essays
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Paris, USA
Our French Connection
For some Americans, the French way of life is best. Others simply prefer “freedom fries.” A two-week journey across the U.S.—passing through a handful of towns named Paris—to find out what Americans really think about France today. (Parts one through three of four.)
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The Sky Is Falling
Apocalypse How
Big-budget films tell us earthquakes are bad, volcanic eruptions can be catastrophic, and meteorite strikes—barring the presence of Bruce Willis—may kill us all. Seeking expert advice on how scared we should be.
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Our Passions, Our Day Jobs
Diary of a Post-Adrenaline Junkie
Some decisions are best made heedlessly, based on the chance for an epic story—and some people think like that all the time. A report on what it’s like to slide down a volcano on a piece of sheet metal at 55 mph.
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Personal Essays
Call and Response
Sometimes a book appears in your life and starts to pester you. The characters act like your friends. Events occur in the plot that reappear inside your home. It’s enough to drive a man to wonder which world is more real, until danger appears.
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China Welcomes You
How to Officially Forget
More than two decades later, a return visit to Tiananmen Square finds it scrubbed clean—just as it was immediately following the Incident. Except now there is thick smog, and ghosts. In contemporary Beijing, the past is like Kentucky Fried Chicken: unavoidable.
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Opinions
Enjoy the Silence
Just because no one uses payphones doesn’t mean the phone booth needs to go the way of the dodo. One man’s plea for preserving society’s greatest unused invention.
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Witch Hunt
The Devil’s Trumpet
History is an imperfect science—the truth often weaves within nuance and mystery. For those playing the role of historian, the trick is knowing what you’re looking for.
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Letters From Tel Aviv
Herbivore, Carnivore, Omnivore
A grocery visit or dinner out in Israel can sometimes leave your stomach churning, but not for the reasons you might think.
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Closing the Door
The Year That Wasn’t
As much as 2011 was filled with noteworthy events, it was also littered with meaninglessly overhyped blips that, try as we might, we shouldn’t forget. We asked our group of writers and thinkers: What was the least important event of 2011?
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Closing the Door
The Year That Was
We gathered writers and thinkers around the world and asked them to sift through the past year of revolutions, deaths, discoveries, and breakthroughs to answer: What was the most important event of 2011?
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Growing Up
The Truth Will Set You Free
I knew when I was in trouble—like the time I was 13 and was caught watching porn on my dad’s computer—and I knew I couldn’t escape my fate. Nor would I have wanted to.
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Personal Essays
Along the Horizontal
The link between Occupy Wall Street, the environmental doom of Czech villages, and the noise of a wailing child on a freezing, black morning in Sweden is not obvious—but it does count for everything.