The Opinions Essay
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(Anson Chan/For The Washington Post)
Disease took my brother. Our health-care system added to his ordeal.
One family's struggle with cascading medical bills and a system determined to make it harder.
Biden doesn’t want to change China. He wants to beat it.
To the surprise of many in Washington and Beijing, Biden adopts a more aggressive posture with China.
Behind the ‘power law’: How a forgotten venture capitalist kick-started Silicon Valley
Arthur Rock's bold approach to finance shapes modern life.
The Rule of Six: A newly radicalized Supreme Court is poised to reshape the nation
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. holds the reins but is no longer firmly in control of his horses. Some of his most conservative justices are champing at the bit.
More Opinions Features
Bring Them Home
An intimate short documentary about the growing crisis of Americans held hostage by foreign governments, "Bring Them Home" follows one family's desperate effort to free their loved one from being a geopolitical pawn.
Love, war and two cats — What fleeing Kyiv looked like for us
As we started driving from Kyiv, we saw warplanes in the sky and it smelled like burning. “The war is already here. Is this my country?”
5 powerful audio essays read by the author
This collection of audio stories covers topics from the trauma of the Jan. 6 attack to critical race theory in the classroom to the indignities of old age.
This is gerrymandering at its worst. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Maps in North Carolina, Illinois, Texas and Alabama show the worst gerrymandering sins. They can be fixed.
Growing urban areas were supposed to save the Democrats. Here’s why they won’t.
Everyone thought big cities would make Democrats unbeatable. That isn't right.
Pope Francis, your comments on choosing pets over children don’t add up
The paradox in the pope’s criticism of people who chose not to have children.
Our favorite Washington Post op-eds of 2021
From tears over a piano to whining in restaurants, these are our favorite op-eds of 2021.
The pop culture that influenced our columnists this year
We asked our columnists to share a piece of culture that had a big impact on them this year. Here’s what they recommended.
From the Archives
How our democracy has made dependency a right
Progressives want to dilute the concept of individualism, but that’s antithetical to America’s premise.
Want to build a far-right movement? Spain’s Vox party shows how.
Vox blazed across the Internet, dividing its country. Now it’s in parliament.
The strongmen strike back
Authoritarianism has reemerged as the greatest threat to the liberal democratic world — a profound ideological, as well as strategic, challenge. And we have no idea how to confront it.
Iran has reinvented the hostage crisis, 40 years later
Taking hostages has become a tool of diplomacy.
Jamal Khashoggi: A missing voice, a growing chorus
The quests that animated the Saudi journalist’s life cannot be so easily defeated.
China tried to erase the memory of Tiananmen Square. But its legacy lives on.
Three decades after the crackdown, Beijing is still terrified of the movement and what it stood for.
As brands keep wading in, it’s time to ask: Is Pride for sale?
Pride celebrations and the corporations that sponsor them are deeply intertwined, with far-reaching consequences.
Voices of the Movement podcast: Stories from civil rights leaders who changed America
A collection of memories from the past and lessons for the future from the people who lived through the movement, as told through a nine-episode podcast series.
‘If you don’t get at that rot, you just get more officers like Josh Hastings’
The shooting of 15-year-old Bobby Moore revealed a horror show of misconduct, cover-up and cascading institutional failure at the Little Rock Police Department.
She reported her rape. Her hometown turned against her. Can justice ever be served?
Twelve years later, past and present residents of Arlington, Tex., are still reckoning with Amber Wyatt’s story.
Trump’s travel ban is tearing couples apart: ‘My entire life has been put on hold’
One is American. The other is Iranian. This short film shows what happens when the U.S. government keeps you from your spouse.
Gun reforms can save lives. Science proves it.
Those who oppose reforms say nothing can be done. That’s demonstrably wrong.
The tweets, statements and speeches that defined Trump’s first year as president
We present the highlights: Year One of the Trump administration, as told by those who are (or were) part of it.
The one best idea for ending sexual harassment
We asked 16 leaders what one change could help stop sexual harassment in their fields.
Ken Burns wants ‘The Vietnam War’ to unite America. Can anyone do that under Trump?
When the filmmaker started his new series, he had no idea it would coincide with the most divisive era since Vietnam.
How police censorship shaped Hollywood
The police story is one of the elemental dramas of American popular culture.
