Another great issue this week for YOU, Loyal Iserotope Extras Subscribers! The first article is for all you parents out there — so you can become even better parents! The second two articles focus on how we have retreated from desegregation and the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. Last up is a more hopeful story about the unflagging spirit of top-rate journalism. Enjoy!

“We Will Literally Predict Their Life Outcomes”

Neuroscientist Vivienne Ming believes that the decisions parents make shape their children for better or worse. Good thing she has an app that supports parents to raise their children right! “The potential problem,” the author writes, “is that businesses — unlike government and nonprofit institutions — are built to put profits first, not social good.”

How Segregation Has Persisted in Little Rock

I’ve walked up the steps of Central High in Little Rock, where nine brave students, along with 1,000 army paratroopers, courageously desegregated their school in 1957. Too bad our country has reversed its course. Nearly 60 years later, the schools in Little Rock — like most across the country — have resegregated. Why? A local judge says, “Down deep, many whites don’t want their kids sitting next to blacks.”

My colleague Marni Spitz (center) with her student Arvaughn and Bryan Stevenson.

Class Notes: The Closure of a Queens High School

Jelani Cobb graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens in the 1980s at the height of the school’s successful desegregation efforts. Once a beacon of the neighborhood, now the school is closed. (Yes, the last article and this one seem linked. Side note: Both blame charter schools for resegregation.)

Why people pay to read The New York Times

Yes, I’m a proud subscriber of The New York Times, and yes, this article is sort of a (very well-written) commercial. But this piece also gives me hope that maybe journalism isn’t dead after all, and perhaps we should go back to a time where we asked people to pay for high-quality goods and services. (Extras is free.)

That’s it for this issue! OK, I have homework this week for you. Think of someone who might enjoy reading Extras. Press “f” to forward this email to them, and add a quick two-sentence witty message that convinces them to subscribe. Thank you! The winner gets a prize.