As the dust settles on another contentious election cycle, Americans are left to ponder the lasting impact of the countless speeches delivered by those vying for our votes. These orations, often derided as mere “campaign rhetoric,” are, in fact, far more profound. They represent a timeless exercise of the ancient concept of “logos” — the art of using words to paint vivid pictures, conjure entire worlds and shape the very course of our nation.

This might sound impossibly old-fashioned, but I still like the idea that education is about learning: facts, skills, concepts, research, culture, analysis, inspiration. It’s supposed to enrich our lives and make us better citizens and independent thinkers.

Whether Wednesday morning brought jubilation or despair, American voters should agree that the nation’s electoral system worked. President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping victory came remarkably smoothly on Election Day. While there was some isolated trouble at polling places across the country, voting to a vast degree was orderly, safe and convenient, which should underscore public confidence in the result.

Much will be studied, analyzed and written for years to come about why Americans voted an openly authoritarian leader back into power in apparently greater margins than they did eight years ago. What’s clearer and more important at this moment is what millions of our fellow citizens did by putting Donald Trump back in the White House.

The 2024 election marks the collapse of the mainstream media as we know it.

Another election cycle, another round of hysteria. Let me guess: This is the “most important election of our lives.”

People are hungry for information about their bodies. Nearly one-third of Americans don smartwatches and other wearable technology to measure things such as step counts, calories burned and heart rate, according to research published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.

San Francisco has long used the Pacific Ocean as its toilet. In heavy rains, the city on the hill cannot store all the storm runoff and sewage that flows toward an oceanside treatment plant in a single old pipe, so some heads out to sea. Now, in a case with national implications, San Francisco is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will allow it to pollute the ocean on occasion without violating the federal Clean Water Act.

All Americans are facing rising prices under the Biden-Harris administration, despite its claim that it’s “fighting to lower costs,” but the burden of soaring costs falls disproportionately on low-income families.

Hypocritical Democrats are quietly girding and strategizing for a post-election court fight to block Donald Trump from taking office and refusing to fully commit to certifying the election in the event of a Republican win.

Bloomberg recently reported that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is now worth over $200 billion. He’s not alone. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla founder Elon Musk, and LVMH founder Bernard Arnault are also worth north of $200 billion.

Vegan food is medicine. But during a recent hospital stay, I saw an absurd number of animal-derived foods on the menu: greasy cheese, cholesterol-laden meat, fatty dairy milk. It made about as much sense as a mechanic pouring tallow into an engine.

Last week, 14 state attorneys general, including New York AG Tish James, sued the social media platform TikTok for allegedly damaging young users’ mental health and collecting information about them with its service in violation of state and federal laws.

The Republican Party is the party of fiscal responsibility? It’s been a laughable idea ever since presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have pushed massive, unpaid-for, deficit-ballooning tax cuts skewed to deliver the biggest benefits to the wealthiest among us.

In the span of two or so years, OpenAI, Nvidia and a handful of other companies essential to the development of artificial intelligence have become economic behemoths. Their valuations and stock prices have soared. Their products have become essential to Fortune 500 companies. Their business plans are the focus of the national security industry. Their collapse would be, well, unacceptable. They are too big to fail.

Mathematics — whatever your experience in school, you are likely to have developed a strong opinion. It’s quite possible you’ve been turned off for years; math tends to do that to some people.

My first and only child is 12 years old. Our dream of having a second child seemed out of reach. But then, in what seemed like a miracle, I became pregnant.