National news these days is coming at us fast and furious, overwhelming our ability to keep up, understand what it all means and wade through the useless noise. It’s no wonder so many of us are tuning out instead.

That’s bad — for our democracy, our sanity and our ability to fight for what we believe in and what we want to see for our country, our city, our communities.

We’re here to help.

In the words of Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt:

The age of the editorial gatekeeper is over. You are your own editor these days. So each week from now on we’re going to provide you the must-read or must-see picks, without regard to ideology, that we think are worthy of your attention in an effort to get a handle on just what’s really happening in national affairs.

Here’s what to read this week:

The Happiest Election in the World, by Maibritt Henckel for The Argument

Danish reality TV show Højskolen featured some of the nation’s best-known politicians and aired in the run-up to the country’s election. Would Elizabeth Warren or Ted Cruz be game for something like that? Maybe not. But, as one Danish politician in the show put it, “If we don’t respect each other, we don’t respect voters. Which means we also don’t respect democracy.” — Executive Director/Editorial Director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

Iran’s War with Israel and the United States, by the Center for Preventative Action via the Council on Foreign Relations

Want to put today’s news of Iran — and the rest of the region pulled into war — into an easy-to-understand historical context? This tracker updates regularly, goes back years and doesn’t take all day to read. — Deputy Editor Lauren McCutcheon

A Phone-Free Childhood? One Irish Village is Making it Happen, by Sally McGrane for The New York Times ($)

Here we are thinking (debating!) about whether classrooms and schools could possibly go phone-free. (The answer to my mind is an emphatic Yes.) But are we thinking too small? Loved this idea of a whole town committing to protecting their kids from phone culture. Gave me ideas about what we could do as a block. Or maybe even as a catchment?! — Philadelphia magazine Editor Christy Speer Lejeune

Mapping Google’s Unmappable City, by Jason Koebler for 404 Media

Fascinating story about who is afforded privacy in America, and who isn’t. (Hint: It isn’t most of us.) — Philadelphia magazine Executive Editor Bradford Pearson

Finding the Best Place to Work: A Look at Careers at More than 1,700 Companies, by Theo Francis and Andrew Mollica for The Wall Street Journal ($)

Where are the jobs that young people can secure now? And what are the ones that will stand the test of time? Francis and Mollica do a deep dive — with graphs! — that attempts to answer the questions. — Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

We’re All Just “Monitoring the Situation,” by Amanda Mull for Bloomberg News ($)

Amanda Mull is one of my favorite culture writers. Her writing has always made me feel like I had a better grasp on events and trends and the overall vibe of our day and age. Interestingly, her most recent piece for Bloomberg touches on just that: our recent overwhelming need to stay abreast of all things at all times — “hooked up to the continuous drip of real-time crisis,” she writes. A short read, but just enough to remind you that there is in fact a real, tangible life occurring away from the feeds. — Philadelphia magazine Editorial Assistant Shaunice Ajiwe

Finally, in the ICYMI category:

Scranton Mayor, U.S. Congress hopeful and occasional How to Really Run a City guest co-host Paige Cognetti got a big-time shoutout in the Times’ opinion section ($) last week for being exactly the kind of practical problem solver Washington, D.C. needs right now. Told ya so.

Previous Must-Reads:

Week of March 16:

Around the World, Freedom is Taking a Beating, by Jamie Fly and Yana Gorokhovskaia for The Washington Post ($)

Representatives from the democracy-monitoring NGO Freedom House report “21 percent of the world’s population now lives in a country rated “free” — down from 46 percent in 2005.” Citing a rise in coups and conflicts in Mali and Sudan, the authors warn: “Our analysis shows that an equally potent threat to democracy are elected leaders who seek to undermine checks and balances on their power once in office,” pointing out Nicaragua, Venezuela, El Salvador and the U.S. as examples.

13 Years, 6 Doctors and a Lawsuit: The Road to an Endometriosis Diagnosis, by Maggie Astor for The New York Times ($)

One woman’s story that is so many women’s stories — and the quest to get help and be taken seriously when living with an invisible illness. — Be Well Philly Editor Laura Brzyski

Paying College Athletes Has Created a Mess. It was Still the Right Thing to Do, by Joe Nocera for The Free Press ($)

March Madness is starting amid the controversy — reaching as high as the White House — over the way paying college athletes has changed college ball. Nocera makes a compelling case that in the ways that matter, it may not matter. “I admit the current system is not what I ever envisioned when I started writing about the NCAA, look at the results: People still flock to the games, and TV ratings are up. Fans don’t care that players are finally being compensated. All the fearmongering that college sports would die if players were paid has turned out to be hogwash.” — Executive Director/Editorial Director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

How Memphis is Responding to ICE and National Guard Presence, by Eliana Perozo for Next City

“Since Memphians aren’t able to rely on their state officials to protect their immigrant communities, they are doing the work themselves … Three organizations, Vecindarios 901 (V901), Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH), and Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), are fighting back.”

Millions of Americans are Going Uninsured Following Expiration of ACA Subsidies, by Anne Wilde Matthews for The Wall Street Journal ($)

This article explains a new survey it refers to as “the broadest look yet at the fallout from the end of enhanced ACA subsidies, which lapsed at the start of this year, increasing premium bills for millions of enrollees. The higher healthcare costs have forced many ACA policyholders to make hard choices at a time when grocery and gas prices are also rising.”

(In related news: The WSJ says you’re not getting a raise this year. Here’s why.)

ICYMI:

Afroman wins legal battle over songs mocking U.S. police, by Ian Youngs for the BBC

The BBC explains the buzz around the Ohio rapper (“Because I Got High”) and the law enforcement lawsuit over his viral videos, for those of you who’ve been out of the country or off social media this week. A victory for free speech? You decide.

Week of March 9:

The War In Iran Escalates, by Isaac Saul for Tangle

Whatever you think about the American war in Iran, Philadelphia’s Saul speaks to what many of us may be feeling right now: “To be honest, my tolerance for witnessing this kind of carnage, death, and destruction is simply waning, if not totally evaporated. After more than four years of war in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen and Sudan, bearing witness to more children being killed, more civilians buried in collapsed buildings, more warspeak about “missions” and “threats” and “kinetic actions,” all while our leaders are detached from the absolute horrors of what’s happening on the ground — I just can’t tolerate it much longer.”

AI can do work. Can it do a job? by Kobe Yank-Jacobs for The Argument

Yank-Jacobs captures the unknowable aspect of AI futurism, as well as the panic, when he says “Looking a little closer makes job loss seem less imminent — looking a lot closer can make catastrophe seem almost immediate.” It’s worth a read for some perspective. — Executive Director/Editorial Director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

This Isn’t About Politics Or You or Me, by Charlotte Clymer, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts

This Substack post was breathtaking. Clymer, a former Army “casket team” member, nails the indecency of Trump in a moment that is supposed to be a somber honor of a soldier’s towering sacrifice — but which he used as a merch opportunity. Words fail me, but thankfully they don’t fail Clymer and I’m so glad she wrote this. — Senior Editor Ronnie Polaneczky

Kristi Noem Bites the Dust, by the editors of The Free Press ($)

Noem’s underperformance is an example of what can happen when a president prizes loyalty over maturity and preparation. There are many reasons Americans have lost patience with Trump’s deportation agenda, but among them is the sense that his top personnel weren’t up to the task.

Lords of the Ring, by Josh Hunt for Harper’s Magazine

A story about sumo wrestling in Japan is not necessarily the first place I’d look to find insight into American politics, but Josh Hunt’s story reaches far beyond the sumo pits of Shimosuwa to highlight Japan’s growing fissures over nativism and multiculturalism. Sound familiar? — Philadelphia magazine Executive Editor Bradford Pearson

I Went to Florida to See the 31-Year-Old Candidate Thrilling Gen-Z. We’re in Trouble, by Michelle Goldberg for The New York Times ($)

A Times opinion columnist writes of Sunshine State gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, who, she points out, is unlikely to win, yet … “anyone concerned with the escalating extremism of the young right should be paying attention to his campaign and the enthusiastic crowds it’s drawing. More than any political candidate yet, Fishback has managed to bring the paranoid, transgressive, meme-drunk spirit of the right-wing internet into the real world.”

Finally, just for Fun:

A Day in the Pre-Internet World, by S.M. Reznik for The New Yorker

This hilarious misunderstanding of tech and how we socialized before social media opens with: “You wake up to the sound of your clock radio. You grab it, along with your landline, camera, calculator, calendar, and fax machine, before heading out the door … Standing on the sidewalk, you yell, ‘Uber!,’ as loud as you can. Wouldn’t you know it, one pulls up to take you to school about twenty minutes later.” It then goes to some pretty unexpected places.  — Assistant Editor Christina Griffith

Week of March 2:

Iran’s Youth Broke the Islamic Republican’s Spell Before the Airstrikes, by Pouya Nikmand for The Unpopulist

A writer who escaped Iran writes, “The United States and its allies will claim credit for decapitating the Islamic Republic. But what that narrative obscures is that the regime’s moral foundation had already been weakened — not by Washington, but by ordinary Iranians, most of them young, many of them women, who took heroic risks with almost no support from the outside world.”

Pedestrianizing “School Streets” in Paris, by Marcel Moran, San José State University

I don’t typically find myself reading academic journals, but this study caught my eye. Over the past 15 years, Paris has pedestrianized more than eight miles of city streets in front of schools, adding landscaping, benches, and other amenities. The result? Not only increased safety, but increased comfort: The average pedestrianized block is nine degrees cooler than neighboring blocks. Many of the blocks resemble Philly blocks — narrow, and not very useful for vehicular traffic anyway. So … why can’t we? — Philadelphia magazine Executive Editor Bradford Pearson

Why James Talarico’s Win Puts Texas in Play for November, by Philip Elliot for Time Magazine

Since I was late to the party on this one, I appreciated Time’s simple explanation of what went on this week in the primary race for one of Texas’s two seats in the U.S. Senate. It did leave me wondering, though: What’s next for outspoken U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett? — Citizen Deputy Editor Lauren McCutcheon

Trump Allies Expand Role in Planning America’s 250th Anniversary, by Dan Diamond, Cat Zakrzewski and Emily Davies for The Washington Post

Philadelphia has had our fair share of disarray in the years-long run-up to the semiquincentennial. Seems the mess in Washington, D.C., however, is only just beginning, thanks to two competing federally funded planning groups, one which is working on “a national prayer event on the National Mall, an IndyCar race around D.C., and a UFC fight hosted outside the White House on Trump’s birthday.”

Some good news for our future:

We’re discovering new species faster than ever — and it might be our best chance to save them, by Bryan Walsh for Vox

We’re still in the golden age of species discovery — which means we can learn how to protect species in fragile ecosystems before they vanish unidentified. — Citizen Digital Marketing and Community Manager Olivia Kram

Week of February 23:

California’s Slow Vote Counting is a Gift to Republicans, by the New York Times Editorial Board ($)

“Slow-counting states do not have higher turnout, on average. Nor do they have more secure elections … In the name of laudable goals like equity and access, [California’s leaders] have adopted policies that may initially sound sensible — in this instance, trying to protect every mail-in ballot — but that end up being counterproductive because they undermine the government’s effectiveness.”

Trump’s State of the Union Address, by Isaac Saul for Tangle

As always, Philadelphia’s Saul lays out responses to the president’s annual speech from right and left, and then does what he does best: Offer his take. What struck him? The violent language, intentional divisiveness, frequent fibs, occasional gem — and overall missed opportunity.

Anthropic is somehow too dangerous to allow and essential to national security, by Kelsey Piper for The Argument

HT to all the prescient sci-fi writers out there who have predicted our warrior robot future for decades — here’s hoping they are wrong about those robots turning on us. I, for one, am not confident, after reading Piper’s analysis of the standoff between the federal government and the AI firm. — Citizen Media Group Executive Director/Editorial Director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

U.S. democracy repaired itself before. Here’s how we can do it again. by Lee Drutman for Vox

When it comes to repairing democracy, it’s not a matter of if, Vox points out, it’s a matter of how. We’ve faced existential crises before; examining those crises helps us find a glimmer of hope for our not-too-distant future. — Citizen Digital Marketing and Community Manager Olivia Kram

The U.S. Had a Big Battery Boom Last Year, by Molly Taft for Wired

I’ve gotten a bit morbidly obsessed lately with the current presidential administration’s self-sabotage when it comes to renewable energy. (Cutting tax credits! Killing solar subsidies and wind farms! Restarting coal plants?!) So it was reassuring to read this Wired piece and see that while, yes, all of those things are happening, the market itself is still operating like renewables are the future. — Philadelphia magazine Executive Editor Bradford Pearson

Finally, in the “Tom McCarthy’s Best Life” category:

A quick vid of the Phils’ play-by-play announcer copping a squat on the sunny center field berm, sipping a cold drink, and unbeknownst to him, getting razzed for it by Manager Rob Thompson. Spring training resembles heaven.

Week of February 16:

Americans Spend Less of their Income on Food than Almost Ever. So Why Doesn’t it Feel that Way? by Bryan Walsh for Vox

This is a really good look into what’s happening with food prices today, how inflation is hitting Americans at the grocery store, why programs like SNAP are necessary, and, while prices are high right now, food costs are still the lowest they have been. As writer Bryan Walsh puts it: “Progress and its caveats exist simultaneously.” — Staff Writer Courtney DuChene

Billionaires’ Low Taxes Are Becoming a Problem for the Economy, by Carol Ryan for The Wall Street Journal ($)

This WSJ piece explains that taxing the rich is more than a political statement. Essentially, it’s an issue of economic survival. “The risk is that the U.S. economy becomes increasingly dependent on a narrow group of very rich households, whose spending is tied to the performance of the stock market. This could mean the entire economy pays a steep price in the next market correction.”

The EPA Repeals the Endangerment Finding, by Ari Weitzman for Tangle

The headlines around the latest news out of Trump’s EPA mostly center around cars, trucks and their manufacturers. This latest Tangle piece explains (in a lot of detail) how our vehicles are just a small piece of it, what other industries will be more greatly affected — and what the news means for environmental regulation in the U.S. writ large.

Why Jesse Jackson Wore that Turtleneck, by Robin Givhan for The New York Times ($)

In all this week’s tributes to Jesse Jackson, this opinion in the Times tells the activist’s story by analyzing … his fashion choices. The lesson for all of us: What we wear shows who we are. Givhan writes: “Clothes grounded Mr. Jackson’s enduring narrative of dignity, possibility and fairness. They were part of his personal mythmaking. They helped him tell the story of his accomplishments with a cinematic flair.” — Deputy Editor Lauren McCutcheon

Week of February 9:

The Heritage Americans Have Already Been Replaced, by Charles Fain Lehman for the City Journal

Lehman takes a deep dive into what exactly are “heritage Americans”, and how few us there are: “If you believe that America is for heritage Americans, in other words, I regret to inform you that the heritage Americans are no longer the majority. And that change isn’t recent; it’s been baked in for over a century.” — Citizen Media Group Executive Director/Editorial Director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

Are Utilities Making Too Much Money?, by David Roberts, in conversation with Joe Daniel fo RMI, for Volts

I pretty much only think of utility rates when I open my electric bill in the summer, my eyes bug out, and then I run to turn the thermostat up. Which is why this week’s episode of David Roberts’s Volts podcast was so enlightening. It’s super wonky (I had to pull the transcript at some points to make sure I understood what was going on) but also breaks down the utility industry in a way I’d never considered before. — Philadelphia magazine Executive Editor Bradford Pearson

Why Pennsylvania’s Two Most Powerful Democrats Don’t Speak, by Lisa Lerer and Katie Glueck for The New York Times ($)

Lerer and Glueck write: “In recent years, their trajectories have sharply diverged: Mr. Shapiro is now one of the country’s most popular governors, widely seen as a possible White House contender in 2028. Mr. Fetterman, relishing clashes with the left, has become a Democratic pariah, and has struggled with mental and physical health challenges.”

Healthcare Jobs Have Become the Engine of America’s Labor Market, by Harriet Torry and Konrad Putzier for the Wall Street Journal ($)

A trio of WSJ articles might convince those of us who work mostly with keyboards to consider nursing school. One piece touted the use of AI agents within companies; another announced OpenAI’s new “AI co-worker” platform, while this third positioned healthcare workers as uniquely ascendant among U.S. earners.

Surveillance Pricing, by Ronan Farrow, on TikTok, Threads

Farrow, a writer for The New Yorker, strikes me as made for the social media era. Recently he took to all of his channels to explain the genesis of the price tag (in Philadelphia, naturally), how retailers are using AI to personalize pricing, and a New York City law that warns consumers about the situation. You can bet if it’s happening in New York, it’s happening here — or will soon. — Deputy Editor Lauren McCutcheon

When One Mother Was Taken by ICE, Another Stepped in to Donate Breastmilk, by Chabelli Carrazana for The 19th

This story transcends politics; it’s simply about moms helping moms. “In Minneapolis, for every story detailing the fallout of the federal crackdown, there are as many stories of people like Bri. Neighbors are putting their trust in total strangers. Moms are helping children who are not their own, who they’ve never met.”

Finally, in the “it’s never too late” category:

How a Nearly 70-year-old Debut Novelist Published 2025’s Breakout Hit, by Sophia Nguyen, The Washington Post ($)

In a world of overachievers and one-track minds, this is the refreshing true story of how Allen Levi, an erstwhile singer-songwriter and probate judge, discovered inspiration in a local coffee shop and found DIY success as a novelist — during a season of life when most folks are simply aspiring to retirement.