Better Call Ajmal
Critics call it “the radio of pimps and vagina-sellers.” But a popular new call-in show is helping a generation of Afghans navigate a battlefield full of strife and confusion and fear: modern love.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "The Sinner and the Saint"
A newfound faith wreaks havoc on a relationship.
"I broke commandments left and right, several more than once. Coveting neighbor’s wife (well, neighbor’s husband)? Check. Taking the Lord’s name in vain? Big fat check. Lying? Too many times to count. But that was before I met Augustine. He’d made me better. Almost good (I still had a filthy mouth). That’s how I defined Love now. How could I ever see it another way? How could I ever see it with anyone else?"
After The Fall
What’s the reason for Mike Tyson’s continuing appeal?
José Mujica Was Every Liberal's Dream President. He Was Too Good to Be True.
The disappointing tenure of Uruguay’s great lefty hope.
The Mystery of Mingering Mike
A draft dodger invents a pop music career for himself – without recording any songs.
The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World With Logic
Walter Pitts, who helped develop the “first mechanistic theory of the mind,” was so brilliant he was once been invited to study with Bertrand Russell. He was also homeless.
Jack Shafer covers the media for Politico.
“This is a true story, not a ‘Brian Williams story’: my first report card said ‘Jack is a very good student, but he has a tendency to start fights on the playground and bring them back into the classroom.’ That's been my career style — start a fight and bring it back to the classroom.”
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The Fixer
A man in a small town in India builds local power by owning the only computer in his village.
The Hezbollah Connection
Reconstructing the investigation into Rafik Hariri’s assassination, for which five men stand trial in absentia.
Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?
Trying to make sense our current age of disbelief.
Joni Mitchell, Unyielding
The singer-songwriter has a calico cat named Nietzsche.
The Company Man
The rise and fall of former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson.
Rape-Rape
Recalling a sexual assault.
Send in the Weathermen
Inside the world of special operations weather technicians, “the Department of Defense’s only commando forecasters.”
Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?
How one young American veteran got caught in the cobweb of Syrian rebel politics.
The Bro Code
Booze, sex, and the dark art of dealmaking in China.
The Public Life and Private Doubts of Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton wanted to be a civil rights leader in the mold of Martin Luther King, Jr. It hasn’t quite worked out that way.
Some Different Ways of Looking at Selma
The dramatic liberties a much-heralded film takes with historical fact show how hard it is to get complexity onto the big screen.
How Men's Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement
An investigation into the past of a prominent voice in the men’s rights movement.
Precious Memories
On former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, who died Saturday, and his battle with dementia.
Who Killed the Gangster’s Daughter?
The life and mysterious death of writer Susan Berman.
The Reddest Carpet
The surreal pageantry of the North Korean Film Festival makes Hollywood look demure.
When Will We Stop Punishing Working Women for Having Babies?
America’s pregnancy leave policies – or lack thereof – continue to bear no relationship to the reality of being pregnant. It’s time for something to give.
A Life on the Edge
How Billy Walters, the world’s most successful gambler, keeps winning.
Tech Behind Bars
What can social media do for you when you’re in the clink?
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Inside The Prison System's Illicit Digital World
Inmates technically aren’t permitted to have cell phones. But social media services are chock full of posts made from inside.
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After Years Behind Bars, Can Prisoners Re-Enter A Digital World?
Prisoners emerge not being familiar with smartphones, Spotify, and all sorts of ways that technology now governs how we live and work.
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Can Technology and Prisons Get Along?
A pilot program will allow prisoners to access an intranet on tablets they rent with their commissary accounts. Will it help?
