A Brief History of China's One-Child Policy

After international media reports surfaced that China would encourage some Shanghai couples to have 2 children, we took a look back at 3 decades of the controversial one-child policy.

Open-Mike Night for Entrepreneurs

Aspiring poets and comedians have always been able to hone their ideas on stage--and now entrepreneurs can, too. (Here's the story from this week's mag.) We also shot a video of this Philly entrepreneurship open mic night, linked at left.

A Brief History of the Minimum Wage

Minimum wage earners will find 70 cents per hour extra starting today. The federal minimum wage started out as a bulwark against the Great Depression.

Can Community Colleges Save the U.S. Economy?

McKinsey estimates that if we had caught up to countries like Finland and Norway in educational achievement, the 2008 GDP would have been 16% higher. Community colleges may not be glamorous, but as I write in a piece in this week's mag, they educate half of American students--so they're a huge part of closing that gap. Update: Obama pushes for a historic boost to community college funding.

A Brief History of Affirmative Action

With the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Sonia Sotomayor's judgment in Ricci v. DiStefano putting discrimination law in the news, we took a look back at the history of affirmative action.

The Sad End of an American Icon

After Michael Jackson's death, we rushed out a special issue. Here's the piece I reported on.

Did the Beatles destroy rock 'n' roll?

This is a Q&A with the author of a new book on the history of American pop music, who looks past the most famous artists to those who were popular in their own time. We talked about the origins of rock 'n' roll's racial divide, the way technology is changing the way we listen, and the future of music.