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FEATURES
A Sober Utopia
In a remote corner of Colorado, a radical experiment is underway to rehabilitate the state’s most downtrodden residents.
By Will McGrath
Mobile Homes
Seattle’s tent cities fill a niche and a need.
Photographs by Eirik Johnson
Why Grandpa Is Homeless
A sagging economy, a complex job market, and a lack of social programs have led to an increase in the number of elderly people living—and dying—on the streets.
By Rachel Nuwer
Street Scribes
The story of the literary magazine whose authors are all homeless.
By James Parker
Sidebar: Calmness vs. Chaos
By Garret Jordan
Sidebar: Short, Sweet, Written on the Back of a Receipt
By Margaret Miranda
Sidebar: Keeping Clothes Clean
By Ricardo
Gimme Shelter
The state of homelessness in the United States.
Compiled by Michael R. Fitzgerald
PRIMER
Letter From the Editor: The Year Ahead
By Nicholas Jackson
Seven Things You Would Have Learned If You Read PSmag.com
Since We Last Spoke: Sugarcoating the Story
By Francie Diep
Since We Last Spoke: School’s Out
By Dwyer Gunn
Since We Last Spoke: The Drug War’s New Front
By Kate Wheeling
The Small Stuff: There’s a Name for That: Jevons Paradox
By Peter C. Baker
The Small Stuff: Quick Study: Small Gifts, Stable Homes
By Tom Jacobs
The Small Stuff: Research Gone Wild: Smells Like Teen Spirit—for Justice
By Katie Kilkenny
The Small Stuff: Quick Study: ADHD Kids, Homeless Adults?
By Tom Jacobs
Know It All: Solving the Student-Debt Crisis
Is there a bubble? Should we be worried about defaults? Your questions, answered.
By Malcolm Harris
Subculture: Foragers
Linda Black Elk, ethnobotanist, Buffalo Creek, South Dakota
As Told to Julie Morse
In the Picture: Ankle Deep
Okinawa, Japan
FIELD NOTES
Reynosa, Mexico
Photo by Kirsten Luce
City of Dentists
By Jessi Phillips
Racism in the Diamond Mine
By Will McGrath
Mingaladon Township, Myanmar
Photo by Andre Malerba
Assam, India
Photo by Arati Kumar-Rao
The Tsar Bell
By Zachary Slobig
THE FIX
This Is Your Brain on Poverty
How behavioral economics is opening a creative new front in the fight against inequality.
By Karen Weese
Sidebar: Fewer Choices, More Graduates
Limiting the choices of community college students paradoxically leads to greater academic success.
By Karen Weese
Sidebar: The Default Choice
Automatic enrollment in a non-profit food program keeps more kids from going hungry on the weekends.
By Karen Weese
Sidebar: What’s in a Name?
Program designers are learning that the words they use really matter.
By Karen Weese
Sidebar: Breaking Down Barriers
A surprisingly small tweak to the college admissions process yields an impressive increase in the enrollment of low-income students.
By Karen Weese
(Illustration: James Victore)
THE CULTURE PAGES
Culture Features: The Bones of St. Helena
Two cinematographers are capturing the secret history of a South Atlantic island full of the bones of Liberated Africans.
By Diane Selkirk
Scenes: Exit, Stage White
For American regional theaters, diversifying their audiences will mean the difference between life and death. But it’s not simple or easy.
By Tom Jacobs
Pacific Standard Picks: Beware the Slenderman
By Kristina Kutateli
Scenes: A Museum for Healing Broken Hearts
In Los Angeles, the Museum of Broken Relationships gathers its emotional collection from the public—and, in the process, invites civilians of all classes and backgrounds to heal.
By Katie Kilkenny
Guest Programmer: Joshua Oppenheimer
As Told to Katie Kilkenny
Shelf Help: Never Caught: Ona Judge, the Washingtons, and the Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave
By Peter C. Baker
Book Reviews: What ‘Stand Your Ground’ Really Means
A new book traces the legal history of self-defense in America—and shows how laws for self-protection have been generally reserved for whites.
By Peter C. Baker
Shelf Help: Teenage Suicide Notes: An Ethnography of Self-Harm
By Peter C. Baker
