If you were to compare the revenues of the highest-grossing feature film in history and the highest-grossing video game in history—you might be surprised to learn that the video game earned substantially more—five times more, in fact, than the film. As Kimberly Wallace tells us, video games are big business and their societal impact still misunderstood.

The fossil record of planet earth tells us that there have been five mass extinctions—the most famous being the fifth that destroyed the dinosaurs. Elizabeth Kolbert warns that we’re in the midst, now, of the sixth extinction and its cause is human activity.

It’s easy to be convinced by talk show hosts, editorial writers, and politicians that American security hangs on the razor’s edge and that the world is more dangerous, now, than it has ever been. Michael Cohen and Micah Zenko remind us that the facts simply don’t match that narrative. In fact, they tell us, the world has never been better.

Public understanding of healthcare is driven principally by our own personal experience—and that of our loved ones—with doctors, nurses, and hospitals—and for many, it can feel overwhelming. Dr. Helen Ouyang is an emergency room doctor at one of America’s best hospitals, but admits she found it difficult to access the healthcare system when she had her own health scare.

We live in a golden age of digital media content. From podcasts to blogs and online programs, there’s never been so much competition for the information consumer’s attention. “Pop culture pirate,” Elisa Kreisinger brings humor and a mastery of pop culture to some of today’s most pressing issues.

Millions of Americans live with mental illness every day. Sarah Fawn Montgomery is a poet and author who explores the stigmas and biases associated with mental illness—both historically and today.

Schools across America face an increasingly diverse student population while deep-seated institutional biases endure. Darnisa Amante argues that successful leaders who dig deep and unpack their own experiences with race and bias can help tear down the barriers of institutional racism and make schools better.

Recently, the Trump administration proposed defining gender as an individual’s assigned sex at birth. But the medical community—including Dr. Jason Rafferty—tells us gender is not so simply expressed.

Stories are sometimes told with a particular message for their audiences. Other times, they are just stories. And in some cases, you can’t tell the difference. Enter the playwright, songwriter and novelist Jeff Jackson, who explores the intersection of fame and violence in a remarkable new novel.