Ten Notable Articles from 2025
As is tradition at our magazine, senior editor Jonathan Church offers his selections of the ten articles published in 2025 that most deserve to be reread and reconsidered.
Jonathan Church
Reflecting on Tragedy: From Brown University to Bondi Beach
Senior editor Jonathan Church, writing in the wake of horrific shootings in Rhode Island and Australia, reflects on the death of his own mother, wringing meaning from tragedy, and what it is to live in a grief-laden world.
Can "Deliberative Polling" Solve Polarization?
As Washington emerges from a historic shutdown, Stanford’s James Fishkin outlines how Deliberative Polling offers a path toward rebuilding trust across the partisan divide. His decades of work suggest that genuine deliberation can still depolarize American politics.
Why We Need Better College Rankings
As the saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. In this interview, Washington Monthly’s editor argues we should stop equating a college’s worth with its U.S. News & World Report ranking and instead use a ranking system that holds schools accountable for real-world outcomes.
Visions of Hell: What One Man Sees in October 7th
How does a French filmmaker best ivory-tower experts and global intelligence agencies? In this interview spanning both geopolitics and moral reckoning, Pierre Rehov shares the insights—and warnings—that led him to anticipate Israel’s surprise strikes on Iran in June.
The Supreme Court Takes a Welcome Stand against Reverse Discrimination
Jonathan Church, a long-standing critic of the excesses of the critical social justice movement, examines how a recent ruling dismantles the legal double standard that required some Americans to meet a higher burden of proof in discrimination cases.