'There's no ceiling on how popular women's sports can be'

'Caitlin Clark is just the beginning'

Alex Kirshner at The Atlantic

Caitlin Clark's record-setting season has made University of Iowa women's basketball games "competitive in TV viewership with NBA games and the highest-profile men’s college matchups," says Alex Kirshner. But "Clark's singular level of stardom" is just a sign of a broader shift in college sports. Collegiate women with "freshly monetized star power" are building online followings and showing fans how fun their games are to watch, surpassing men in popularity "after decades of treatment as second-class citizens."

Read more

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'AI doesn't have to destroy jobs. It can empower the working class.'

Eduardo Porter in The Washington Post

The consensus is "that artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs," says Eduardo Porter. If we let that happen, "the end game includes a working class of no economic or political power." But human employment doesn't have to "become the stuff of folklore." With some firm "political decisions," we can ensure that this time new technology is used to help workers "perform more complex tasks" — to "expand human potential" instead of simply making "Silicon Valley plutocrats" richer.

Read more

'Mike Pence should be the biggest story of the 2024 campaign'

Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark

Mike Pence earned "the nation's gratitude" on Jan. 6, 2021, by doing his duty even though "an armed mob came to murder him," says Jonathan V. Last. Then the outgoing vice president attended Joe Biden’s inauguration, safeguarding his legitimacy and making it clear former President Donald Trump alone owned "the breach in the peaceful transfer of power." Now Pence refuses to endorse Trump. The fact Trump's own vice president believes he is a "threat to democracy" says it all.

Read more

'Joe Biden should be angry and anxious'

Rich Lowry at National Review

It's easy to understand why President Joe Biden reportedly has been "angry and anxious" recently, given "the precarious state of his reelection bid," says Rich Lowry. His approval rating is "in range with Donald Trump" and Jimmy Carter. And Biden must be aware losing "would expose his decision to run again for president at age 81, when he's visibly in decline, as a historic blunder resulting from selfishness and an utter lack of realism."

Read more