Chasing Bayla
A 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist by Sarah Schweitzer about the quest to save a North Atlantic right whale. The whales’ numbers are dwindling from deaths due to getting ensnared in fishing ropes.
The Boy Who Burned Inside
The abuse started when Marco Flores was nine years old. When he was 17, he realized that there were other victims like him and decided it was up to him to put a stop to it.
Does a Connecticut Shed Hold the Secrets of the Gardner Heist?
On the 25th anniversary of America’s most notorious art heist, the FBI squares off with an aging con man in search of new information about lost master works.
Defending Those Accused of Unthinkable Crimes
Defense lawyer Judy Clarke has taken on reviled clients like Jared Loughner and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “It’s a hell of a fight as a defense lawyer.”
The Needle and the Damage Done
Logan was a college student struggling with a heroin problem. Getting busted by campus police should have meant adult intervention, consequences and treatment. Instead they turned him into a confidential informant.
The Berlin Wall’s Great Human Experiment
Twenty-five years later, learning lessons on what happens when a country is split in half.
Is ‘Shareholder Value’ Bad for Business?
What does “shareholder value” really mean, and is it time for us to consider a new measurement for business success?
The Unforgotten
A cadre of college students are working to identify the bodies of illegal migrants who die along the U.S.-Mexico border: “The college students paid for the trip to Falfurrias, in exchange for college credit. They say they aren’t here to take a stand on either side of the fierce divide over illegal migration; they are here in the name of simple humanity.”
My Day as a Robot
The reporter spends a day as a telepresent robot:
When I hit a clearing, a friendly young woman comes up to me, introduces herself as Leila, and asks where I am. I am very briefly confused by the question: We’re in Toronto, of course! But when I catch her drift and admit I am actually in New York, she doesn’t seem to hear me. Before long, it becomes clear that the volume on the People’s Bot just doesn’t go loud enough to carry my voice in this noisy hallway. To hear what I’m saying, Leila has to put her face right up against mine. This seems to work, and after a bit of basic back and forth, I ask her what it feels like to be talking to me. “Do I seem like a human or a robot to you?” Leila thinks this over, and after a moment, says something thrilling: “It’s like a hybrid of both. Like a cyborg!”
The Tor Project
As domestic abuse goes digital, shelters turn to counter-surveillance with Tor:
Sarah’s abuser gained access to every password she had. He monitored her bank accounts and used her phone to track her location and read her conversations. She endured four years of regular physical and emotional trauma enabled by meticulous digital surveillance and the existing support services, from shelters to police, were almost powerless to help her.
“We wish we could just stop the clock because we need to catch up,” said Risa Mednick, director of the Cambridge domestic violence prevention organization Transition House.
To fight back, Transition House and others turn to the same methods used by intelligence agencies in order to keep their clients safe.