Seyward Darby

A haunting journey into one of the most forgotten places in America: Listen to locals long enough and you’ll come to find that the Dismal shifts in the eye of the beholder. The land’s kaleidoscopic history is much the same. For one of Eric’s distant relatives, a lumberman named Moses Grandy, the swamp was at […]

An alarming story about the cost of Hindu nationalists’ efforts to recreate India in their own image by erasing the country’s Muslim heritage: The centerpiece of this millenarian fantasy is the 57,000-square-feet, three-story sandstone temple being constructed in Ayodhya. If the parliament complex is necessary to maintain the facade of India’s democracy, the temple is […]

A profile of the former New York Times columnist turned failed gubernatorial candidate, who’s now dabbling in bespoke cider and wine: “Running for office does involve — ‘self-confidence’ is a polite way of putting it,” Kristof said. He paused when he said the word polite, as if to politely emphasize that the question (I had […]

A harrowing first-person account by one of the last Americans journalists to leave Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine: I closed the windows, turned off the water and gas. I snapped a few photos of my favorite room in the apartment — my study filled with books and art I’d collected over the decades…. I sat […]

A behind-the-scenes look at the lead-up to the historic vote in Staten Island, establishing the first union for Amazon workers: When he first emerged as a leader of the 2020 COVID safety protests, Amazon management attempted to use his street-casual demeanor as a way to discredit him. In a leaked memo of a meeting, Amazon executives, […]

Kelly Loudenberg tells the poignant story of an imprisoned artist, the couple who saved his life, and the extraordinary gift he gave in return: Janie called Danny on Christmas Eve, and the next day he left the Upper Peninsula. Janie asked him to stay for a few months, but it wasn’t long before Danny again […]

A melding of science and sports, this is the feel-good story of the first NBA player with multiple sclerosis: Lying immobile and alone, 5,000 miles from everyone he loved, Wright was terrified, unsure of what was happening to his body. He didn’t know if he’d ever walk again, let alone hold a basketball. Overnight, his […]

This jaw-dropping story from Rachel Aviv starts as one of an abused child overcoming the odds against her, and ends with elite, monied institutions accusing her of lying: Norton, with whom Mackenzie had been living for nearly a year, told me, “I cannot avoid the sense that Mackenzie is being faulted for not having suffered […]

An extraordinary firsthand account by one of the last international journalists reporting from the besieged Ukrainian city: We reached an entryway, and armored cars whisked us to a darkened basement. Only then did we learn from a policeman why the Ukrainians had risked the lives of soldiers to extract us from the hospital. “If they […]