Investigations & Dispatches

Foster Care Is a Health System. It Just Isn't Run Like One.

Every conversation about foster care runs through family court. Almost none of them run through the fact that foster youth carry some

MB's 10 Questions Before an Algorithm Touches a Patient

Hospitals and insurers are already using AI to triage, price, and decide. MB is asking them to show their work. What Happened

Legacy and Lineage: The Untold Stories Behind This Season's Anniversaries

Michael Kors turns 45. Rachel Comey turns 25. Coach turns 85. But the deeper story is in the Black design lineages carrying their own histories forward.

What FW26's Biggest Beauty Trends Actually Look Like on Melanin-Rich Skin

The runway called it 'tired girl' makeup and blush-forward looks. Here's what translates — and what doesn't — for textured hair and deeper skin tones.

The Black Designer Power List: Who's Showing at NYFW SS27

From Sergio Hudson to Diotima, the definitive MB tracker of every Black designer on this season's official CFDA calendar.

The Fastest Decision in the Hospital

Three peer-reviewed studies say Black patients arrive at the emergency department and get scored as less urgent than white patients with the same complaint. Here is how that score gets made — and what it costs after it is made.

135 Days Until Two Million New Yorkers Have To Prove It

New York's 80-hour Medicaid rule starts Jan 1. Nebraska already cut people. Update your address this week.

✦ A Deadlier Ebola Outbreak, a Weekend of Washington Infighting,& the Birthday That Started It All ✦

⏱️ Est. Read: 4 min "Institutional power, who gets believed, and who gets left waiting this week began with all three."

Built to Fail

They rebuilt South Central's hospital for 25,000 patients a year. It now serves 125,000 on leftover funding a hospital engineered to run at a loss. Now Washington wants to finish the job.

The Price of Staying Alive

They keep raising the price of staying alive and asking us to applaud. So we name it, source it, and hand you the receipts.

The Follow-Up That Never Comes

Free screening was supposed to level the field. For Black women, the gap moved to the follow-up test that isn't free.

The Premium Cliff: The Next Countdown After Medicaid

The subsidies that made Obamacare affordable are expiring. Premium hikes hit the same families the Medicaid cuts are already coming for.