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The mall was supposed to be a reinvention of the town square — and for nearly half a century it was, as a public space committed to shopping, eating, or merely lounging around with friends. But the retail apocalypse has taken the core out of the mall, the flagship retail that held it all together, and […]

Capitalism is framed as both a choice and an inevitability. It allows the consumer to buy whatever we want, but what’s available to purchase is due to the pressures and whims of the market. “It’s about the fact that American business have choices,” writes reporter Meredith Haggerty “and how we pretend they don’t.”

Forensic science — the kind that traces the grooves in bullets, the mark of a shoe, or the scrape of a tool — emerged in the early 20th century as a way to professionalize police work. But once its findings made their way into the court system, it became almost impossible to divide the good […]

Elizabeth Greenwood decides to give everything: time, money, praise, forgiveness. But when does generosity become a mania for giving?

When Alexander Chee’s father died at the age of 43 he didn’t leave behind a will, and his estate was divided among his wife and three children. When he turned 18, Chee was bequeathed a trust, and the first thing he bought was something he thought his father would want for him — a black Alfa Romeo.

When Buffy Sainte-Marie had her first child in 1976, she woke up in the hospital next to a basket of formula. As a Native American, she came from a culture in which best-feeling had been discouraged and even prohibited. So she decided to take the issue into her workplace, breastfeeding her son on an episode of Sesame […]