The Inhuman Condition

29. Failure to Launch - Why can’t adolescent males get their s&@# together?

Particularly in the United States, the current generation of young men have been struggling; with finding meaningful relationships, completing higher education, and just generally gaining autonomy. But why are they struggling? What are the longer-term societal consequences if they continue to struggle? And how can we get them back up to speed with their female counterparts and previous generations of men?

28. Gun Control - Could common sense measures make a difference?

Whether or not you think guns are a problem in this country, there is an undeniable reality; more people are killed here by them than any other First World country. So why is it that we can't enact any practical solutions to this problem? Discussions of gun regulations often turn to "they're coming to take your guns away!" But is that really the case? Or are there basic checks and balances that could be put into place that would have an impact, yet still allow people to maintain their second amendment right? And is there any hope in having a civil conversation about this in a country so divided on the subject?

27. Media 2.0 - Combating confirmation bias

Everyone likes being agreed with. It makes us feel good to have our beliefs validated. And this definitely extends to the news. But with the world becoming more and more polarized, especially as it pertains to politics, our media has become fragmented in kind. Stories often only cover topics from a single perspective. There's far too much subjectivity in journalism now, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. But what if we could change this? What if people are open to change? It's a cyclical problem that's self-perpetuating, but the sooner we can re-evaluate what we expect from media, the sooner we can free ourselves from the pre-canned opinions and move back to critical thinking.

26. Campaign Finance - Follow the money

The relationship between politics and money is no secret; but lately it seems like less like a relationship and more like a symbiosis. Campaign costs continue to skyrocket and our voices have become a reflection of the amount of money backing them than the ideas themselves. We’re so deep in this model thats it’s causing our elected officials to focus more on how they're going to finance their next campaign, rather than making good on the promises they made for their current term. The consequences of this seems obvious, but the solutions do not. So how do we break the campaign finance cycle?

25. Social Influencers - Living for everyone else

They've come to saturate every media platform we interact with and it's become increasingly difficult to separate individuals' personal media accounts from an ad campaign. But what are social media influencers really marketing through their carefully constructed social media presences? Have they come up with a clever way to sell weight loss supplements? Or are they just giving us a glimpse into the narcissistic dystopia that we are inevitably headed toward? Why have they become so omnipresent and why can't we stop following them?