The state of Iran called it an enemy of the state. Three former Secretaries of State call it home. The State Department calls it the best bang for its buck. Its International Relations program ranks top five in the country. Foreign presidents visit regularly. Stanford University is a beast of an organization. In 2010, the [...]

We’re in a stuffy meeting room in Old Union on a Thursday night, discussing Leonard Peikoff ’s essay “Sex as Metaphysical.” Arthur is a graduate student and the most outspoken of the bunch—truly an accomplishment in what is likely the most opinionated group of students on campus. Tonight, he is compromising his values. “There are [...]

As Justin Torres walks up to the podium, he doesn’t look at all like I expected. He is thin and young. He is wearing jeans and a plaid button- up shirt, tucked in, revealing his dark brown leather belt and the metal buckle that gleams in the light of the stuffy room as he rounds [...]

Up on the La Peña Cultural Center stage, organizer Karen Pickett is listing the things that biocentrism contradicts. “Biocentrism,” she says – the idea that non-human life has inherent value – “contradicts communism. Biocentrism contradicts patriarchy. Biocentrism contradicts capitalism, of course.” The event is technically organized by Earth First!, a group

“Reno’s bad, man, like Frisco— full of homeless and government agents.” It’s midnight, or close enough, at the 24-hour Happy Donuts in Redwood City. Just what I’m doing here is a fair question.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is aggressively uncool. Like a chubby sitcom dad or an ad for a new extreme sports juice, the annual competition makes every effort to stay with the times, to connect with the kids, to keep it “real.”

In Topeka, Kansas, there is an organization that calls itself the Westboro Baptist Church. Its members are disliked for a number of reasons: they’ve picketed services for American soldiers; they’ve protested the Holocaust Memorial Museum; they’re vehemently and indiscriminately anti-gay… But here’s the primary reason: they hate you.