Bryan Walsh

New York

Senior Editorial Director at Vox

Senior Editorial Director at Future Perfect

Editorial director @voxdotcom, for Future Perfect, tech/climate and world teams. Author of END TIMES. Email [email protected]

Articles

Do parents prefer sons over daughters? Not so much anymore.

1 week ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

Perhaps the oldest, most pernicious form of human bias is that of men toward women. It often started at the moment of birth. In ancient Athens, at a public ceremony called the amphidromia, fathers would inspect a newborn and decide whether it would be part of the family, or be cast away. One often socially acceptable reason for abandoning the baby: It was a girl. Female infanticide has been distressingly common in many societies — and its practice is not just ancient history.
Cancer deaths drop 33% since 1991: 4 million lives saved by medical win

2 weeks ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

On November 4, 2003, a doctor gave Jon Gluck some of the worst news imaginable: He had cancer — one that later tests would reveal as multiple myeloma, a severe blood and bone marrow cancer. Jon was told he might have as little as 18 months to live. He was 38, a thriving magazine editor in New York with a 7-month-old daughter whose third birthday, he suddenly realized, he might never see. Good NewsA weekly dose of stories chronicling progress around the world.
3 ways artificial intelligence is already making the world better

3 weeks ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

Here’s a selection of recent headlines about artificial intelligence, picked more or less at random:Okay, not exactly at random — I did look for more doomy-sounding headlines. But they weren’t hard to find. That’s because numerous studies indicate that negative or fear-framed coverage of AI in mainstream media tends to outnumber positive framings.
These stories could change how you feel about AI

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Bryan Walsh

Here’s a selection of recent headlines about artificial intelligence, picked more or less at random:For some recent graduates, the AI job apocalypse may already be hereArtificial intelligence threatens to raid the water reserves of Europe’s driest regionsTop AI CEO foresees white-collar bloodbathOkay, not exactly at random — I did look for more doomy-sounding headlines. But they weren’t hard to find.
Trump and Harvard: The US is squandering a major advantage

1 month ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

In 1965, then-French finance minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing came up with the mot juste for describing the way that the supremacy of the dollar provided the foundation for the financial supremacy of the US.
Why we need a Memorial Day for civilian victims of war

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Bryan Walsh

The first observance of what came to be known as Memorial Day was on May 30, 1868, when a Civil War general called on Americans to commemorate the sacrifices of Union soldiers. It was initially called Decoration Day, for the practice of decorating graves with wreaths and flags. And there were so many graves — more than 300,000 men had died on the Union side, and nearly as many for the Confederacy.
Something remarkable is happening with violent crime rates in the US

1 month ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

The astounding drop in violent crime that began in the 1990s and extended through the mid-2010s is one of the most important — and most underappreciated — good news stories of recent memory. That made its reversal during the pandemic so worrying. In the first full year of the pandemic, the FBI tallied 22,134 murders nationwide, up from 16,669 in 2019 — an increase of roughly 34 percent, the sharpest one-year rise in modern crime record-keeping.
How US drug overdose deaths dropped by record numbers

1 month ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

In 2020 and 2021, before I came to Vox, I worked as the future correspondent at Axios — yes, that was the actual job title — and I found myself writing almost solely about the Covid-19 pandemic, or major trends that appeared to be driven by the pandemic. Good NewsA weekly dose of stories chronicling progress around the world. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Americans are dying younger. 5 science-based tips could reverse the trend.

1 month ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

After more than a century of steady, upward climb, US life expectancy 78.9 years in 2015. Since then, it’s been mostly downhill. US life expectancy slid to 76.1 years in 2021 at the pandemic’s nadir before to 78.4 years in 2023 — still well below the 2014 peak and lagging most peer nations. Good NewsA weekly dose of stories chronicling progress around the world. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice.
New study finds self-driving cars safer than human drivers

1 month ago | vox.com | Bryan Walsh

I have some bad news: You are almost certainly a worse driver than you think you are. Humans drive distracted. They drive drowsy. They drive angry. And, worst of all, they drive impaired far more often than they should. Even when we’re firing on all cylinders, our Stone Age-adapted brains are often no match for the speed and complexity of high-speed driving.