Perhaps the Best Dinosaur Fossil Ever Discovered. So Why Has Hardly Anyone Seen It?
A Montana rancher found two skeletons in combat—the Dueling Dinosaurs. But who do they belong to, and will the public ever see them?
Where the Bodies Are Buried
In 1910, East Texas saw one of America’s deadliest post-Reconstruction racial purges. One survivor’s descendants have waged an uphill battle for generations to unearth that violent past.
The New Prospectors
Every year, members of the Gold Prospectors Association of America pack up their RVs in search of adventure, friendship, and a bucketful of pay dirt.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Four Crônicas"
Examinations of literature, philosophy, and the self.
Josh Levin is the national editor at Slate. He is the host of the podcast Hang Up and Listen and the author of The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth.
“I think it’s a strength to make a thing, one that people might have thought was familiar, feel strange. And reminding people - in general, in life - that you don’t really know as much as you think you know. I think that carries over into any kind of storytelling.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Squarespace and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
Sixteen and Evangelical
How can people who once moved as one ultra-religious organism become such dramatically different adults?
The Con Man Who Became a True-Crime Writer
In his old life, Matthew Cox told stories to scam his way into millions of dollars. Now he’s trying to make it by selling tales that are true.
First Person
Kamala Harris makes her case.
An Epidemic of Disbelief
Why don’t police catch serial rapists?
The Dirty Business of Hosting Hate Online
The people who run these platforms have to make decisions about the greater good—whether they want to or not.
Peter Saville Wrote the Source Code
How the English graphic designer set the course for contemporary visual culture.
A Theory of Jerks
So you’re surrounded by idiots. Guess who the real jerk is.
Going Down the Pipes
Life as an air-traffic controller in the ’90s.
Kicked Off the Land
Why so many black families are losing their property.
The Murderer, the Writer, the Reckoning
An essay from inside Sing Sing.
State Capture
The corruption investigation that has shaken South Africa, the world’s most unequal country.
The Coast of Utopia
On the influencer moms of Byron Bay.
The Threat of Youth Basketball
A two-part investigation into why so many more young players are getting seriously injured.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Still Soft, Still Whole"
Scenes from a troubled Appalachian marriage.
Behold, the Millennial Nuns
An attempt to understand why, after 50 years of decline, more and more young women are suddenly embracing religious life.
The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV
“Three giant telecoms are gonna make and own all the content, and they’re not gonna want anyone else to make it.”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer at the New York Times and the author of Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel.
“As a profile writer, the skill I have is getting in the room and staying in the room until someone is like, ‘Why is this bitch still in the room? Get her out of there!’ It’s a journalistic skill that is not a fluffy skill. There are people who are always actively trying to prevent your story, prevent you from seeing it, from seeing the things that would be good to see. There’s a lot of convincing, comforting and listening going on. And there’s a lot of dealing with the fact that somebody in the middle of talking to you can suddenly decide that you are the worst. Those things are very tense and it’s a specific skill that I have that can defray all those things. Or it lets me stay.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Netflix, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
Road-Tripping With the Amazon Nomads
They travel America in vans and RVs stopping at Targets and Wal-Marts in search of rare soap and coveted toys to stock Amazon’s fulfillment warehouses.
A Black Principal, Four White Teens and the ‘Senior Prank’ That Became a Hate Crime
The students swore they weren’t racists. A judge would decide their fate.
Rainforest on Fire
On the front lines of Bolsonaro’s war on the Amazon.
