Why Did I Teach My Son to Speak Russian?
When bilingualism isn’t obviously valuable, you have to decide what you think of the language.
The Bullshit-Job Boom
Existentialists with agita, rejoice. We now have an anthropologist’s new book confirming that what we do means nothing. David Greaber’s Bullshit Jobs examines the current work economy and how we attribute meaning to our lives with possibly (probably?) meaningless tasks.
Why African-American Doctors are Choosing to Study Medicine in Cuba
Anakwa Dwamena explores the influence of the Latin American School of Medicine, or E.L.A.M, Cuba’s international medical school, which actively recruits talented undergraduates from the United States.
Don’t Eat Before Reading This
A pre-Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain starts spilling the secrets of restaurant chefs.
Bird Flight
Jazz radio host Phil Schaap relishes jazz history on a show whose winding, digressive style is both “exhaustive and exhausting.” Unlike many obsessives, Schaap uses his deep knowledge of mid-century jazz to keep it alive in the collective memory.
Looking for Life on a Flat Earth
Alan Burdick spent two days at a North Carolina convention for Flat-Earthers. In a post-truth era, should more people shed their spherical beliefs and admit science may not be science at all?
How One Woman’s Fight to Save Her Family Helped Lead to a Mass Exoneration
On Chicago’s Southside, Clarissa Glenn worked for ten years to get her husband out of prison after crooked cops planted evidence on him. Her efforts ended up overturning thirty-two other convictions.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Comes to Terms with Global Fame
MacFarquhar’s long profile of MacArthur Fellow Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the novelist’s legacy and the torments of fame in Nigeria and America.
The Rage of the Incels
“In America, to be poor, or black, or fat, or trans, or Native, or old, or disabled, or undocumented, among other things, is usually to have become acquainted with unwantedness,” writes Jil Tolentino. But none of these people ever felt that because they were outside the sexual marketplace, they were ever owed sex. Incels are the result of a violent misogyny, one that has little to do with sex and almost everything to do with power.
Four Women Accuse New York’s Attorney General of Physical Abuse
Eric Schneiderman, as the head of law enforcement in New York State, used his position of power to become a voice for the #MeToo movement. But behind closed doors, his treatment of women was abusive and physically disturbing. Schneiderman resigned three hours after this story was published.