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Alex Beam

Alex Beam

Boston Globe

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A Catholic debate over the morality of war

A Catholic debate over the morality of war

Inside the church, a clash over whether the Iran attack satisfies the church’s "just war" criteria.

previous day 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

It’s true: Never meet your heroes

New biographies of Stephen Sondheim and Jan Morris reveal two towering talents with sharp edges.

13.03.2026 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Why hasn’t the United States been banned from international sports?

America has violated the territorial sovereignty of Iran and Venezuela, two United Nations members — and Olympic and FIFA competitors.

26.02.2026 9

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

AI’s Claude is ubiquitous. But check out its brilliant namesake.

The late MIT professor Claude Shannon was known as ‘the Father of the Information Age.’

13.02.2026 50

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Starlink’s internet from space works astonishingly well. But there’s a catch.

It can beam high-speed internet to war zones, protest movements, remote islands, and festival deserts — while placing extraordinary power in the...

30.01.2026 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Searching for the one true (AI) Jesus

AI Jesuses have proliferated in multiple apps, prompting one to wonder: Whom to believe?

15.01.2026 30

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

The affordability ‘hoax’ meets the heating bill

Hold onto your wallets: Trump’s affordability messaging campaign has begun.

18.12.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

A Christmas letter from Trump: Grift, glitter, and garland-level delusion

Holiday greetings from the House of Perpetual Self-Praise.

05.12.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

In the Gilded Age 2.0, the rich aren’t just different — they’re intolerable

The ultrawealthy used to leave legacies. Now they leave middle fingers.

21.11.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

My analog life

I write checks, I read the paper newspaper, I have even been known to pen a letter now and then.

06.11.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Does artificial intelligence have a sense of humor?

A chatbot, a PC, and an iPhone walk into a bar.

09.10.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

The most important fact about Pope Leo XIV

Leo’s lifetime devotion to the theologian, philosopher, and memoirist Augustine offers a window into his papacy.

27.09.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Move over, Steven Mnuchin. The title of Trump’s biggest bootlicker is up for grabs.

Once "the greatest sycophant in Cabinet history," Mnuchin probably wouldn’t even place in the top 10 if the balloting were held today.

15.09.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Wig runner, chief happiness officer, and other oddball jobs

There was a time when such ridiculous circumlocutions seemed outlandish. Now outlandish is the new normal.

29.08.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Putin’s failed experiment to lure anti-woke Americans to Russia

President Putin fast-tracked resettlement options for those hoping to escape the "destructive neoliberal" lifestyle of the decadent West.

16.08.2025 30

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Hunter Biden is looking sprightly. Maybe what doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

Members of the Keith Richards Improbable Survival Club are showing us that living badly is the best revenge.

30.07.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Divine intervention: A powerful podcast on Boston’s Catholic anti-Vietnam War protests

“All these zany Catholics brought a ferocity of love to everything to what they did that cannot be denied.”

18.07.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Places I won’t be visiting

There are thousands of reasons why I won’t be visiting Saudi Arabia.

03.07.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

How Trump got me to turn against America

I want the whole Trump enterprise to fail. But when it does, it will injure the country I love.

05.06.2025 5

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Why celebrities look ridiculous when they let journalists into their homes

Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of journalistic naughtiness?

23.05.2025 6

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Move over, Pepsi. Here comes Dr Pepper.

How did Dr Pepper become America’s No. 2 soda? Cue the old Avis slogan: Dr Pepper tried harder.

16.05.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Boston, stop living in the past

Boston is the city that is always looking back, never looking forward.

25.04.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Resisting Trump: The revival of tax protest

I don’t have the moral fortitude to engage in tax resistance. But godspeed to those who do.

09.04.2025 8

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Dipping a toe into the wonders of the ‘parallel economy’

Donald Trump Jr. is now a front man in what is essentially a grievance network for consumers who purport to be offended by mainstream products.

28.03.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

In praise of inefficiency

Stay away from the post office and my print newspaper.

14.03.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

The bad boys of Harvard

Christopher Cadbury has plucked several hundred bad apples from the Harvard tree. They make for delicious reading.

01.03.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Introducing the Department of Mass Distraction

I will promote wholesome activities the public can engage in — think the Lively-Baldoni dustup — while the Republic burns.

15.02.2025 20

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

From Super Bowl to Dolly Parton, Americans do have things in common

The country's monoculture isn’t dead.

31.01.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

The tyranny of maybe

Experts and advocates, who often have a vested stake in creative doomsaying, seem particularly gifted at ginning up hypothetical links to misfortunes...

17.01.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam

Why I’ll skip Ozempic

My weight concerns mainly injure my considerable vanity, and I’m not about to outsource my self-esteem issue to Big Pharma if I don’t have to.

02.01.2025 10

Boston Globe

Alex Beam