HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

And justice for all. One of the biggest stories of 2018 was the sudden retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. OZY’s series on potential replacements named Brett Kavanaugh as the probable successor two weeks before the White House announced what would turn out to be a tumultuous nomination.

Young hotshot. A month before Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked political commentators by beating a 10-term incumbent in the Democratic primary for a House seat — which led her straight to the 116th Congress — OZY profiled her grass-roots campaign. And we did so a month before The New York Times. Can’t get enough ahead-of-the-curve politics? Check out OZY’s groundbreaking analysis of the personal debt of candidates in the midterm elections.

Robocops. OZY’s sweeping Around the World series saw stories published about every country — and not-quite country — in the world in 2018. As the first in-depth report on the trend, one important piece examined China’s new robot policing initiative, a futuristic big data program that includes not just artificial intelligence detective work but also gun-wielding bots in Tiananmen Square.

Brisk business. Although Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera is on trial in New York, his Sinaloa cartel is apparently doing well, OZY reported in November (a story the New York Post reported later). In August, Mexican authorities discovered $5 billion worth of methamphetamine in a Sinaloa lab; prosecutors claim the cartel is also slinging fentanyl. With the days of strongman-led drug cartels over, networks are decentralizing to survive.

Inequality. Home to a wealthy elite, San Francisco is the most expensive city in the U.S. to live in. But California as a whole has the highest poverty rate in the nation: One in 5 Californians live below the poverty line, which is causing a great migration from the state’s expensive cities as people struggle to make ends meet. Weeks later, The Economist ran its own piece on the state's burgeoning poverty crisis.

WHAT TO READ

28 States Said 'No' to Bare-knuckle Boxing. But 1 Said 'Yes,' by Matt Foley
"While this event was the first legally sanctioned American bare-knuckle card in 129 years, it was technically the first legalized event of its kind — ever."

How to Lose a Prime Minister in 11 Days, by Ian McNaught Davis
“Do you hear all of this?" Hrach Sargsyan, a student and protester … exclaimed in a frenetic whirl of citizens on a sidewalk in Yerevan, Armenia. "This is the sound of revolution.”

WHAT TO WATCH