Archive - The Works in Progress Newsletter

Why the Bronze Age collapsed

Historians like to blame drought, famine and invaders. But this can’t explain why the empires never came back.

Sep 28 • Works in Progress

The 1970s law holding back modern biotechnology

We’ve invented microbes that can eat plastic, detect landmines, and extract rare metals. They’ve been swallowed by a black hole.

Sep 22 • Niko McCarty and Works in Progress

Why Arab armies don’t win wars

Alex Chalmers reviews Armies of Sand by Kenneth Pollack.

Sep 21 • Alex Chalmers and Works in Progress

Why housing reforms keep failing

Not all NIMBYs are alike. Dividing the most unreasonable ones from the rest might be the key to getting homes built.

Sep 17 • Works in Progress

Why Alberta doesn’t have rats

Rats have conquered nearly every place on earth where humans live. Only Alberta soldiers on.

Sep 15 • Deena Mousa and Works in Progress

Most people prefer traditional architecture

Taste is subjective. But when it comes to architecture, there is a surprising level of agreement.

Sep 14 • Works in Progress

Issue 25: Beauty In My Backyard

Works in Progress issue 25 is out today

Sep 11 • Works in Progress

The invention of the MMO

Despite running on computers with just 64 kilobytes of memory, Habitat became the first massively multiplayer virtual world in 1982.

Sep 9 • Virginia Postrel and Works in Progress

Just bury your trash

What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

Sep 2 • Alex Chalmers and Works in Progress

August 2026

A cop’s case for Flock

People are right to want less police intrusion in their lives

Aug 31 • Ned Donovan and Works in Progress

American transit is bad because of scope creep

Who benefits when we ask transit to pursue social goals?

Aug 28 • Works in Progress

A future of programmable medicine

What if instead of editing a harmful gene, or blocking the protein it produces, you could simply switch it off?

Aug 26 • Works in Progress

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