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The Benefits of Risky Playgrounds

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The Benefits of Risky Playgrounds

Vox, 2019, 5:43… The stereotypical modern playground — with its bright colors and rubberized flooring — is designed to be clean, safe, and lawsuit-proof. But that isn't necessarily the best design for kids. US playground designers spent decades figuring out how to minimize risk: reducing heights, softening surfaces, and limiting loose parts. But now, some are experimenting with creating risk. A growing body of research has found that risky outdoor play is a key part of children’s health, promoting social interactions, creativity, problem-solving, and resilience.

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The History of Pink

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The History of Pink

CBS Sunday Morning, 2019, 5:57… Pink is the most divisive color in American society, associated with gender stereotypes that leave some seeing red. After gaining favor in Europe as the preferred color for the fashionable and aristocratic, pink became linked with notions of sugar and spice and everything nice – and that's when businesses started seeing green.

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Residential v Occupational Segregation Today

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Residential v Occupational Segregation Today

Vox, 2019, 6:48… We work in diverse places. We live in segregated ones. America policies engineered our segregated homes. But the workplace? That had the chance of being a place where we interact with people of other races — and form meaningful relationships. These maps show that this hasn't exactly happened. In fact, the most personal parts of our lives is still very segregated.

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Anti-Gentrification Activists Defeat Amazon

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Anti-Gentrification Activists Defeat Amazon

The Verge, 2019, 4:48… Amazon announced plans in November for a $2 billion headquarters in New York’s Long Island City, also known as HQ2. Almost from the beginning, New Yorkers were skeptical. In the days after the deal was announced, there were a ton of protests. But three months later, the company is abruptly pulling out, chased out by local activists and politicians. How did it go so wrong so fast?

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Cellblock Feminism

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Cellblock Feminism

Beme News, 2018, 10:16… Prisoners in Soledad, California are turning to an unlikely source — feminism — to understand the behaviors that may have landed them behind bars. Contessa visits with Richard Edmond Vargas who is working with his fellow inmates to challenge the idea of what it means to “be a man.”

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Blackface in America

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Blackface in America

Vice News, 2019, 2:37… Ralph Northam is still the governor of Virginia—for now. But he’s facing increasing pressure to resign after a conservative media site unearthed a photo of a man in blackface on Northam’s page in a 1984 medical school yearbook. Northam insists it isn’t him in the photo. And the New York Times today reported that a group of his medical school classmates is standing behind him.

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1-844-WYT-FEAR (Racism Hotline)

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1-844-WYT-FEAR (Racism Hotline)

The New York Times, 2018, 2:38… In this satirical infomercial, the comedian and actress Niecy Nash plays the inventor of a new hotline, 1-844-WYT-FEAR. The video advertises a phone service for white people to call when they can’t cope with black people living their lives near them. It’s a real phone number we created so that fearful whites can call it for advice, about their racism.

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Political Protest at the Oscars

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Political Protest at the Oscars

The Verge, 2017, 3:45… The Academy Awards is an opportunity for Hollywood’s best to speak out about the political causes that concerned them the most, on the biggest stage possible. But in a time when voters are divided and everyone’s a pundit, it’s easy to forget that the Oscars weren’t always a home to politics. From Marlon Brando to the creators of Moonlight, we take a look at the history of the Oscars as a moving, and sometimes miscalculated, home to political protest.

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The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes

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The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes

NowThis, 2019, 14:00… Prince believes that raising the minimum wage will increase consumption and we're better off putting money into the hands of people who will spend it in the economy than those at the top who already have plenty of money. Prince also says that the wealthy people in charge do not care if the economy improves just if they're making more money.

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The Karl Marx Festival

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The Karl Marx Festival

Vice News, 2019, 4:49… In October, New York University hosted “On Your Marx” — a two week long jubilee to celebrate this bicentennial with a broad, eccentric slate of panel discussions and performances. In the spirit of camaraderie, tickets to all events were priced pay-as-you-wish — from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. VICE News went to sample several of the festival’s unique offerings, including a choral rendition of the Communist Manifesto, a Marxist party with DJs AndrewAndrew, and a contemporary dance performance "ritualizing the labor of its dancers."

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Pharmacy Deserts & Oases

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Pharmacy Deserts & Oases

Al Jazeera, 2019, 2:25… More and more minority neighbourhoods in US cities are becoming what healthcare experts call "pharmacy deserts". From Oregon on the west coast to Baltimore on the east, local drug stores are closing up shop in low-income and minority neighbourhoods. The decisions may be based on profitability, but with the widening scope of services pharmacies offer in the United States - like physicals, immunisations, drug counselling, sexually transmitted infection screening and other laboratory testing - residents of poor neighbourhoods struggle to access an increasingly important part of the national healthcare system. Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from Chicago.

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Political Self-Segregation

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Political Self-Segregation

Vice News, 2019, 6:06… You can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends. And if they start to vote differently than you, some families are willing to pick up, leave and find new friends. Sick of states that permit legal marijuana? Same-sex marriages? Laws that permit transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice? What if there were a better way? Last year, VICE News went to McKinney, Texas to check out "Conservative "Move" - a real estate company that says it has the solution to living a life free of liberals. They’ll try to find you a place to live, a job with a decent wage, and the best schools for your children, in Texas or any other Republican stronghold.

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Play Labs

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Play Labs

Quartz, 2018, 4:59… At more than 513 “play labs” in Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh, kids participate a child-centered curriculum built by a team of global play scholars delivered in a space designed by architects, right down to the corners for stories, crafts and dreaming.

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Urban Thinkscapes

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Urban Thinkscapes

Quartz, 2018, 5:03… Urban Thinkscape is more than just a playground. It was designed by a team of psychologists and architects to encourage families to play while waiting for the bus. The researchers behind the project argue that play is crucial for early childhood development and that there needs to be more of it built into public spaces — more than a playground for kids. In 2050, 70% of the world’s children will live in cities. If the team can prove Urban Thinkscape’s success, it’s a concept that can be replicated almost anywhere.

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Advertising & Alcohol Regulation

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Advertising & Alcohol Regulation

USA Today, 2018, 5:43… Millions of Americans will hoist a glass this holiday season. And convincing you to do so is big business! In the US alone, 2 billion dollars is spent on alcohol advertising each year. Perhaps well worth it, as it results in 162 billion dollars in annual alcohol sales. You heard us right, it's not just your in-laws who are driving you to drink.