AKA Review - 08.08.2025

From The New York Times

From Science to Diversity, Trump Hits the Reverse Button on Decades of Change

By Peter Baker

In dismantling long-established institutions at breakneck speed, Trump is tapping into a sense that the 1950s were simpler and better, and the country has since strayed too far and fast. That vision correctly senses that working-class values and institutions loomed much larger then, the author argues, but it erases the complexity of the era that saw McCarthyism, civil rights battles, and fears of nuclear war. As his actions fray society’s safety net and norms of civility, Trump may discover that some of what he wants to roll back is valued after all. Read this article

From Inside Higher Education

Americans Recognize Nuances of Higher Ed’s Value

By Kathryn Palmer

As colleges and universities strive to regain the public’s trust, two new surveys suggest how they should defend their worth. The results highlight rising public satisfaction with higher ed but more importantly that Americans, regardless of their politics, agree on what they value: college should prepare students not just for careers but to be critical thinkers and informed citizens; university research benefits society; and, most surprisingly, that college should encourage exploration of diverse ideas and foster cross-cultural understanding. Read this article

From The New Statesman

Ignore the pessimists – we are living through a literary golden age

By Henry Oliver

Literary pessimists decry less reading, more scrolling, and fewer new works of note as the end of literature. There is still plenty of good writing, the author tells us, they just don’t know where to look. There is breadth and variety in online sites like Substack. Gen Z reads more than their elders. Celebrities run book clubs. Even AI will make the most “human” activities more valuable. “We are living through a significant disruption…[and] need to adapt.” The common reader is increasingly found in unlikely places. “Someone is always discovering Tolstoy for the first time.” Read this article

From The New York Times

Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good

By Mary Harrington

Smartphones are not only lowering our capacities to read and reason but also creating a new form of inequality. The author argues that the cognitive harms of digital media will be greater at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale and leave “long-form literacy” the domain of elite subcultures. This matters: such literacy contributes to free speech, modern science, and democracy. And the post-literate world she envisions sounds awfully familiar, favoring demagogues over “those with little money, little political power, and no one to speak up for them.” Read this article

From The Atlantic

The Perils of Design Thinking

By Celine Nguyen

Design thinking arose as a means to instill a human-centered approach in the design of complex technologies. It foundered, the designer-author tells us, when proponents assumed its methods could also be applied to the “wicked problems” plaguing education, healthcare, and government. “Designers’ instincts for aesthetics, utility, and usability can play a crucial role…but they can’t solve [these problems] alone.” Ambitious societal changes require political and government action and, for this, “design may be a distraction from the real work.” Read this article