Numbers can tell a story, but they can also be relentlessly abstract. That was certainly the case for Ciudád Juárez, which over the course of four years faced a relentless wave of cartel violence. From 2008 to 2011, the Mexican … Read more
It’s hard, I know, to make a case for gonzo journalism in an age when reality is beset by exaggeration, even lies. And yet I’ve found myself drawn back to the work of Hunter S. Thompson, who had an uncanny … Read more
“In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream.” — “Born to Run,” Bruce Springsteen, 1975. There’s trouble in the heartland these days over promises broken and hopes betrayed. Somewhere on that lonely stretch … Read more
You know when you absentmindedly click on a product and an ad for the thing seems to stalk you online for the rest of your life? (I once thought the name “Mrs. Pasture’s Horse Cookies” charming. Now, with eternal repetition, … Read more
I was almost afraid to read “My President Was Black.” Ta-Nehisi Coates is such a tour de force, I was afraid that his words would wipe away my thoughts, his insights obliterate my voice as I try to sort out … Read more
We’re drowning in imagery these days: photos on the pages of newspapers and magazines, on televisions, smart phones, iPads and laptops; full-wrap ads on buses, trains and towering buildings; even a Lilliputian universe on our wristwatches. Research shows that readers … Read more
We’ve become too familiar, sadly, with the narrative of destructive PTSD as troops return from Afghanistan and Iraq. But in the hands of Los Angeles Times writer Thomas Curwen, we find a quieter but no less devastating picture of … Read more
Clark Rockefeller doesn’t exist. The pressed Lacoste shirts and fancy shoes might be his, but the name, the title and everything else are fake. In a Vanity Fair piece that reads like fiction, Mark Seal tells the story of … Read more
At a time of intense racial tensions in the United States – tensions that visited my own college campus last year – I ran across a story that stopped me in my tracks. In “This Is What They … Read more
Anyone who’s worked in the obituary or foreign news section of a news outlet has a story or two to tell about the Fidel Castro obituary, otherwise known as Bane of Existence. The endless updating and reworking over the years … Read more
