Joel Mathis
The Week
Kansas, United States
Contact Joel
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Recent articles by Joel:
Will Republicans impeach Biden?
Before Trump became president, there were two presidential impeachments in all of American history → Read More
America's declining life expectancy, explained
Americans aren't living as long as they once did. For the second straight year, life expectancy in America has dropped significantly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday announced that "life expectancy at birth dropped by nearly a year between 2020 and 2021 – and by more than two and a half years overall since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic," CNN reports. In 2019, the… → Read More
California's ban on gas-powered cars, explained
The Golden State's big plan to tackle climate change → Read More
What did Christian nationalism have to do with Jan. 6?
The movement is more than Donald Trump's religious supporters → Read More
Kansas' big post-Roe abortion battle
How did Kansas end up at the center of the abortion fight? → Read More
The pros and cons of nuclear power
Fears of climate change have prompted a fresh look → Read More
Monkeypox comes to America
The first U.S. monkeypox case of the year has been detected in Massachusetts — a cause for some minor alarm because it comes on the heels of a rare worldwide outbreak of the disease. As of Thursday morning, 68 cases have reportedly been detected in England, Spain, Portugal, and Canada. "This is rare and unusual," said Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to the U.K. Health Security Agency.… → Read More
6 impressive homes in Atlanta
It doesn’t hurt to look! → Read More
6 tasteful homes on Long Island, New York
It doesn’t hurt to look! → Read More
The magic of watching Tiger Woods play the Masters
As I've gotten older, I've had a weird and possibly desperate idea in the back of my head: As long as somebody roughly my age is still playing professional sports, I'm still plausibly young. It's a silly notion, though one I've clung to even as most of the athletes of my generation played out their careers, retired, and moved on to the next thing. But I turned 49 last week. Time is running out.… → Read More
7 cartoons about Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings
Artists take on her historic nomination, Republicans' attacks, and more → Read More
Democrats want to live with Democrats. So do Republicans.
Where do young, smart Republicans want to live more than anywhere else? One of the most Democratic towns in America, naturally. A new poll of recent college grads from Axios has some interesting results. Seattle is the most-desired destination city for young people looking to get started somewhere new. That's no surprise, as it's a tech hub in a tech-oriented economy. It's when the results are… → Read More
7 cartoons about Ukraine, Russia, and rising gas prices
Artists take on spiking fuel costs, Ukrainians' suffering, and more → Read More
A growing IRS backlog
Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web: A growing IRS backlog The IRS is still sorting through more than 20 million tax returns from last year, said Alan Rappeport in The New York Times. The agency was "turned into an economic relief spigot responsible for churning out checks and other stimulus payments to millions of Americans" during the… → Read More
There's a way to bring down gas prices, but you won't like it
A modest suggestion to deal with rising gas prices: Let's bring back the 55-mph speed limit. Prices were already on the upswing before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, thanks largely to a slow ramp-up in oil production following the pandemic-driven collapse in demand. Now the cost is going to go up even more, driven higher by sanctions on Russia's oil and gas industries. We're getting a… → Read More
Could war in Ukraine be a deathblow for nuclear power?
Well, that was scary. On Thursday night, Russian troops invading Ukraine attacked and then seized the nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, briefly starting a fire amid the combat, which raised fears of a new Chernobyl-style radioactive disaster. Those concerns appear to be misplaced, at least for the moment: No radiation was released during the blaze. A lot of people were angry and anxious… → Read More
If Roe v. Wade falls, is birth control next?
Are Republicans coming for your birth control pills? Even in an era where abortion rights are looking shaky, it might seem alarmist to suggest so. But last week three GOP candidates to be Michigan's next attorney general said they believed that Griswold v. Connecticut — the 1965 Supreme Court decision that said contraceptive purchases were shielded by a right to privacy — was wrongly decided.… → Read More
If members of Congress are afraid of each other, what does that mean for the rest of us?
Sometimes, you wonder if Congress is cracking up. The House of Representatives has always been a fractious place — arguably, it was designed to be — but several reports this week suggest the institution is increasingly succumbing to anger and paranoia. A quick recap: On Tuesday, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) said Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) poked and cursed at her after she asked him to mask up while… → Read More
The Republican Party doesn't get to have Jan. 6 both ways
Republicans want to have Jan. 6 both ways. On the one hand, they would have Americans believe the insurrection was just an expression of "legitimate political discourse," the language the Republican National Committee used on Friday to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for participating in the investigation of that day's events. The RNC was echoing the stance held by… → Read More
Why progressives should be cautious about the anti-war right
With war looming in Ukraine, it's important to choose allies carefully → Read More