Editor's Digest

“Antipermanence: An Argument for Increased Infrastructural Ephemerality in America’s Nonprofit Theaters”: Nonprofit, regional-level theater started with the basic noncommercial premises of championing unheard voices in a quest to offer “art for all.” Half a century later, the infrastructure and institutional weight of The Guthrie, La Jolla Playhouse and The Goodman, among many others, have turned them into repositories of formulaic Broadway successes for an audience of rapidly aging patrons. Here’s how we can fix it. (Annah Feinberg, HowlRound, January 26, 2014.)

“Pressuring Journalists Won’t Protect Transgendered People”: A recent article on the sports website Grantland posthumously exposed the transgendered identity of golf club designer Essay Anne Vanderbilt. Amidst many accusations, activists argued that the site should not have revealed one of the more salient points of the golf club’s origins. But this type of firewall around identity only furthers ignorance and halts progress on transgender acceptance. (James Kirchick, The Daily Beast, January 22, 2014.)

“What Scientific Idea is Ready for Retirement?”: Science, like economics, too often makes progress one funeral at a time. The website Edge, in 2014’s annual question, hopes to change that by asking prominent thinkers in all fields which dated yet still-controversial scientific idea should no longer inspire serious consideration or debate. Over 170 intellectuals offered responses that ranged from “altruism” and “sadness is always bad” to more scientific concepts such as “the uncertainty principle” and the notion of “habitable zones.” (Edge, January 2014.)