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Social Infrastructure is Essential Infrastructure: How Public Spaces Make the Affordable, Joyful City Possible

Social Infrastructure is Essential Infrastructure: How Public Spaces Make the Affordable, Joyful City Possible. Social infrastructure—the physical places that shape our capacity to connect – is essential for the health and vitality of democratic societies. But in recent decades cities and communities across the United States have failed to build or maintain great gathering places…

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Eric Klinenberg “Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods?” | The New Yorker

On April 6th, 2026, Eric Klinenberg, Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge, penned a piece for The New Yorker titled “Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods?” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. Since the nineties, New York City has experienced eight storms with hourly rainfalls above 1.75 inches,…

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Darshana Narayanan, “Baby-Making on Mars” | Pioneer Works

On January 15th, 2026, IPK Fellow Darshana Narayanan penned an essay for Pioneer Works titled “Baby-Making on Mars.” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. Humanity has entered a new era of space exploration. This time, we don’t just want to visit, we want to stay. From Musk and Bezos to former…

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Caitlin Petre “The Starving Artist vs. A.I.: Guess Who Is Winning?” | NY Times Op-ed

On December 16th, 2025, IPK Fellow Caitlin Petre penned an opinion piece for The New York Times titled “The Starving Artist vs. A.I.: Guess Who Is Winning?” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. It would be naïve to think creative workers are playing on anything resembling a level field here, given…

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Maya Vinokour, “What Was the Cybertruck?” | The Nation

On October 16, 2025, IPK Fellow Maya Vinokour penned an opinion piece for The Nation titled “What Was the Cybertruck?” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. The Cybertruck was not intended to be unwieldy and repellent, but had that greatness thrust upon it. A billionaire’s vanity project, it substitutes a projection…

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Eric Klinenberg, 30 years later: What went wrong in the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave, and what has changed since | CBS News

On July 14th, 2025, IPK’s Director Eric Klinenberg was featured in a reflection of the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave by CBS News. He discussed Chicago city leadership during the heat wave and its consequences. Read the piece here.

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Maya Vinokour, “The rise of RFK Jr. is a wake-up call for out-of-touch liberals” | The Boston Globe

On April 19, 2025, IPK Fellow Maya Vinokour penned an opinion piece for The Boston Globe titled “The rise of RFK Jr. is a wake-up call for out-of-touch liberals.” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. One standard liberal response to figures like Kennedy has been fact-checking. That tactic won’t change anyone’s mind….

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Michael Koncewicz, On the Media | WNYC

On April 25th, 2025, IPK’s Associate Director Michael Koncewicz was featured in a segment of On the Media by WNYC. He discussed the fight over who gets to tell the story of Watergate and the years-long conservative movement to rehabilitate Richard Nixon’s image. Listen to the segment here.

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Michael Koncewicz, “The Alarming Effort To Rewrite the History of Watergate” | Time

On March 24th, 2025, IPK’s Associate Director Michael Koncewicz penned an opinion piece for Time titled “The Alarming Effort To Rewrite the History of Watergate.” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. The effort to rescue Nixon’s legacy has now merged with a broader rejection of the liberal establishment, democratic institutions, and…

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Maya Vinokour, “Vampire Weekend” | The Nation

On February 24, 2025, IPK Fellow Maya Vinokour penned an opinion piece for The Nation titled “Vampire Weekend.” Read the excerpt below, then click for the full article. This techno-solutionist approach to health and wellness epitomizes what Frankfurt School philosopher Max Horkheimer, writing in the 1940s, called “instrumental rationality,” a form of reason that never…

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