How, for over 50 years and often through song, Sesame Street has been helping kids from every strata of society to comprehend difficult topics and learn how to behave compassionately when faced with racism, serious illness, death, and more. The world was broken in half, but music, music could be the bridge.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The DJ and the War Crimes
“Thirty years after a death squad massacred civilians in Bosnia, none of the infamous Arkan’s Tigers have stood trial for their alleged part in those crimes. And for the past few decades, one of them has been spinning trance records at European festivals and clubs.”
Posted inNewsletter
Loneliness, Power, and the Top 5 of the Week
“I want to be left alone, but I don’t want to be lonely.” Hanif Abdurraqib writes this about a tension that dominated the career of singer Phyllis Hyman—but it also feels like a familiar plea in this dim, early-January week, when many of us leave the chaos of extended family and drift back into our own homes, our own jobs, and perhaps our own small pockets of solitude.
Posted inNonfiction
Anatomy of Absolute Power
The people of Wilcox County, Alabama, remember a longtime sheriff as a god or a monster—it just depends on who you ask.
Posted inFeature
The Art of the Steal
The Social Register was a who’s who of America’s rich and powerful—the heirs of robber barons, scions of political dynasties, and descendants of Mayflower passengers. It was also the perfect hit list for the country’s hardest-working art thief.
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Time with Kurt Cobain
“Despite Kurt’s torment—or in a determined attempt to overcome it—Nirvana made life-affirming music. It made me feel better.”
Posted inFeature
The Journalist Who the Nazis Could Not Silence
No one has ever received more nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize than Carl von Ossietzky. This is his story.
Posted inNewsletter
Our Top 5: Cultivated Meat, Scammers, and More
Three favorite five-star reads and our Top 5.
Posted inUncategorized
The Enduring Joy of Maps (and the Week’s Top 5)
“Empty spaces on maps were so terrifying to ancient mapmakers that they filled them with decorations, fictional landscapes, and monsters. We moderns miss the beautiful monsters, but what if they never actually disappeared? What if the monsters were always part of the map, part of mapping itself?” After many months of hearing about how great […]
Posted inNewsletter
Friction, Travel Writing, and Our Top 5
A reading list on friction, an interview about travel writing, and the week’s Top 5.
