Virginia Postrel

How much would you pay for an e-book? Amazon, Apple want to know. More »

Surely we can find enough kidney donors for those who need transplants. But doing so will require creativity, boldness, and a sense of urgency—and experimenting with controversial ideas like donor chains and financial incentives.

For some people, spending just doesn’t come naturally—especially in a recession. Behavioral economists have a solution

Economic policy makers thought they had tamed the business cycle. Not quite. Let’s hope their hubris doesn’t get in the way of our economic recovery

Virginia Postrel’s March article on the availability of cancer drugs sparked enormous reader response, much more than the print magazine’s Letters to the Editor section could accommodate. Here she responds to some common criticisms from those letters.

The cancer drug Herceptin saved the author’s life. It also cost $60,000. Would health-care reform put it, and other expensive new drugs, out of reach?

If you still think a standard PowerPoint presentation or, worse, a C-Span-style speech from a written text is an acceptable level of public speaking, you obviously haven't been to a recent TED conference. I thought graphic design conferences had high production values, but these 18-minute talks set a new standard for polish and sophistication. (Speakers got advance help with their presentations from Duarte Design.) Fortunately, TED gave all attendees a copy of… More »

Bill Gates in response to a question about whether improving health in poor countries will lead to a population explosion: When the Gates Foundation started out, it emphasized "reproductive health," a.k.a. population control. (Someone once noted that you can always convince poor people that rich people have too much money and rich people that poor people have too many children.) But they soon discovered that there's a direct relationship between improving health… More »

This year's may have been the gloomiest Davos ever, but TED maintained its usual optimism. Even the customary predictions of environmental catastrophe were accompanied by faith in activism and change. On the last day, curator Chris Anderson addressed critics who complained that the conference was ignoring the global economic crisis. His main point was to maintain long-term perspective, arguing--with a Keynes quote--that TED engages the ideas that create a better… More »

I spent last week at TED@PalmSprings, the cheaper, more intimate (and, we PSers liked to imagine, cooler) simulcast of the famed TED conference going on in Long Beach. TED is an intense, immersive experience with a hugely varied program: 50 18-minute talks or performances, plus 36 three-minute presentations, in three and a half days--not counting pre-conference tours (I visited a windmill farm) and, at Palm Springs, two mornings of TEDDIY sessions during which… More »

Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition that regulation can’t cure

Public anxiety over “excessive” consumer debt has a long, and misguided, history. By Virginia Postrel

"In an image-savvy culture, we’re increasingly forced to consider just what constitutes a valid portrait"

A new theory of the leisure class

The glamour of Obama may be hard to resist, but could it get the country into trouble if he wins the presidency?

How better aesthetics in hospitals can make for happier—and healthier—patients

Virginia Postrel talks with Gary Hustwit—director of Helvetica—about filmmaking, creativity, and the expressive implications of one of the world's most popular typefaces

A revolution in typeface design has led to everything from more-legible newspapers and cell-phone displays to extra-tacky wedding invitations.

Why sending a man to the moon is easier than finding jeans that fit

Real estate may be as important as religion in explaining the infamous gap between red and blue states.