Seyward Darby

Jason Fagone unfurls the saga of Hamid Hayat, an American citizen who turned 19 the day before the September 11 attacks, was sentenced to prison on his 25th birthday after being wrongfully convicted of terrorism, and walked free a month before he turned 36. Hamid barely reacted [to his guilty verdict], remaining calm, as he […]

You may remember the Syrian government’s chemical attacks on civilians. You may also remember the international deal struck to destroy President Bashar al-Assad’s weapons’ stockpile. What you almost certainly don’t know is how the deadly chemicals were actually destroyed, or who figured out how to do it. This is the behind-the-scenes story. The unlikely solution […]

“My scars are too deep, too wide, too fucked up to be smoothed over.” So writes Nicole Shawan Junior in this moving, deeply personal essay about their experience with dermatillomania, a cousin of obsessive compulsive disorder. At Smith, these wealthy, mostly white, women make me realize I’m piss poor. I try to believe the American […]

“Paul Farmer set out twenty years ago to heal the world. He still thinks he can.”

An essay in seven gables.

How the search for lost slave ships led one Black diver on an extraordinary journey.

“After years of high-profile shootings, policing in America is under more scrutiny than at any time in our history. Meanwhile, one company — which sells policy handbooks to police departments across the country — seems determined to give officers cover.”

“The story of the first decade of Black Lives Matter.”

In a bid to save his business, an oysterman navigates treacherous waters in Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands.

“At home in Dublin, on the eve of the ‘dark as fuck’ final series of Peaky Blinders, Murphy reflects on his years as one of TV’s greatest-ever gangsters and the tragic loss of his co-star, the ‘magnificent’ Helen McCrory.”