Curious Minds Think Alike

In the coming months, you’ll notice some changes and additions to our coverage—as we develop our newsletter, revamp our website, and expand our membership offering.

We began The Signal to meet our shared need to understand the world from beyond ideological camps—in a way that does justice to its complexities and our curiosity.

Which is why everything we do starts with good questions—and every answer we find leads us to more of them. It’s an approach you’ll see at the heart of everything you read, hear, and watch from The Signal—throughout the year and into the future.

—Hywel Mills

What’s on our minds?

Some of the themes we’re thinking about as we look ahead …

• Generated visions
  How is AI changing the global economy? Daron Acemoglu on the hype and reality of a potentially transformative technology.
• Downtime
  How bad is the American economy? Claudia Sahm on jobs, inflation, and the range of alternative near-term futures.
• The inevitable winter
  Is Europe heading toward an energy disaster when the weather turns? Samantha Gross on the likely paths of a major gas crisis.

Disruptions in democratic life

• Now Holland
  Why is support for the populist right surging in Europe? Matthias Matthijs on immigration, climate change, and a growing rural-urban divide.
• The long game
  Why is democracy struggling so much around the world? Francis Fukuyama on the recent history and unwritten future of the open society.
• Same as the old boss
  Why are elected authoritarians losing public support? Steven Levitsky on how voter frustration is turning against them.

Social change in the U.S.

• ‘The loneliest generation’
  Why are American men and women moving in such different directions on public issues? Daniel Cox on how the attitudes and convictions of young adults are changing U.S. political life.
• Movement and mirage
  Is the U.S. Republican Party becoming a “multi-racial, working-class” coalition? Matt Grossmann assesses the evidence for a major political realignment.
• Out of court
  How are changes in U.S. abortion law reshaping American life? Mary Ziegler on the ambiguous political fallout of a seismic legal event.

China’s tectonic shifts

• The deep end
  What does population decline mean for China? Scott Rozelle on a globally invisible issue shaping the lives of millions of the country’s rural kids.
• Under pressure
  What’s wrong with China’s economy? Victor Shih on the causes, effects, and global reverberations of a big slowdown in the world’s biggest country.
• Viral effects
  What just happened with the mass street protests in China? Alec Ash on the causes and consequences of an unprecedented show of popular anger at the communist state.

Global competition and conflict

• History begins again
  How is the war in Ukraine changing Europe? Ivan Krastev on a new era for the old world.
• Boundary issues
  What’s the war doing to relations between Beijing and Moscow? Eyck Freymann on the challenges of navigating “a strategic mess for the Chinese.”
• Restoration drama
  Does the United States have a strategy for competing with China? G. John Ikenberry on repairing alliances, solving problems, and maneuvering for power.

We’ll be expanding our coverage, meanwhile—including on the challenges in developing humane technology, the changing stakes of health and well-being, and the emerging worlds of culture globally.