The culturally-bound mechanics of comedy.

Inside the business of manufacturing online product reviews.

On the railways of China and a trip aboard its latest spectacle, a $32 billion line carrying passengers between Shanghai and Beijing at 170 MPH.

Solving the mystery of Wilbur Ross’ missing fortune.

How a touring dance company battles the Chinese Communist Party.

The rise and (potential) fall of the electronics superstore.

On “If You Are the One”, the smash hit Chinese dating show that raised the ire of censors.

In 1902, a poet attempts to stage the world’s first “perfume concert.”

A swanky 12-story condo in Sarasota nearly collapsed, was rendered unlivable for years, and no one was to blame.

As mass demonstrations against police brutality continue across the country, thousands gather in New York to demonstrate against generations of police brutality and racial injustice in America.

Noorullah Aminya was once a valuable ally to the American military. Then, with the Taliban going after his family, he attempted to defect and spent three years in federal detention. To be granted asylum, he needed to convince a judge that the Taliban rule Afghanistan in full. Which would mean America has lost the war.

More than 15% of Detroit’s adults have asthma, and 82% of black students go to schools in the most polluted parts of the city.

In the last year alone, over 150,000 people have risked their lives to leave.

Trees have always migrated to survive. But now they need our help to avoid climate catastrophe.

A healthcare nightmare.

In the ’90s, a gynecologist named Gao Yaojie exposed an AIDS epidemic in rural China and the ensuing government cover-up. Forced to leave, she’s now 85 and living alone in New York.

“As a young reporter in Eastern Europe in 2001, I expected to witness the ‘end of history’ and the flowering of democracy. That was just one of the mistakes I made.”

Refugees arriving in the U.S. after receiving asylum face challenges that have led some to return to their war-torn homelands.

One Marine battalion has had four members kill themselves in just the last year. The soldiers have jury-rigged a system of Facebook notifications and Google spreadsheets to try to stop it.

A local reporter set out to profile the celebrated writer. He ended up lampooned in The New Yorker.

Excerpted from Updike.

An essay on Alcor – “the Arizona cryonics company that has put the body of Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams in cryogenic suspension, in the hope he may one day rise again” – and the desire to live forever.

Chérif and Saïd Kouachi’s path to the Paris attack at Charlie Hebdo.

On nomadism, toxicity, and the question of home.

The ethical burdens of the ICU during Covid.

Possible clues about Lincoln’s murder in the unlikeliest place.