A cautionary inquiry into the unchecked hive mind.

The case against agriculture.

Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook vs. Amazon.

A pre-recession essay on becoming extremely wealthy.

How the game gets made.

“Strong-arm methods, including murder, are common in the illicit narcotics traffic. After a major international narcotics ring was broken up last year, two of the- twenty-four defendants were murdered before completion of the trial. One was shot down in the Bronx; the burned body of the other was found near Rochester, New York. The business executive, factory worker, and housewife never encounter the seamy side, but this is what their bets are financing. Again I ask, Is this really the way the American people want it to be?”

“Good espresso depends on the fourM’s: Macchina, the espresso machine; Macinazione, the proper grinding of a beans; Miscela, the coffee blend and the roast, and Mano is the skilled hand of the barista, because even with the finest beans and the most advanced equipment, the shot depends on the touch and style of the barista.”

Why people play violent video games.

A chess prodigy vanishes.

What our private codes say about us.

How a young entrepreneur built a media empire by repackaging memes.

How does a company that sells youth learn to grow up?

Aging, enhancement, and the hormone.

A beaten man tries to come back from purgatory.

Has global warming made it harder for environmentalists to care about conservation?

The artists are leaving San Francisco.

How Sepp Blatter controlled soccer.

How real-time information can make you a better human.

A literary memoir.

On trigger warnings, allyship, intersectionality, and what’s really eating Oberlin.

Murky origins. Feuding chefs. How the lobster roll went national.

“The final evaluation of a play has nothing to do with immediate audience or critical response. The playwright, along with any writer, composer, painter in this society, has got to have a terribly private view of his own value, of his own work. He's got to listen to his own voice primarily. He's got to watch out for fads, for what might be called the critical aesthetics.”

A small town upstate, a Queens ambulance veteran, and a murder

“A love letter to my new country.”

“Football as we know it is done, because the lawyers are here.”