Hold ’Em or Fold ’Em? This A.I. Bluffs With the Best

Pluribus, a poker-playing algorithm, can beat the world’s top human players, proving that machines, too, can master our mind games.

Half a Million American Minors Now Live in Mexico

The migration of U.S.-born minors from the U.S. to Mexico presents unique challenges to the minors themselves, as well as to their families and their communities.

The Delicious, Ancient History of Chocolate and Vanilla

Archaeologists are discovering that two of the world’s most prized flavors have a much richer history than we thought

Portside Survey - It Will Take One Minute

What do you think about Portside? We want to know how our readers use Portside. Here's your chance to help shape the future of this project. It will take one minute of your time.

How 30 Year Old Phone Strike Aided Single Payer Fight

In an era of revived US strike activity, what makes the NYNEX dispute most worthy of study is the central issue involved: health care cost shifting.

The Insulin Racket

Insulin is a 100-year-old drug whose wholesale price has tripled in ten years. The reasons why explain everything wrong with America’s broken prescription drug market.

The Problem With Community Land Trusts

Acquiring and administering property should not be housing movements’ only goals — advocacy for affordable housing must be coupled with bottom-up control by residents.

Why Do Billionaires Present Themselves as America's Gre

From Ross Perot to Tom Steyer, rich megalomaniacs run for president by preying on voters’ disillusionment

Review: A Plant Closing War

At War, a new movie from Cinema Libre Studio, vividly portrays shop floor resistance to corporate power in small-town France.

Benny Morris Reveals More About Cover-Up of The Nakba

Morris decries the “idiocy” of the Malmab in hiding these materials, since “the whole story was told and publicized since 1988 in many books in Hebrew and English, from my pen and from others”.
Read more

Culture

The Smoked Paprika Museum in Spain Honors a Family Tradition

Jennifer Billock Smithsonian Magazine
Smoked paprika, the finished product. In Extremadura, entire families participate in harvesting peppers and making smoked paprika. A museum in Jaraiz de la Vera honors the Hernández family and others in the region who have been instrumental in the production of the spice.

poetry

Bondage Love

John J. Brugaletta Writer's Almanac
California poet John J. Brugaletta explains the silent magic of Houdini and why the public adores escape artists.

books

The Last Time a Wall Went Up to Keep Out Immigrants

Linda Gordon The New York Times
A new history of bigoted opposition to immigrants through the manipulation of fake science shows the most vociferous baiters of emigres in the past were among the most privileged U.S. ruling class members.

books

Brotopia

Shannon Liao The Verge
This book has received a lot of attention since its publication, as a pioneering study of not just the fact of gender discrimination in the tech industry, but also as a glimpse into how such discrimination works.

food

Americans Eat and Inhale Over 70,000 Plastic Particles Each Year

Mandy Oaklander Time.com
Air, bottled water and seafood were the biggest sources for ingested microplastics. If you live somewhere with clean, safe tap water, relying less on bottled water is a great place to start reducing your plastics exposure.

Labor

labor

Rats Have Speech Rights, Too: Unions, Protests and Balloons

Shaun Richman New York Daily News
Last month, the National Labor Relations Board sought an unprecedented injunction against Laborers Local 79 in Staten Island to stop them from inflating a rat balloon. Unions must fight back.

labor

Labor Raises the Floor in Nashville

Chris Brooks & Rebecca Kolins Givan American Prospect
As construction booms in an increasingly progressive city, workers find the power to unionize in the otherwise non-union South.

Friday nite video

video

Bernie Sanders Sits Down With Rachel Maddow

Senator Bernie Sanders talks with Rachel Maddow about the overwhelming audiences for his campaign events, the exhausting pace of the campaign, and spontaneous generation of as many as 200,000 grassroots volunteers nationwide helping spread the word

video

Warehouses | John Oliver

It’s easy to buy things online, and even easier not to think about how they get to you. John Oliver discusses what happens when you click “buy now.”

video

Line Rider | Mountain King

Some exuberant music and whimsical animation for the holiday weekend: "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg. This was the very first line rider track, drawn entirely by hand. Enjoy!