By Fran Hawthorne #487818109 / gettyimages.com Why are prescription drug prices so high in the U.S.? Pfizer’s attempt to acquire the giant British drug company AstraZeneca—which finally collapsed in late May—pinpoints several reasons in a nutshell. (Or should I say,... Read more →

Beacon Press has a new home! Here are some of the features that make it the perfect, environmentally responsible place for us to continue our mission of igniting hearts and minds. Read more →

Author and activist David Chura investigates the mystery of prison recidivism and comes to a surprising—yet poignant—conclusion. Read more →

Fran Hawthorne, author of 'Ethical Chic: The Inside Story of the Companies We Think We Love,' compares the recent Credit Suisse scandal against other cases of unethical business behavior. Read more →

Immigration activist Aviva Chomsky reveals quite a few surprising facts about immigration and "undocumentedness" in her compelling new book 'Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal.' Read more →

By Fran Hawthorne Mount Storm Coal-Fired Power Station in West Virginia (by user Raeky via Wikimedia Commons) “Even if Stanford [University] divested itself fully of all its stocks, both fossil fuel and nonfossil, it would probably take the market less... Read more →

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In November of 2003, when a Massachusetts court declared the ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional in that state, Catherine Reid was left with an unexpected choice: to get married, or not. As the ten year anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts approaches, Reid, in this excerpt from Falling Into Place, takes us back to those heady early days of victory and apprehension after the first marriage licenses could be issued to same-sex partners. Read more →

Our fascination with predators is obvious, but it’s also conflicting. We both fear and respect them. Simultaneously, we find them beautiful and abhorrent. Wildlife management expert John Shivik has a term for this conundrum. He calls it "the predator paradox." At the root of the paradox is one resounding question: Can humans and mammalian predators coexist? Up until now, the answer has been yes—but at a staggering price. Shivik’s new book—aptly titled 'The Predator Paradox: Ending the War with Wolves, Bears, Cougars, and Coyotes,' available now from Beacon Press—explains that predators have long been paying with their lives for their human neighbors’ peace of mind. Read more →

How should an ethical consumer respond to the Donald Sterling controversy? Fran Hawthorne, author of 'Ethical Chic,' investigates. Read more →

An intimate reflection by Susan Katz Miller, author of 'Being Both,' on the nature of motherhood, daughterhood, and the power of bringing interfaith activism and inclusiveness to Mother's Day. Read more →

A young student of capoeira struggles to keep up until he realizes that drumbeats not only guide his movements, but also “knit us into the cosmic fabric of the universe, into the social fabric of families. . .and into the rich textures of religious traditions.” Read more →

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we have the story of one teacher whose creative, engaging lesson plans caused waves with her standards-obsessed colleagues but helped inspire her students—and herself—to strive for something greater than test scores...the well-being of the students themselves. Read more →

In the following excerpt from 'Place, Not Race,' legal scholar Sheryll Cashin examines one case where a seeming setback in affirmative action policy resulted in more inclusive legislation and a surprising outcome for students throughout Texas. Read more →

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe wrote a pacifist rallying cry to mothers everywhere that became the roots of a more activist, socially conscious version of Mother's Day than the one we've come to know. This year, Deborah Jiang Stein and the UUA are calling on us to return Mother's Day to its activist roots. Read more →