I'm the chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review
From New York: "In early 2023, Alex took a job at Cloud 9, a strip-mall smoke shop off Atlanta’s I-85. He had recently graduated from college and wanted something laid-back; the shop, with its graffitied ceilings and cheesy blue-light displays, seemed like the ideal register job for a
From the BBC: "A young boy was found alive after surviving five days in a game park inhabited by lions and elephants in northern Zimbabwe, according to a member of parliament in that country. The ordeal began when Tinotenda Pudu wandered at least 23 km (14 miles) from home
From the New York Times: "It seemed like the most ordinary interaction in the world.The man was trying to find “Flight Into Egypt,” a century-old oil painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner depicting a biblical scene. Mr. Khalil walked the visitor over to the painting, and they got to
From My Modern Met: "There are many stories of historical treasures hiding for decades in attics and cupboards around the world, but few match what was found in a closet in Ohio in 2012. A few months after the death of Neil Armstrong, his widow, Carol, came across a
From Oxford University Press: "This article provides evidence for the first time of a systematic policy of direct collusion between the Time Inc. media empire and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. For the first two decades of the Cold War, both Time and Life magazines established policies that
From Big Think: "Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union was far ahead of the USA in the space race, launching the first satellite, the first human into space, and many other spaceflight firsts. This dominance continued for several years, and by the mid-1960s, they were
From Danny Dutch: "In 1934, Violet Hilton walked into a New York marriage licence bureau hand-in-hand with her fiancé, Maurice Lambert. On her left stood her ever-present conjoined twin sister, Daisy. Their entry caused a commotion, drawing typists and clerks out of their offices to gawk at this unusual
From Curbed: "As the Coast Guard sped toward the cruise ship, Pam was still on the phone with the Norwegian employee in Miami, begging her to tell the ship to wait. As they approached the looming 14 white decks, she got an update: The captain was refusing their request.
From the New York Times: "On Thursday, 38 prominent biologists issued a dire warning: Within a few decades, scientists will be able create a microbe that could cause an unstoppable pandemic, devastating crop losses or the collapse of entire ecosystems. The scientists called for a ban on research that
From Techspot: "The long-running saga of James Howells' bid to retrieve a hard drive containing 7,500 Bitcoin that was accidentally thrown into a landfill in 2013 has taken a new turn. He now says he has a "finely tuned plan" to recover the component, and
From New York: "It was the summer of 2023, and Matt Bergwall, a skinny 21-year-old University of Miami student, was lounging in an infinity pool in Dubai. Beside him was his girlfriend, a blonde Zeta Tau Alpha. The silver Cuban link chain on his wrist glistened as he held
From News.com.au: "Gladys Deacon was once heralded as one of the world’s most beautiful women. She overcame a traumatic childhood to become the belle of the ball in Parisian society, became a Duchess and had famous men falling over themselves to impress her. Her life revolved