Books:

• Physics for Future Presidents is full of fascinating facts and busted myths about energy, nuclear power, nuclear bombs, global warming, and other topics that are hotly debated in the media.
• The Big Short tells the story of the financial crisis from the point of view of the few people who realized what was going on, and made a killing out of it.

Cool stuff online:

• A nuanced TechCrunch article about the SF housing affordability crisis and the history that led up to it.
• A bunch of articles about homelessness: how much SF spends with little accountability, how Utah did or did not solve its homelessness problem, and a character story called Million Dollar Murray.
• A TED talk by Nick Hanauer, intriguing because you don't often hear rich people wanting to curb income inequality.
• The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, orchestrated by the US government with the involvement of the United Fruit Company -- a fascinating piece of history that I hadn't known before, and a revealing example of US foreign policy.