Kate Cohen

Albany

Columnist for The Washington Post. Author of WE OF LITTLE FAITH. @katecohen92 on Instagram, Threads, TikTok, @katecohen.bsky.social

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Articles

History will remember covid. Why can't we?

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

Opinion In coronavirus, we have discovered a memory-resistant strain of pandemics. I can remember the beginning. I bet . Not necessarily the actual day - March 11, 2020 - that the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak a global pandemic. But the way the pandemic entered our life.
Can we find common ground without a shared reality?

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

5 minAfter a plurality of my fellow Americans voted in a way I found incomprehensible in November, I thought, okay, maybe we need a strategy that relies less on pleas by public figures and more on private persuasion. If every Harris voter picked one Trump voter and worked to change their mind over the next four years, surely we could shift the electorate back - even if only 10 percent of us succeeded.
Biopics play fast and loose with the truth. And yes, that matters.

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

James Mangold, who just received an Oscar nomination for directingthe Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" (itself a best picture nominee) has said that, although his film drew from interviews, historical documents and a book about Dylan's appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he " didn't feel a fealty to a documentary level of facts. "A "documentary level of facts" is just facts, by the way; there aren't two kinds. (What would the other level be?
The off-screen wonders of 'Wicked'

Dec 17, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

I admit it: I didn't love "Wicked." I was disappointed by the movie's sound, direction, lighting and length. To make a two-hour-and-40-minute movie out of the first act of a two-and-a-half-hour stage musical is, in "Wicked" speak, "horrendible." Both leads are brilliant, but Ariana Grande's Glinda is too lovable to be a bully and Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba is too somber to be fun. Mostly, though, it seemed so recycled.
The shared reality of a Thanksgiving kitchen - The Washington Post

Nov 25, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

You know how sometimes, when you stir diced onion into a slick of hot oil in a frying pan and leave to clean your cutting board, you come back to find the onion has turned into a bag of Cheetos? How about when you check to see whether your rising dough has doubled and you discover instead a Jell-O sculpture of the London Bridge?
Why I am embracing New York as my new country - The Washington Post

Nov 18, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

Democracy Dies in DarknessThe blue states remain places of refuge — and building blocks for a better future. November 19, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. ESTThe day after the election, my son and I texted, commiserating, musing about where he might move. “Yearning for Copenhagen,” he wrote but without the caps. He crossed off England (nativism) and Italy (homophobia). Canada maybe?
If only politicians’ pants actually caught fire when they lied - The Washington Post

Oct 30, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

Or, if you’re busy, let the pros do it. NPR found 162 lies and distortions in an hour-long news conference in August. A 63-minute stump speech in September yielded 64 “statements that were false, inaccurate or lacking context,” according to the New York Times.
The abortion debate, through Jessica Valenti’s lens - The Washington Post

Oct 27, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

Democracy Dies in DarknessHer new book sees through the shifting arguments being used to further weaken the right to choose. October 28, 2024 at 5:45 a.m. EDTJessica Valenti’s new book, “Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win,” helps you spot the toxic truths beneath the shifting rhetoric of pro-life politicians. You know the chemical that allows detectives to see bloodstains at a crime scene that’s been scrubbed? It’s like that: luminol in hardcover.
Opinion | Psst. Don’t tell anyone, but we might get a female president.

Oct 2, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Kate Cohen

Unlike 2016, we’ve kept quiet about Harris’s potential historic presidency. October 3, 2024 at 7:30 a.m. EDTWe made some noise about it in 2016. During Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, her gender was much discussed — by her opponent, who accused her of “constantly playing the woman card.” By pundits wondering whether the nation was ready to elect a woman.
Opinion | Six parents on how to talk to kids about political violence

Aug 26, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Bethany Mandel |Theodore Johnson |Kate Cohen |Anya Kamenetz |Emily Oster |Leah Libresco Sargent

By Bethany Mandel, Leah Libresco Sargent, Anya Kamenetz and Emily OsterAugust 26, 2024 at 5:45 a.m. EDTTalking about politics with children and teenagers in a heated election year is complicated enough when everything is peaceful. But when political violence intrudes on the democratic process, as it did in July when Donald Trump was wounded and one of his supporters was killed at a rally in Butler, Pa., even the savviest parent might feel at a loss for words. I know I did.