The Slate writer and Becoming Baba author reflects on Newark and mosques as home, making sense of Egypt on long flights, and becoming a father.

"Palestinians are defying Israeli bombings and power outages to follow soccer’s biggest tournament. But many fear the world has abandoned them."

“Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future.”

Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: Every record is made of oil.

"Is all the beekeeping, baking and leatherwork just escapist fantasy or the start of a radically human approach to work?"

"A couple of years after I began volunteering, I realized I was hell-bent on healing birds because they, too, had healed me—in more ways than one."

“It’s been called ‘one of the greatest cold cases of the 20th century.’ It remains unsolved. But what happened next is almost a worse crime.”

"Millions of songbirds in Southeast Asia are trapped and smuggled each year for keeping as pets or entering in competitions. Scientists warn that it's fueling a crisis."

"Did an experienced alpinist leave his girlfriend to die at the top of a mountain?"

In this edition: Concrete memories, grief science, captive cats, relentless pain, and myth meets reality.

"Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future."

"Forty years after breaking away from Antarctica, the frozen colossus known as A23a died as it lived: drifting around the bottom of the globe, fascinating ardent observers, and offering scientists critical new insights about our living ocean."

"As of May 2026, you can no longer buy or sell exotic cats in British Columbia. What do we do with them all now?"

"How China’s short dramas are redefining entertainment."

"When an alligator kills someone in America, it can make international headlines. What happens to the thousands of gators that people deem 'nuisances' does not."

"Masha Polska, 15, was an avid dancer who had been dreaming of a star turn in the group waltz. That was not to be."

"Netflix’s new adaptation of the beloved book series will probably leave out some of the most fascinating details from the author’s life—from Pa Ingalls’s ineptitude to the serial killers that stalked Kansas during her childhood."

"It felt like a stabbing. It felt like a burning. It felt like a dull ache, then a sharp one, then it radiated all the way down."

The author of Any Person Is the Only Self and recent Guggenheim fellow talks about the worst time of day, the value of wasting an hour, and chilaquiles.

"Johnny Knoxville and his band of merry pranksters got me through one of the worst weeks of my life."

"In most of the country, executions are a thing of the past. But one state has been carrying them out at a record pace."

"After my husband’s death, I had never been more pliable, tender, open, or raw. It was then that I tried E.M.D.R. therapy."

"I am yearning to reject something that is not even being sold to me."

In southeastern Italy, almond groves hold centuries of local history. A granddaughter returns to gather the bitter and the sweet.

"The price and quality of the $1.50 Costco frank haven’t budged in 40 years. It’s the last—and best—deal in the country."

"My journey inside the world of LARPing, where hustlebros pretend to be rich for TikTok."

"Rory Feldman was accused of deceiving, defrauding, and stealing. But he says he’s been the target of a relentless smear campaign by a 'magic mafia.'"

"Turf wars. Food and fire hazards. $15 ice-cream cones. How an organized network of unlicensed food trucks took over America's Front Lawn."

"What Darwin saw in the Galápagos."

"In remote rivers, prospectors still hunt for treasure .They even hold tournaments."