Your Mileage May Vary
Your Mileage May Vary is senior reporter Sigal Samuel’s weekly advice column offering you a framework for thinking through your ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions.
To submit a question anonymously, click here.
These columns are first featured in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here.
How society convinced us that childbearing is morally wrong without a fat budget.
How society convinced us that childbearing is morally wrong without a fat budget.
Hint: The best educational choice you can make for your child might not focus on your child at all.
How to think about what’s best for your child — and for all the other children, too.
After years on psychiatric drugs, some ask if they owe it to themselves to try coming off the medication.
The latest in Your Mileage May Vary
A new theory about why human beings evolved the need to feel purpose.
You don’t have to give up on a profession you love and become a plumber.
How to think about long-term use, dependence, and withdrawal — according to a professional.
A psychiatrist explains why Internal Family Systems is having a moment, despite its lack of evidence.
Why so many people are obsessed with Internal Family Systems, even though its claims are dubious.
The line between medically necessary and elective surrogacy isn’t as tidy as people assume.
All Americans live in a “dual state.” Here’s what that means — and how to help others see it.
Giving away your money can feel great, if you do it right.
De-extinction, drinking, and a whole new thing that could end the world.
You were told you’d change the world. But there’s a better way to think about your potential.
“Setting boundaries” is broken — but there’s a different way to think about caring for yourself and others.
Resistance to exploitative AI starts with building a movement.
If you believe there’s a soul trapped inside ChatGPT, I have good news for you.
It’s not millennial cringe to wonder if you can enjoy the work of problematic artists.
New genetic testing offers us the chance to create superbabies. It can come with unintended consequences.
The paradox of moral perfectionism — and how to escape it.
From picking a career to picking a spouse, one radical philosophical idea will guide you.
This doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing.
When the world is on fire, meditation feels selfish. But it can help you do good better.
To save the humanities, we need to rethink our assumptions about AI — and education.
What to do when your partner wants an open marriage and you don’t.
How to get parents and friends to get serious about doing good.
I want to believe I can make a positive impact from the inside, but maybe I’m deluding myself.
It can feel tempting to cocoon yourself in relaxing hobbies to spare your mental health.
I value my independence and don’t want my partner to end up controlling me.
I want to fight rising authoritarianism. But I’m scared of becoming a target.
I feel intense guilt after getting angry. And if I shrug off that guilt, I worry I’ll become a bad person.
My extreme self-sacrifice is making me resent my friends who fly all the time.
You don’t have to shy away from argument and persuasion. Here’s how to do it right.
I want to make the world better, but donating feels out of reach.
How can you know if you truly want to be a parent?
My faith gave me my moral values. I want my child to have those — without all the stuff I don’t believe in.
I don’t know what I owe my newfound relative.
The quest to give effectively feels like it’s turning me into an cold-hearted jerk.
Introducing Your Mileage May Vary, an unconventional new advice column.