The New Republic

Kim spent more than a decade researching and visiting North Korea before writing a book about teaching English to the sons of North Korea’s ruling class. Despite the amount of reporting she had done, her publisher decided to market the book as a “memoir,” making it difficult for Kim to find recognition as a investigative journalist.

Five years after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, only a small percentage of evacuees have returned to the Japanese town of Naraha, which the government has deemed safe following an expensive cleanup effort.

“America has always offered to drink anything for five dollars, no matter how disgusting.” Patricia Lockwood, on the ground at a Trump rally, attempting to understand what’s happening in the United States.

Is Florida still Marco Rubio country? As a native son prepares for his last stand, Kim searches for meaning among the people who know him best.

A fascinating look at the rise and fall of teen empires on Tumblr, the blogging platform and social network favored by young people who view themselves as outcasts.

Jeff Roe will do anything to win. Just watch.

A brief but chilling history of the imagery behind the Ku Klux Klan, and an explanation of how the group’s white hood came to be an icon of hatred.

The tech boom in Silicon Valley has displaced countless numbers of residents, who are struggling to stay in the place they call home even if it means having to live in their cars.

Stephen profiles Killer Mike, an outspoken Atlanta-based rapper whose activism might just herald the return of politically engaged rap.

On J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and the art of invented languages.