The Washington Post Magazine

“What should a mental health response look like in the wake of a climate disaster? How can we better prepare communities for the moment when they are forced to confront climate change?”

“Visitors to Appalachia are seeking out fireflies and finding solace in these dark times.”

“Many first responders are experiencing alarming cognitive decline. Is their time at Ground Zero to blame?”

“We have taken Native lands and tried to eradicate Indigenous societies, yet it’s not only what we’ve done to the living that is so deplorable. It’s what we’ve done, and continue to do, to the dead.”

“At 1:44 p.m., Bennett sent out a BOLO (be on the lookout) alert across the region, asking law enforcement to watch for shoes that are “dark ruby red in color … and valued at $1 million.””

It’s a rite of passage for campaign workers — and an underappreciated pillar of our democracy.

Houston Chronicle criminal justice reporter Keri Blakinger — who once served 21 months of a 2½-year sentence for felony drug possession — visits a women’s prison near Austin, Texas, and considers the ways in which women’s prisons don’t take into consideration women’s particular needs. She speaks with those involved in planning a new $97 million building at the prison, which would be “at the vanguard of a growing focus within criminal justice reform known as gender-responsive corrections.”

This piece is included in the Washington Post Magazine‘s “The Prison Issue,” exclusively featuring writing, photography, and illustrations by those who are currently incarcerated, or were in the past.

“Nothing convincingly explains the strange chemistry, the alchemy, that has kept the heart of a sullen, violent, tormented criminal beating for so long in a gentle mother’s chest…Yes, Eva Baisey got a murderer’s heart. But it was also a broken heart. It fixed her, and she fixed it.”

After decades turning their noses at sweet wines with umlauts, Americans are embracing them. One American takes readers on a tour of German wines and wineries as climate change and youthful entrepreneurship alter their styles and reputations.

A dispatch from CrimeCon, where families and victims of violence collide with the public’s obsession with murder.