A botched tattoo; alternative therapy.

The stark realities of nature and nuture.

A Las Vegas hustler hits his lowest point.

With upheaval looming, a college tennis player considers his love, his training, and his own agency.

The intersection of life and social media in the future.

The interactions of inmates and a teacher at a women's prison.

A mother and daughter take a complicated trip to Central Asia.

Loneliness and longing at an Arizona Renaissance fair.

A movie star's press junket notes and observations.

In a surreal, grotesque world, a woman named Little Skin Bag searches for a sense of self .

Transformed bodies on a transformed earth.

While on a flight, a student alternates between his seatmate's conversations and his own painful memories.

Capitalism, self-identity, and fraudulent projections.

A Washington tribe expelled 306 of its members. They’re not going quietly.

A cabbie and a passenger discuss Chinese economics and generational gaps.

A talk given in Berlin on November 10th, two days after the American presidential election:

'Sometimes it is put far more explicitly, like so: “You were such a champion of ‘multiculturalism.’ Can you admit now that it has failed?” When I hear these questions I am reminded that to have grown up in a homogeneous culture in a corner of rural England, say, or France, or Poland, during the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s, is to think of oneself as having been simply alive in the world, untroubled by history, whereas to have been raised in London during the same period, with, say, Pakistani Muslims in the house next door, Indian Hindus downstairs, and Latvian Jews across the street, is thought of, by others, as evidence of a specific historical social experiment, now discredited.'

A former reality star's strength in the face of a Presidential candidate's comments.

An obsession with stones propels a woman from childhood to adulthood.

A bear in human woman skin ventures into the city.

A detective, a mysterious murder, an unexpected confrontation.

Sober living, loss, and unexpected connections.

Marriage, infidelity, distance, and communications.

An elderly woman renovates her basement for renters and discovers uncomfortable truths about herself.

A story of growth, regression, and divergent paths.

"But mostly, Joan sat for hours in her favorite spot of their old living room couch where she breastfed Phil. It felt sometimes like he was resting in the crook of her arm. And other times, her breasts would drip milk and she’d sit with a throbbing ache in her chest. Her husband returned twice a week, a different person each time as if trying on new identities: laughing, angry, sedate, stoic. Sometimes he brought the rocks with him. Sometimes Joan would have to go out on her own looking for them."