Culture

Zip decoding: Can one Seattle area serve as model of diversity?

A south Seattle zip code once touted as the most diverse in the U.S. exemplifies the challenges and rewards of cultivating multicultural neighborhoods anywhere in the country.

Claire Thompson Culture

How dense: Tea Party rages over smart growth

Brave Tea Party members know the United Nations will begin their global totalitarian government takeover at the local level. So they're taking the battle against conspiracies like denser urban areas, linked transit systems, and smart land use to the front lines: regional planning commissions!

Tim De Chant Culture

Teaching kids to love nature and buy less stuff

Kids are getting the sort of education that guarantees they'll soon be fighting each other, Hunger Games-style, for Earth's dwindling resources. The solution is to cram everyone in America into Berkeley, California, say the authors of the new book The Failure of Environmental Education. (I'm paraphrasing.)

Christopher Mims Culture

Busting myths about China's one-child policy

Joe Biden's latest gaffe thrust China's population policy into the headlines. Let's seize this opportunity to set a few things straight.

Lisa Hymas Culture

Letter from prison: Tim DeChristopher speaks

From a prison in Utah, climate activist Tim DeChristopher speaks out with a handwritten letter to Grist extolling the power of words.

Tim DeChristopher Culture

Biden doesn't support China's one-child policy, and neither does any other American with power

Gaffe-prone Joe Biden put foot firmly in mouth last week while talking about China's one-child policy. Top Republicans jumped all over his goof, but they were just grandstanding.

Lisa Hymas Culture

Liner notes: Ask Umbra on ditching garbage bags

What if making more waste just isn't your bag? Ask Umbra gets trashed to find out.

Ask Umbra® Culture

Our new favorite city is inside this guy's brain

Okay, so this is more amazing folk art than realistic urban design, but think of it as your Friday 10 minutes of Zen. Jerry Gretzinger has been making and remaking his incredibly detailed maps since 1963, and he's basically generated an entire alternate universe. In this mini-documentary, he details his complicated creative process, which is […]

Jess Zimmerman Culture

PETA is starting a porn site

PETA has finally decided to drop the pretense that they're about something besides ladies in underwear. When .xxx domain names go into action in September, your friendly neighborhood animal rights crazies will be first in line -- and they presumably don't just intend the site for closeups of cow udders and literal beaver shots, but for the barely-clad, barely-legal college students that have become their trademark.