A Liberator, But Never Free
Dave Wilsey was among the American soldiers who liberated Dachau. The letters he left behind complicate the story.
A Father's Initiative
Paul Gayle wants to raise his daughter, but he needs a job and a home. What he gets is 16 lessons on fatherhood from the Obama administration.
Why Are Palo Alto's Kids Killing Themselves?
How one community is struggling to understand and respond to a cluster of suicides.
They Built It. No One Came.
On two gay men in Pennsylvania who tried, and failed, to build a commune of their own.
Hostage Camp
Worried about being kidnapped while on a business trip? A man in Florida teaches courses on how to avoid it.
The Insults of Age
On the stupid things people say to the elderly.
The Mysteries of the Masons
The 1826 kidnapping – and murder – that begat America’s obsession with Masons.
In Bourbon Country, a Shot of Scandal
The case of the disappearing Pappy Van Winkle bourbon.
Buried in Baltimore
Decades after a young nun was murdered, a group of former Catholic high school students begin to suspect that an abusive priest may have been the culprit.
The Last Day of Her Life
A gender studies professor, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, decides to take control of her death.
The Ecotourism Industry Is Saving Tanzania’s Animals and Threatening Its Indigenous People
The ramifications of a U.S. company’s tourism operation on former Maasai land.
I'm From Philly. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying to Make Sense of the MOVE Bombing
Revisiting the 6200 block of Osage Avenue.
The Real Teens of Silicon Valley
High school dropouts are descending on San Francisco with nothing more than a backpacks full of clothes and ideas.
The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall
First they found his server, then they found his name. But if they couldn’t catch him with his laptop open, the whole thing would fall apart.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Ghosts & Cyborgs"
Loss and family in an era of police crime and black protests.
"Guilt racked Lois as she downed the last of her coffee. She had promised Jillian she’d go to church with her whenever the verdict came; they were supposed to mourn together. The thing was, even as they were having the conversation, Lois knew she wasn’t going. Something about the thought felt hollow and wrong. How could she embrace people inside the comforts of stained glass when, outside, folks were fighting a foul battle?"
Cruel and Unusual
The events leading up to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett.
What Was Gay?
An essay on its history and future during a time when “gayness, we are told, is over.”
The Wasting
A plague leads sea stars to tear off their own arms.
Stephen J. Dubner is the co-author, with Steven D. Levitt, of Freakonomics. Their latest book, When to Rob a Bank, came out last week.
“I’ve abandoned more books than I’ve written, which I’m happy about. I’m very pro-quitting. We get preached this idea that if you quit something, if you don’t see something through to completion then you’re a loser, you’re a failure. I just think that’s a crazy way to look at things. But it’s also easy to overlook opportunity costs. Like, what could I be doing instead?”
Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, HP Matter, The Great Courses, and Aspiration.
Why Can't America Have Great Trains?
On the failures of Amtrak.
My Dad Tried to Kill Me With an Alligator
On being among giant reptiles with a parent you don’t understand.
The Wedding Sting
A faked marriage between undercover agents leads to the arrest of a dozen drug dealers.
‘I Put in White Tenants’
The grim, racist methods of a New York City landlord.
Visions and Revisions
Maintaining the manual On Writing Well.
Can Horse Racing Be Cleaned Up?
Doping is a problem for equine sports, too.
