Found in the Attic: A Decade of Climate Data on Somalia By Michelle Weber The scientist whose research could help restore stability to Somalia was abducted there in 2008, and hasn’t been heard from since.
They’re Good Mangoes, Mao By Michelle Weber The fruit took on cult status in China after Mao gifted his workers a box of mangoes sent from Pakistan.
West Virginia: Still High on Hope By Krista Stevens The state with the highest overdose rate in the United States is the front line of the opioid crisis.
Schrödinger’s Convict: Actually Innocent, Actually a Felon By Michelle Weber An “Alford plea” gets an innocent man out of jail, but keeps him on the books as a convicted felon.
Teaching a Stone to Fly By Krista Stevens The perfect skipping stone has “lobes” that act as spokes, keeping the stone above the water.
Are We Swallowing Culinary Propaganda? By Shane Cubis In Australia, cupcakes are deployed to wage holy war against halal meat.
‘Equality Keeps Us Honest’: Rebecca Solnit on the Ignorance of Privilege By Michelle Weber “This is why I always pair privilege with obliviousness; obliviousness is privilege’s form of deprivation.”
The Essay Will Feel Like It’s Killing You By Krista Stevens “Begin by writing about anything else,” says Porochista Khakpour, until she becomes conflicted about writing about being Iranian-American.
What Alex Jones and Amanda Chantal Bacon Have in Common By Michelle Legro A new profile of the Moon Juice entrepreneur reveals how the hippie left intersects with the conspiracist right.
Treating Our Border As a Battle Zone By Aaron Gilbreath Twenty years after Marines fatally shot an innocent 18-year old man in West Texas, the War on Drugs and militarization of the US-Mexico border has left many local people feeling less safe.
The Great, Ongoing California Nut Caper By Krista Stevens At Outside, Peter Vigneron reports on a spree of nut heists thought to be linked to a Russian organized-crime ring.
A Chance Meeting With Mr. Rogers By Krista Stevens As it turns out, Fred Rogers was as kind and as wonderful in person as he was on television.
If You Think You Understand the Montana Special Election, You Probably Don’t By Michelle Legro At Buzzfeed, Anne Helen Petersen has been reporting for months on the complex needs of state’s independent voter.
America’s Small Farmers Need More Slaughterhouses By Aaron Gilbreath A dearth of facilities able to process small farmers’ animals keeps costs up and prices high.
A Personal Odyssey Through Florida’s Varied Regions By Sari Botton Jason Diamond road trips from Jacksonville to Key West trying to get a handle on the state where much of his family has settled.
The Internet Won’t Prioritize Quality Without an Intervention By Catherine Cusick Ev Williams admits that the internet is broken and suggests course corrections, apologizing for Twitter’s role in putting Trump in the White House.
‘Just Pure Greed’: A Journalist Exposes Jared Kushner’s Baltimore Housing History By Mark Armstrong ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis has an infuriating new story about Kushner’s aggressive targeting of tenants.
The ‘Artwashing’ of East Los Angeles By Aaron Gilbreath In Boyle Heights, activists are fighting art galleries that represent the first wave of gentrification.
The Birth of a City, In Fits and Starts By Michelle Weber Communities in Haiti are building their own post-earthquake infrastructure without the help of the government.
One Nation, Under God, With Liberty and Justice for Some By Michelle Weber Although a lot about Donald Trump seemed antithetical to conservative Christianity, he got a larger percentage of the Evangelical vote than Bush, Sr., Reagan, or Carter. Why?
The Surprising Social Habits of Crows By Krista Stevens Crows are more than squawk rockets — they’re highly social creatures who, commute to work, mourn their dead, and show appreciation for kindness.
The Circle of Las Vegas Life Is One Never-Ending Buffet By Aaron Gilbreath Meet the family turning Las Vegas casino food waste into future meals.
How ‘International Airbnb Style’ Became the Dominant Aesthetic of Our Time By Ben Huberman From Beijing to Helsinki, quirkiness never looked more identical.
They’re (Almost) All Good Tweets, Brent By Michelle Weber Matt Nelson is a college sophomore who took WeRateDogs from spur-of-the-moment joke to data-driven fav-machine.
Not Really A Distant Aunt: My Family’s Slave By Krista Stevens “Once, when I was sick for a long time and too weak to eat, she chewed my food for me and put the small pieces in my mouth to swallow.”
The Tyranny of Free Time, or How to Be Bored In Fiji By Michelle Weber Mary Mann lays bare what most travelers are loathe to admit: it’s just as easy to be bored in Paris or on Bora Bora as it is at home.
Nyet to Harm Reduction: Russia’s HIV Epidemic By Krista Stevens In Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia, one in 50 are HIV positive, half of which are due to intravenous drug use.
Dorothy Allison on How America Devalues Those Who are ‘Other’ By Krista Stevens Dorothy Allison on how American culture “inherently devalues the poor, the working class, the darks, the queer, the other.”
A Love Affair with a Prince Soundtrack By Danielle Jackson Veteran music journalist Michael Gonzales reflects on a long love affair and Prince’s deep, varied catalogue of hits.
Viral, Yet Ephemeral: Death On Your Cellphone By Michelle Weber China’s WeChat app has become a place to both mourn death and share graphic videos of the moment itself.