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Federal Regulators Quietly Shelved Three Major Investigations Last Quarter
Documents obtained through FOIA requests reveal that enforcement actions against major financial institutions were dropped without explanation in the final weeks of the fiscal year.
City's Affordable Housing Fund Diverted to Consultant Contracts, Records Show
An eighteen-month review of municipal spending records reveals that nearly a third of the city's affordable housing allocation went to consulting firms, not housing.
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The Newspaper Didn't Die. It Was Sold for Parts.
The collapse of local journalism is not a market failure. It is the predictable outcome of private equity treating public institutions as inventory.
On the Moral Cowardice of Epistemic Humility
There is a difference between genuine uncertainty and the performance of uncertainty as a way of avoiding difficult conclusions. Our public discourse has become expert at the latter.
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How Regulatory Capture Actually Works: A Field Guide
The textbook definition of regulatory capture is too clean. Here is how the process actually unfolds, in practice, across industries and decades.
The Attention Economy's Bargain, and Who Is Paying for It
A close look at what the business model of free digital services actually extracts, from whom, and what the downstream consequences have been.
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What We Talk About When We Talk About 'Difficult' Books
The literary establishment's comfort with calling certain books difficult says more about the establishment than the books.
Cinema's Nostalgia Problem Is a Thinking Problem
The film industry's retreat into franchises and reboots is not primarily an aesthetic failure. It is an epistemological one.
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What the Replication Crisis Actually Tells Us About How Science Works
The failure of a large number of published findings to replicate is not a scandal. It is science functioning as designed — just more visibly than usual.
The Infrastructure Nobody Talks About: How the Internet Actually Stays On
Beneath the platforms and apps that dominate public discussion sits a layer of physical and institutional infrastructure that is aging, concentrated, and poorly understood.
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The First Gilded Age Ended. Here Is What It Took.
The concentration of wealth and power in the late nineteenth century looked permanent until it didn't. The mechanisms of change are worth studying carefully.
The Pentagon Papers at Fifty-Plus: What We Actually Learned
The publication of the Pentagon Papers is remembered as a triumph of press freedom. The deeper lesson — about institutional deception and its durability — is less often drawn.
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On Your Coverage of Regulatory Capture
A reader with thirty years in federal regulatory work responds to our field guide.
On Epistemic Humility and the Academy
A philosopher takes issue — respectfully — with our characterization of performed uncertainty.
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The Age of Reason
A systematic critique of revealed religion that cost Paine his reputation and nearly his life — written while he awaited execution in a French prison.
Common Sense
The pamphlet that argued for American independence with plain reason rather than legal precedent — and sold 500,000 copies in a population of three million.
Browse by Subject
Explore the catalogue by philosophical and historical theme.
Browse by Author
Full biographies and collected works for each author.
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The Freethought Glossary
The philosophical vocabulary of the freethinking tradition, defined rigorously.
The Thought Experiment Library
Classic thought experiments given serious treatment — what they prove, what they don't, and what remains unresolved.
The Freethinker's Bookshelf
A curated reading list for the intellectually curious. Every entry tells you what the book does and where it goes wrong.
The Trials of Thought
Landmark trials where ideas were the defendant — from Socrates to Rushdie.
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The Fifteen Puzzle
Slide the tiles back into numerical order. A pure puzzle of logic and spatial reasoning.
Freethinking Trivia
Ten questions spanning philosophy, science, and the history of ideas. Answer carefully.
Word Scramble
Reconstruct a famous freethinking quote from its scrambled words.
Crossy Road
Help a small dog cross a busy road. One hop at a time. Don't get hit.
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Freethinking Trivia
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