The Highlight
They lost parents to Covid-19. Are we abandoning them?
The number of American kids whose caregivers have died in the pandemic has surpassed 140,000.
The age of monsters
In the ’80s and ’90s, kids’ media was full of murder and mayhem. What changed?
The morbid appeal of “botched” plastic surgery
Cosmetic procedures are on the rise. So is our voyeuristic fascination with how they go wrong.
Can a haunted house even scare us in 2021?
When a pandemic rages just outside our doors, maybe escapism is all we can hope for.
House isn’t selling? Blame the ghosts.
Realtor? Check. Appraiser? Check. Ghostbuster? Check.
The horror century
From the first morbid films a hundred years ago, scary movies always been a dark mirror on Americans’ deepest fears and anxieties.
Apple picking is a bizarre imitation of hard work
Oh, the performative faux labor of it all.
The sad, predictable limits of America’s “economic recovery”
Officially, the Covid-19 recession lasted just two months. So why are so many still suffering?
How your favorite jeans might be fueling a human rights crisis
Cotton’s connection to forced labor by Uyghurs in Xinjiang ought to have you rethinking fast fashion.
A vacation town promises rest and relaxation. The water knows the truth.
On the Georgia coast, leisure and a grim history of slavery co-exist.
The story of amusement parks is the story of America
With all of its sparkle and chipped paint.
The best four years of your life?
Dropping out helped me see the lies we’re sold about the college experience.
The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping
In 1976, a school bus carrying 26 children and their driver disappeared from a small California town. Forty-five years later, we revisit the story.
“Friends” and the illusion of perfect adult friendships
The TV show sold us an idealized vision of these relationships. For young adults, the real thing is far harder to find.
Who pays?
As dating and marriage evolve, so is the way couples tackling the uncomfortable question.
The battle for the future of “gig” work
Ride-sharing companies are pushing to make a third category of "independent" worker the law of the land. Drivers say the notion of independence is little more than a mirage.
