The Fugitive and the Chameleon
Fifty years ago, a police shooting set in motion a decades-long chase across the American West.
Fifty years ago, a police shooting set in motion a decades-long chase across the American West.
Ciara O'Rourke Desert News Aug 2021 25min Permalink
A profile of England’s pre-eminent scholar of race, culture, and nationalism.
Yohann Koshy Guardian Aug 2021 30min Permalink
On the rise and demise of the Segway.
A respected professor shot dead through the mansion window. A quaint New England town shaken to its core. One all-consuming obsession in Whip City.
Deborah Halber Truly*Adventurous Jul 2021 25min Permalink
Pedestrianism was a sport of epic rivalries, eyewatering salaries, feverish nationalism, eccentric personalities and six-day, 450-mile walks.
Zaria Gorvett BBC Jul 2021 Permalink
In 1955, just past daybreak, a Chevrolet truck pulled up to an unmarked building. A 14-year-old child was in the back.
Wright Thompson The Atlantic Jul 2021 30min Permalink
In 1976, a school bus carrying 26 children and their driver disappeared from a small California town, capturing the world’s attention.
Kaleb Horton Vox, Epic Magazine Jul 2021 Permalink
For centuries, everyone from archaeologists to amateurs pillaged artifacts — and human remains. Now, the FBI is cracking down on those who continue to dig.
Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson Washington Post Magazine Jul 2021 25min Permalink
When word spreads about a 17-year-old in rural Tuscany reputed to have clairvoyant powers, she must withstand followers seeking her wisdom and officials hellbent on tearing her down.
Gabriella Gage Truly*Adventurous Jul 2021 25min Permalink
His almost superhuman exploits made him one of the West’s most feared lawmen. Today, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal is widely believed to be the real Lone Ranger. But his true legacy is even greater.
Christian Wallace Texas Monthly Jul 2021 45min Permalink
If you were a U.S. prison warden trying to figure out how to kill people with an electric chair in the ‘80s, there was basically one guy to call. His name was Fred A. Leuchter Jr. He ran a business out of his house in the Boston suburbs, providing consulting or execution equipment to at least 27 states between 1979 and 1990. Some of Fred Leuchter’s equipment is still in use today, which is why I wanted to talk to him.
Paul Bowers Welcome To Hell World Jun 2021 Permalink
1619, 1776, and the politics of the past
Matthew Karp Harper's Jun 2021 25min Permalink
In 1970 South Central, pigeon fancying was serious business. But there’s a deeper story behind why these Black Angelenos are entering their fifth and sixth decade raising Birmingham Roller pigeons.
Shanna B. Tiayon Pipe Wrench Jun 2021 30min Permalink
For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually happened; it’s the story they want to believe.
Clint Smith The Atlantic May 2021 20min Permalink
The clock is a useful social tool, but it is also deeply political: It benefits some, marginalizes others and blinds us from a true understanding of our own bodies and the world around us.
Joe Zadeh Noema Magazine Jun 2021 20min Permalink
A little alcohol can boost creativity and strengthen social ties. But there’s nothing moderate, or convivial, about the way many Americans drink today.
Kate Julian The Atlantic Jun 2021 25min Permalink
During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fueled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth
Dan Hancox The Guardian May 2021 30min Permalink
Imagine a community of great possibilities and prosperity built by Black people for Black people. Places to work. Places to live. Places to learn and shop and play. Places to worship. Now imagine it being ravaged by flames.
Twenty-five years later, the BBC investigates its own reporter.
Jimmy Carter pardoned Peter Yarrow for what he did to a 14-year-old girl in a D.C. hotel room in 1969. But the Peter, Paul and Mary star is accused of sexually assaulting others, too.
Gillian Brockell Washington Post May 2021 15min Permalink
As a diagnosis, it’s too vague to be helpful—but its rise tells us a lot about the way we work.
Jill Lepore New Yorker May 2021 15min Permalink
Ten years ago, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s disappeared.
Pete Rizzo Bitcoin Magazine Apr 2021 30min Permalink
How a self-taught linguist came to own an indigenous language.
Alice Gregory New Yorker Apr 2021 30min Permalink
On the brink of nuclear war, America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative.
David Wolman Smithsonian Magazine Mar 2021 Permalink
Understanding Joe Biden by way of his favorite historian.
Kara Voght Mother Jones Apr 2021 15min Permalink