A thousand years ago, huge pyramids and earthen mounds stood where East St. Louis sprawls today in Southern Illinois... At the city's apex in 1100, the population exploded to as many as 30 thousand people. It was the largest pre-Columbian city in North America, bigger than London or Paris at the time.
An investigation into how “Mr. Putin, a student of martial arts, had turned two institutions at the core of American democracy — political campaigns and independent media — to his own ends.”
The battle to make The Godfather pitted director Francis Ford Coppola against producers including Robert Evans, and the production itself against the real life mob.
A report from inside the FBI.
Leaking from the inside, leaking from the outside.
A history of the first African American White House—and of what came next.
A photographer’s quest to document a changing planet from above.
'He collapsed on Granville Road, within 100 meters of the house he was renting for $20,000 a month. Police and medics were called to the scene, but within 30 minutes, Perepilichny was pronounced dead. Police told the press the death was “unexplained.” A 44-year-old man of average build and above-average wealth had simply fallen down and died in the leafy suburb he’d recently begun calling home.'
It started as simple teenage rebellion but ended up tearing Syria apart, setting in motion events that continue to rock the Middle East — and the world. The boys behind the graffiti would become unlikely revolutionaries and reluctant refugees. Not all of them would survive the upheaval they helped unleash.
The psychology of trolling.
An investigation into America’s largest chain of psychiatric hospitals, where patients are held against their will to maximize profits.
The untold story of Napoleon Hill, who practically invented the self-help scam through his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich.
Did a forgotten black gumshoe inspire the famous works of both Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett?
On astrophysicist Sara Seager and her obsession with discovering distant worlds.
A Czech Libertarian planted a flag on an unclaimed island in the Danube and gave it a name. Now, the Liberland government is struggling to build its a country without taxes, political correctness, or much in the way of women.
What it takes to defect from the military state of one of the world’s youngest countries.
A life in objects, facts, and yearning.
Reckoning with the legacy of the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster.
Rae Sremmurd, who held the #1 spot for the last 3 weeks for their song Black Beatles, on the precipice of fame.
Carl Zimmer, a columnist for the New York Times and a national correspondent at STAT, writes about science.
“[Criticism] doesn’t change the truth. You know? Global warming is still happening. Vaccines still work. Evolution is still true. No matter what someone on Twitter or someone in an administration is going to say, it’s still true. So, we science writers have to still be letting people know about what science has discovered, what we with our minds have discovered about the world—to the best of our abilities. That’s our duty as science writers, and we can’t let these things scare us off.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
A conversation with Vasily Gotov:
"Russia undoubtedly celebrated the reports in American media about its activities. They want to instill doubt. They want to be part of the agenda. They want to penetrate our media culture. Russian penetration is dramatically overstated in American media, but that only serves them better. It creates the impression that they're more powerful than they are. That discussions like this are necessary at all is a tremendous win for Russia."
Rosie grew up in a succession of decrepit houses in South London with one man and a rotating cast of women, who claimed that they had found her on the streets as an infant. The man, Aravindan Balakrishnan—Comrade Bala, as he wanted to be called—was the head of the household. He instructed the women to deny Rosie’s existence to outsiders, and forbade them from comforting her when she cried.
A young Brazilian couple from “an impoverished northeastern city that’s been described as ground zero of the Zika epidemic” struggle to care for their daughter.
How FPAQ, the Canadian group that controls 72 percent of the world’s supply of maple syrup, caused one of the greatest agricultural crimes in history.
When you quite literally have no health insurance options.
