 2019) Why is...

by Louise Perry

March 28, 2020

Social Distancing During the Black Death

One of the comforts of studying history is that, no matter how bad things get, you can always find...

by James Hankins

March 28, 2020

The Case for Economic Hibernation during the COVID-19 Lockdowns

The extreme social distancing measures required to arrest the spread of COVID-19, especially the lockdown and isolation, are presenting...

by Einat Wilf and Saar Wilf

March 26, 2020

Social Distancing and Stay-Home Orders Are Likely To Save Millions

A new study by influential researchers at Imperial College, London finds that COVID-19 is more infectious and deadly than...

by Michael Shellenberger

March 26, 2020

Will COVID-19 Mark the End of European Liberalism?

Understandably, given its potential for large scale loss of life and severe economic disruption, coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic...

by Jamie Martin

March 25, 2020

The Coming Age of Dispersion

As of this writing, the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic remain uncertain. But one possible consequence is an...

by Joel Kotkin

March 25, 2020

No, COVID-19 Is Not a ‘Disaster for Feminism’

I wasn’t especially surprised to find an essay in the Atlantic calling the COVID-19 pandemic a “disaster for feminism.”...

by Marilyn Simon

March 25, 2020

Sanders’ Indifferent City on a Hill

In the months since the outbreak of a deadly global pandemic, Americans have rediscovered the world outside. None of...

by Brian Stewart

March 23, 2020

Humanity’s Greatest Foe: Pandemics Through the Ages

A review of Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill, Anchor, 365 pages (1998) Readers seeking a longer historical perspective...

by Adam Rowe

March 22, 2020

‘Against Democracy’—A Review

A Review of Against Democracy by Jason Brennan. Princeton University Press (September 2016) 304 pages. Many voters can find democracy...

by Adam Wakeling

March 22, 2020

That Elusive Feeling We Call Love

Every writer worth reading—from the good to the great to the canonical—has, at some point or other, explored the...

by Elena Shalneva

March 18, 2020

The Complicated Science of a Medically Assisted Death

Jeff was ready to die. An Oregon man in his late 50s with kidney failure, he had cleared all...

by Anita Hannig

March 17, 2020

A Librarian’s Timeless Mission: Supporting Social Justice Through Freedom of Speech...

What follows is an adapted transcript of Vickery Bowles’ speech at the Empire Club in Toronto on March 9,...

by Quillette Magazine

March 17, 2020

The Misleading Racial Achievement Gap Statistic

Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of the most racially diverse counties in the United States. Four different ethnic groups—white,...

by Kenny Xu

March 16, 2020

Francis Bacon’s Very, Very Ordered Chaos

At least as recently as 1989, the catalogue for a traveling retrospective on the Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon could...

by Devon Britt-Darby

March 14, 2020

Conceit and Contagion: How the Virus Shocked Europe

The World Health Organization announced last week that Europe is now the epicentre of the new coronavirus epidemic. As...

by Bruno Maçães

March 12, 2020

Christopher Hitchens, Anti-Identitarian

The Hitchens Prize is an annual award sponsored by the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, named for the late polemicist and...

by Matt Johnson

March 11, 2020

‘Systemic Racism’—An Unhelpful Concept

Is racism an individual or systemic problem? Traditionally, racism was broadly recognized as an interpersonal phenomenon: reflexive antipathy towards...

by Samuel Kronen

The Coming Age of Dispersion

Published by Joel Kotkin

As of this writing, the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic remain uncertain. But one possible consequence is an acceleration of the end of the megacity era. In its...

March 25, 2020

COVID-19, Economics, Health, Politics, Recommended

Conceit and Contagion: How the Virus Shocked Europe

Published by Bruno Maçães

The World Health Organization announced last week that Europe is now the epicentre of the new coronavirus epidemic. As the announcement was made, many countries in Africa and Asia...

March 14, 2020

COVID-19, COVID-19 Updates, Recommended

Fabricated Innocence: The Self-Exoneration and Re-Incrimination of Jens Soering

Published by Andrew Hammel

One of the narrative paradigms in Kurt Vonnegut’s typology of stories is called “Man in a Hole”: Someone starts out doing pretty well at the beginning of a story,...

March 8, 2020

Crime, Law, Long Read, Recommended