Future Perfect
Future Perfect explores the best ways to do good in the world. We bring rigorous, evidence-driven journalism to neglected stories that have profound consequences for billions of people — from thorny moral questions to the big-picture impact of artificial intelligence; from global health interventions to factory farming to smart new ideas for American growth and infrastructure. Sign up for our newsletter to follow our latest reporting.
Our relentless appetite for meat puts animals through grueling journeys.
Our relentless appetite for meat puts animals through grueling journeys.
A little-known system determines what surgeries are worth. It almost always values men more highly.
The SunZia wind farm is a marvel. Why did it take 20 years to build?
We are always searching for new and innovative ways to fund the work we do and ensure the health of Future Perfect for years to come.
The latest in Future Perfect
How “deadbots” might reshape grief.
No previous Ebola outbreak has grown this quickly.
It might also kill millions of birds.
And what does it mean for the plant-based movement?
How the ethics of relationships can untangle confusing feelings.
The quest to give effectively feels like it’s turning me into an cold-hearted jerk.
Scientists are racing to reinvent concrete before we pour millions more tons of it.
Would a new train line make you want to have more kids?
There’s an obscure but high-stakes animal rights issue in the coming election.
The algorithm that ranks candidates just got an update, and the results are in.
What to do when your child’s ethics don’t match your own.
Neighborhood vigilantes are making their own crosswalks, bus stop benches, and DIY bike lanes. Not everyone’s happy about it.
Economist George Loewenstein’s new book is emphatically not self-help. It might still help you live a wiser life.
The humane myth of catch and release fishing.
This messy bipartisan bargain that could bring down your power bill.
New genetic testing offers us the chance to create superbabies. It can come with unintended consequences.
Our cities are built atop a dangerous obstacle course of cables. The Magic Kingdom found a better way.
It shouldn’t take five years to build an apartment building.
What Big Tech’s sci-fi dream reveals about the infrastructure America actually needs.
How to save America’s coastal neighborhoods.
What people pleasing hides from you.
A physician explains how AI is helping in the doctor’s office and the lab.
Four beluga whales have died at a top US aquarium. It’s raising some deeper questions.
The Pentagon wants AI models that can’t say no.
Why even the best aquariums can’t give animals what they need.
The paradox of moral perfectionism — and how to escape it.
Toxic smoke will soon be everyone’s problem.
America’s infrastructure was already hackable. Then came AI.
AI can’t fix all the infrastructure aid cuts broke. But maybe it can help.
The AI risk debate has become pointlessly tribal. There’s a way out.
What to do when you can’t stop sharing secrets with your friends.
Why a bite of chicken hurts way more animals than a hunk of steak.
Highways weren’t built for animals. That’s starting to change.
Exclusive: How Big Pork takes money from small farmers — then uses it to lobby against them.
What can we learn from the European cities Americans love to visit?
To save the humanities, we need to rethink our assumptions about AI — and education.
The Trump administration is letting livestock buyers slaughter horses in Canada. The beef industry wants it done here.
Wildfires leveled thousands of homes in California. Now the state could block even more from being built.
A high-stakes battle over the future of “killer robots” comes down to semantics.
“Pothole populism” is sweeping through New York. It just might change the city for the better.