Category: Nonfiction

An infirmed Friedrich Nietzsche hiked the Swiss Alps to work on his writing. Philosopher John Kaag followed Nietzsche’s trail, taking the great thinker’s ideas out of his books and into the world.

Author Tim Mohr talks about East Germany’s dissident punk rock scene, and its role in bringing down the Berlin Wall in 1989 — the story behind his remarkable new book, ‘Burning Down The Haus.’

‘Too often, Suffolk detectives acknowledge, police have stereotyped young immigrants as gang members and minimized violence against them as “misdemeanor murder.”’

Jessica Gross considers her preference for certain types of confinement.

This week, we’re sharing stories from Elizabeth Bruenig, Michael Hobbes, Jesse Barron, Matthew Walsh, and Alan Siegel.

Diane Mehta tries to manage anxiety with meditation that requires her to discard all her memories.

Actor and writer Rob Delaney shares his family’s experience with every parent’s nightmare: a very sick child.

New books about the opioid crisis — “Dopesick,” “Fight for Space” and “American Fix” — have different ideas about who’s to blame and what to do next. Our critic says regulating supply can have deadly consequences, and we need to address users’ pain.

Eli Saslow says the push and pull of resistance (from angry classmates) and civil discourse (with others willing to be kind to him) is what changed Derek Black.

Cisco, Utah can’t be a ghost town, because Eileen Muza lives there, but people sure treat it that way.

How the Chinese government has turned a herding minority into performers for tourists.

“And if I’ve learned anything from Blaze Foley, it’s that memory is like a thought: it weighs nothing. You can’t even hold it in your hand.”

The story of the Velvet Underground’s fourth album that almost never was.

Elon Musk can’t wait to send humans to the Moon and Mars. But before we land ourselves on other worlds, we need to remember how we’ve treated our own.

Jen Doll comes to terms with her inner teenager … or whatever.

“There’s an idea that laborers end up in their role because it’s all they’re suited for. What put us there, though, was birth, family history — not lack of talent for something else.”

Merve Emre on the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Another ineffective technique has been added to the ineffective war on drugs: Drug-induced homicide charges.

In the mountains of southwestern New Mexico, a seasoned fire lookout watches as his beloved forest and his personal life burn, and he tries to imagine what will arise from their ashes.

Mary Wang recalls the ways in which she and her family in China conspired to hide her grandmother’s cancer diagnosis from her.

This is the story of how a handfull of mega-rich ended up hoarding most of the world’s wealth.

This week, we’re sharing stories from Brittany Packnett, Rahima Nasa, Jordan Smith, Scott Korb, and Chris Heath.

I believed that there was no music existing in the world with an unbroken connection to its original context. I was wrong.

Historically pushed toward softball, Baseball for All keeps young girls in the game.

“Imagine realizing one day that you’re a Beatle. Think about how you might decide to handle that for the next 50, 60, 70 years.”

Even if one of the last surviving Tolstoyan communes has fallen short of Leo Tolstoy’s ideals, it’s still turned into something meaningful. It’s a place for people who don’t want to be found.

My origin story—as a son, and later a father and a husband; as a citizen, a racist— has always begun in a crumpled car at the side of the highway. May 30, 1982.

The Parkland survivors are teaming up with urban youth dedicated to ending gun violence, united by Dr. Martin Luther King’s six principles of nonviolence.

Aram Mrjoian reflects on his experiences of being part Armenian in America.

When a young white musician gets invited to a house-party, the musicians he plays with show him a slice of blues culture many people assumed had died.