“Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive.”
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A Colorful Addition and the Week’s Top 5
“Humans are besotted with color and we always have been. We love it so much we will breathe it, eat it, drink it, and look at it until our eyes roll back in our heads. We will paint with it, paint the world with it, paint ourselves with it. We will go to the ends […]
The Life of a Gun
“This Mossberg MC2c pistol travelled from Texas before it hit the black market, ending up at a 2021 St. Paul mass shooting.”
The Mostly True Story of America’s First Black Private Investigator
He made his name in Chicago investigating racial violence, solving crimes, and exposing corruption. But America’s first Black private detective was hiding secrets of his own.
As the World Moves On, Veterans of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Struggle to Join Them
“‘I feel like I’m still there,’ a Marine told me. ‘I feel like everything that happened, happened five minutes ago.’” Reporting for Task & Purpose, Haley Britzky spoke to 15 soldiers, Marines, and airmen who were part of the Afghanistan withdrawal mission in August 2021. It’s a difficult read, but also a raw and visceral account […]
Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule
“How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.”
The People Who Know Too Much: A Reading List on Amateur Experts
The people whose private fixations become a way of seeing, remembering, and caring for the world.
The Secret Weapons of Ukraine
“A journey through the strange, semiprofessional world of volunteers and foreign fighters who, one year into Russia’s invasion, are risking everything to defeat the invaders.”
Miracle in the Jungle
The race to find four children who survived a plane crash deep in the Amazon.

