How Chicken Activists in California Broke the Law to Start a Reasonable Debate About Animal Cruelty
A protest in Petaluma, California, prompts the question: Do we have a right to help farm animals that are suffering?
James McWilliams
James McWilliams is a Pacific Standard contributing writer, a professor at Texas State University, and the author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly and a Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America. His writing on food, agriculture, and animals has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, the Washington Post, Slate, The Atlantic, and other publications.
Perp Walk Politics: The Downsides of the Blue Carpet
The perp walk scratches a satisfying itch for retribution, but it also gives alleged assailants the opportunity to co-opt what should be a somber moment for their own self-aggrandizement.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Free Speech
Do overblown fears of the First Amendment's demise undermine healthy debate?
How Ban the Box Can Lead to Even More Racial Discrimination by Employers
On the question of whether preventing employers from asking about criminal history really leads to more equitable hiring practices, the evidence is disturbingly mixed.
Is It Time to Rethink Campus Protest?
In a new era of protest and de-platforming, conservatives have defensively invested the First Amendment with a transcendent power and moral authority it does not warrant. What happens when equality and free speech are in direct opposition?
Are Universities Exploiting Black Male Athletes in Order to Raise Revenues?
A new study suggests the answer is yes.
Daegan Miller's Debut Is One Radical Breath of Fresh Air
Through a series of essays, Miller reminds us what it's like to feel a sense of awe when confronted with nature's beauty.
The Bizarre Odyssey of the Barkley Marathons
Inside the legendary ultra challenge, which reminds us why it's good for runners to face defeat every once in a while.
How Welfare Ranchers Take Taxpayers for a Ride
Ranchers on BLM land have 94 percent of their grazing costs covered by taxpayers. And they target wild horses for removal in order to preserve the rangeland that makes this financial windfall possible.
The Humanities Are Dead. Long Live the Humanities.
It's true that much of the scholarship that professors in the humanities produce is micro-focused and barely relevant to larger social concerns. But those academics would also be best served by ignoring that critique.
On Libertarians, Autism, and Empathy
Historian Nancy MacLean's off-the-cuff remarks earlier this month may have mischaracterized libertarianism, but they totally distorted autism.
Teaching the Art of Reading in the Digital Era
As the art of close reading has declined, a cohort of experts has emerged to reverse the trend and encourage stronger reading habits.
Could the Animal Welfare World Be An Unusually Bad Place for Women to Work?
One might expect an industry that prioritizes empathy for others to also be a friendly workplace environment for women. But that's not always the case.
Bryan Stevenson on What Well-Meaning White People Need to Know About Race
An interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices.
For Women Who Have Been Victims of 'Stealthing,' There Can Be Dangerous Health Consequences—and Little Option for Legal Recourse
There are no available statistics on how many men discreetly remove their condoms during sex, an act known informally as stealthing.
How Local Shops and Seminar Rooms Are Reviving Sex Education
If there's an upside to the government's failure to promote legitimate sex education, it's been the convergent rise of the local sex shop and the university seminar as two venues for frank and meaningful discussion.
How Educational Podcasts Are Making Us Smarter Citizens
Doug Metzger's Literature and History podcast—a comprehensive historical overview of the literature of the Anglophone world—has already garnered 500,000 downloads. Does his podcast provide a blueprint to intellectualizing our populace?
When Deafness Is Medicalized: Inside the Culture Clash Over Cochlear Implants
Some fear that, by offering deaf people access to sound, so-called bionic ears could spell the end of the culture built around ASL.
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The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing
The poultry industry's secret weapon? Uniquely skilled workers who can identify a chick's gender in the blink of an eye.
This Absolute Lust for Meat
What chimpanzees on the hunt can tell us about human behavior.
Meat, Without All of the Blood and Guts
Is the world finally ready for cellular agriculture, meat grown in a laboratory, or whatever else the latest marketing attempts are calling it?
Making Homework Matter: Don't Ban It, Fix It
Administrators, teachers, and parents all seem to have some idea about how to fix homework. Why not ask the students themselves?
How Can Journalists Cross Cultural Divides in the Age of Trump?
Getting to know a Pentecostal snake handler might provide an answer.
The Hoax That Backfired: How an Attempt to Discredit Gender Studies Will Only Strengthen It
The latest academic stunt to receive widespread coverage raises interesting points about vanity journals and peer review, but we must also question the motives of the authors.
Cats in the Crosshairs: How to Confront the Problem of Feral Felines
Conservationists can never perfectly manage an ecosystem, but this is a problem that's creating an obvious ecological imbalance and should—and can—be addressed.
The Ministers of Minimalism and the Allure of Owning Absolutely Nothing
How a small group of optimists is revolutionizing consumer choice.
The Culinary Potential of the Canine
Are we any closer to thinking clearly about dog meat?
The Failure of Animal Welfare Legislation
California Proposition 2 has been in effect for a year now. Is it helping chickens?
Organic Food Is Not Food Grown Without Pesticides
On the paradox of unanimity and how, if nothing else, it could be saving you money on your grocery bill.
The Failure of Food Journalism
When agribusiness claims to practice "humane" treatment, we must ask for a higher burden of proof.
Distorting Our Relationship With Technology
Placed in historical perspective, the popular opposition to things like GMOs and vaccines, much like 19th-century opposition to fertilizers and insecticides, reflects less an overt rejection of science than a distrust of experts who peddle it.
The Woman Who Dared to Give Water to a Pig
Is it possible for us to provide a bit of humane treatment to livestock? They may have to prove they can fly first.
How Horse Meat Might Get Into the U.S. Food System
The hidden pipeline for America’s mystery meat may start at home.
Do We Need a ‘Mustang-Safe’ Label for Beef?
The response to an especially ugly round-up of wild horses in Oregon suggests we might.
Western Cattlemen Square Off Against 60,000 Mustangs
Can wild horses co-exist with ranchers and their grazing cows?
Is the Chipotle Narrative Coming to an End?
What the company can learn from its recent E. coli outbreak.
Do We Really Vote With Our Forks?
On causal impotence and whether consumer choice even matters when it comes to our global food system.
Want to Reduce Food Waste? Hug Your Local Freegan
No group has better mapped and internalized the geography of waste—or been bolder about wading into the cesspools where trash accumulates.
Is There Such a Thing as Food Choice?
New data on vegetable consumption raises a question we too easily overlook.