World
World covers the mechanisms behind stories that reach you as headlines, and stops at the mechanism. How a tariff is calculated and where in the chain it is paid; how a change in the federal funds rate travels to a mortgage or a savings account. The sources are the agencies that publish the underlying data — Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve, the CFPB — and the pieces are written to survive the news cycle that prompted them. There is no position on whether a policy is wise, and no forecast of where it goes next. That argument is available everywhere, and the forecasts are usually worth what they cost; an account of how the thing works, with neither attached, is harder to come by. It is also the part that stays true after the headline has moved on.
- Ocean Acidification: What CO2 Does to Seawater
How NOAA and EPA explain ocean acidification: the chemistry from dissolved carbon dioxide to fewer carbonate ions, and what it costs sea life.
- How Natural Gas, Heating Oil, and Propane Reach Homes
How the EIA describes the way natural gas, heating oil, and propane reach homes, are stored before winter, and what pushes winter prices up.
- How a Nuclear Power Plant Makes Electricity
How fission heats water, how steam spins a turbine and generator, and how the two U.S. reactor types differ in where water boils.
- How Solar Panels Turn Sunlight Into Electricity
How a solar cell converts sunlight into electricity, how cells become panels and arrays, and what an inverter does with the direct current.
- Why Electricity Prices Differ So Much by State
In 2025 the average retail price of a kilowatt-hour ran from 8.20 cents in North Dakota to 35.72 in Hawaii. What shapes that price.
- What the Price of Gasoline Is Made Of
The retail price of gasoline breaks into crude oil, taxes, refining, and distribution, and each part comes from somewhere different.
- How Tariffs Reach Your Store Receipt
How import tariffs pass through importers and retailers to the price you pay at checkout, and why the added amount varies by product.