‘If I’m a storyteller it’s because I listen’
A visit with John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing, which “changed the way at least two generations responded to art,” just before his death.
One Man’s Quest to Change the Way We Die
A palliative-care doctor and triple amputee has built a new kind of hospice in San Francisco.
Death on the Hippie Trail
Looking for answers in India after a seeker disappears and his guide commits suicide.
Tyrus Wong, ‘Bambi’ Artist Thwarted by Racial Bias, Dies at 106
He left China at 10 and would never see his mother again. He lived in extreme poverty once he arrived in America. He found his calling in art, became the creative force behind one of Disney’s iconic films, but didn’t get recognition for his brilliance until late in his life, when in addition to painting and illustrating he began to make fantastical kites.
The Tiny-House Revolution Goes Huge
A dispatch from a tiny-house convention:
Here the stories pivoted around Turning Tiny. Before Tiny, there was an unhappy marriage, unpaid bills, stifling office work, a home of 2,500 square feet or more; after Tiny came freedom, new love, debt relief, self-employment, and, of course, a handmade nest.
Eichmann in Jerusalem
Hannah Arendt attends the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
The Mystery of Seahorse Key’s Missing Bird Colony Veers Into Strange Territory
After thousands of birds vanished overnight from a Florida refuge, conspiracy theories bloomed.
True Confessions: Carrie Fisher Interviews Madonna
“We have a lot in common. We go to the same shrink.”
Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation
She went to jail 35 years ago after driving the getaway car in an infamous robbery and defiantly refusing to admit the act was wrong. Her sentence was 75 years. But something changed in prison — Judy Clark went from radical to model inmate. This week her sentence was commuted.
The Idea That Eats Smart People
On the story we tell ourselves about artificial intelligence.
My Year Covering Trump
“You know, you’re a nasty guy,” he said. “You’re really a nasty guy.”
Terror in Berlin: How the Attack Has Changed the Country
A 48-hour reconstruction of the Breitscheidplatz Attack and the political response.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Most Die Young"
A search for meaning through academics, cultural studies, and terrorism.
The Professor Who Came To Stay—and Wouldn't Leave
When Elizabeth Abel returned to the Bay Area home she had rented to a fellow professor on SabbaticalHomes.com, he refused to leave or pay the back rent he owed. She moved in across the street and enlisted her famous academic colleagues to help her get back the house she had raised her children in.
The Prisoner
In 1991, Edwin Debrow shot and killed a cab driver on the east side of San Antonio. He was twelve years old. Twenty-five years later, he is still in prison. Is that justice? And is there room for mercy?
The Glory of the Rails
Why we must bring trains back.
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Part 1
“The world before the railways appeared so very different from what came afterward and from what we know today because the railways did more than just facilitate travel and thereby change the way the world was seen and depicted. They transformed the very landscape itself.”
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Part 2
“It is simply not possible to envision any conceivable modern, urban-based economy shorn of its subways, its tramways, its light rail and suburban networks, its rail connections, and its intercity links.”
Called to Purchase
Stephen Reed was “mayor for life” in Harrisburg, PA. Now he’s going to trial on 114 counts of bribery, theft, and fraud.
Carrie Fisher: The Fresh Air Interview
“Oh, I think I do overshare, and I sometime marvel that I do it. But it's sort of - in a way, it's my way of trying to understand myself. I don't know. I get it out of my head. It creates community when you talk about private things and you can find other people that have the same things. Otherwise, I don't know - I felt very lonely with some of the issues that I had or history that I had. And when I shared about it, I found that others had it, too.”
Children of Men Might Be the Most Relevant Film of 2016
Revisiting the 2006 masterpiece.
The Longform Guide to Diaries
Nina Simone, Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, and a murderous college student — a collection of articles based on private journals.
A Bigger Problem Than ISIS?
The Mosul Dam is failing. A breach would cause a masssive wave that could kill as many as a million and a half people.
For Children Left Behind, A Cycle's End
Gwen Wright was raised in dozens of foster homes. A new housing experiment could spare her son the same fate.
The World v. Alan Dershowitz
The Harvard Law School legend has defended everyone from O.J. Simpson to Claus von Bülow. Now he’s facing his toughest case yet: his own.
The Man Who Cleans Up After Plane Crashes
“A body is a body, but personal effects are a life.”
Jihadists in Paradise
A ragtag band of pirate-Jihadists grab Americans from a diving resort in the Phillipines and lead them on an odyssey through the jungles of an archipelago with the competing interests of the Phillipines’ Navy and Army, the U.S. Military, and the C.I.A. thwarting their rescue.
