The Lonely Quiet After Newtown
Eli Saslow, The Washington Post, June 8
Six months later, the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, fades into the past, and the parents left behind try to make the country remember.
Thanksgiving in Mongolia
Ariel Levy, The New Yorker, November 18
A journalist’s harrowing, heartbreaking story of her miscarriage while on assignment in a remote corner of Asia.
Tom Scocca, Gawker, December 5
From literature to politics, smarm—an insistence on civility, a finger-wagging disapproval of negativity—is doing its best to keep the cultural elite insulated from criticism.
Manti Teo’s Dead Girlfriend
Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey, Deadspin, January 16
The most heartbreaking and inspiring story of the college football season is a hoax.
How to Catch a Falling Star
Stephen Rodrick, The New York Times Magazine, January 13
This is what happens when you cast Lindsay Lohan in your movie.
I’m a 34-Year-Old NBA Center. And I’m Black. And I’m Gay.
Jason Collins, Sports Illustrated, May 6
The coming-out story that rocked basketball—and the world.
The Passion of Lew Wallace
John Swansburg, Slate, March 26
The incredible story of how a disgraced Civil War general became one of the best-selling novelists in American history.
The Self in Self-Help
Kathryn Schulz, New York, January 6
We have no idea what a self is. So how can we fix it?
The Rise of the New New Left
Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast, September 12
Bill de Blasio’s win in New York’s Democratic primary isn’t a local story. It’s part of a vast shift that could upend three decades of American political thinking.
How Smash Became Network TV’s Biggest Trainwreck
Kate Aurthur, BuzzFeed, January 30
Smash was supposed to be the show that saved NBC—but people laughed at it instead. How did it all go so wrong?
Murder by Craigslist
Hannah Rosin, The Atlantic, August 14
A serial killer finds a newly vulnerable class of victims: white working-class men.
Change the World
George Packer, The New Yorker, May 27
Silicon Valley transfers its slogans—and its money—to the realm of politics.
The Limits of Evolutionary Psychology
Thomas de Zengotita, The Hedgehog Review
Can we really find ethical guidance in a natural world shaped by evolution?
Kathryn Miles, Outside, February 11
The incredible truth about a ship that never should have sailed.
The Social Life of Genes
David Dobbs, Pacific Standard, September
Your DNA is not a blueprint. Day by day, week by week, your genes are in a conversation with your surroundings. Your neighbors, your family, your feelings of loneliness: They don’t just get under your skin, they get into the control rooms of your cells. Inside the new social science of genetics.
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