Jack Denton

A new ayahuasca "experience" at the Tribeca Film Festival puts the question of whether drug trips can be artificially recreated to the test.

Since the '80s, the court has shown a willingness to decriminalize dirty politics. Will Bridget Anne Kelly be the next to get off?

The Department of Energy recently tried to rebrand natural gas as "molecules of U.S. freedom," continuing a long tradition of industry-inspired government propaganda.

From YIMBYs to NIMBYs, the Strand's recent historic preservation is a Rorschach test for activists of many stripes. Who's right?

They won't be lost to fire, like much of the Universal Music catalog, but who will save the mixtapes?

Burger King is depressed, Netflix is horny, and Chase is mocking its customers for being broke. Why?

Decisions in Illinois and North Carolina to reprint yearbooks with white nationalist photos have prompted a First Amendment debate.

The NYC subway saboteur gazed into the surveillance state. What looked back?

A misogyny-fueled killing spree spurred reams of news coverage. Now an online archive aims to allow a community to tell its own story of grief.

Alyssa Milano's proposal was unpopular, but the practice of sex strikes goes back to the dawn of humanity.

Lawsuits used to be a path to prison reform, but they're now an uphill battle for prisoners and their families.

A court ruled meter maids are conducting searches without warrants, reflecting a shift from a privacy-based conception of rights to a property-based one.

Jamal Knox was sent to prison for his lyrics. The courts have a history of criminalizing rap music.

The attorney general will add four categories of redactions to the special counsel's report on Trump campaign collusion with Russia. Can each be challenged?

Researchers created an algorithm to identify the people most at risk for long-term homelessness in Los Angeles. Some worry the tool itself poses risks.

Billboard's decision to remove Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" from its country chart exposes how artists' race and class—more than their sounds—have always defined genre.

There's historical precedent for prosecuting obstruction of justice without proving an underlying crime.

Facebook and YouTube rushed to remove violent videos. An expert discusses why we need a "reckoning" for online content moderation.

A Facebook event planned seven years in advance became observational comedy about the weird geography of a world built by Palo Alto coders.

A cornerback prospect was reportedly asked about his private parts at the NFL combine. Does anti-discrimination law cover the NFL?

Dave Assman's attempt to get his last name on a Canadian plate has thrust the question back into the United States spotlight.

Welcome to the return of Internet nationalism.

Research indicates that new security measures implemented after Parkland are not making students safer.

Last month, a third cat in Wyoming was diagnosed with the plague, two years after a massive outbreak in Madagascar. Are amoebas or rodents to blame?

A law professor explains New York's probe into Apple's response to the bug and the difference between privacy and security issues under consumer-protection regulations.

With CTE lawsuits mounting, the NFL can’t find a general-liability insurer to cover head injuries. Fraternities and police departments have faced similar problems.

Thanks to wasteful sanitation habits, so-called "fatbergs" have increased in recent years—costing taxpayers in cities around the world a small fortune.

A botched ocean funeral caused chaos in the Netherlands last week, but across the globe, sea burials are on the rise.

A man convicted in an illegal, multi-year deer poaching scheme, was sentenced to watch Bambi once a month. While the punishment is certainly unique, the methodology isn't.

A federal jury awarded $75,000 to a couple after their homeowners association tried to prevent them from putting on a week-long Christmas extravaganza. It's a rare loss for homeowners associations, which usually have a broad authority for Grinchiness.

If the package is signed into law, Scott Walker's unforgiving clemency legacy could continue.

And that's actually a good thing.

Pacific Standard spoke with a philosopher who's trying to code ethical algorithms into autonomous vehicles.

Vezt trumpets itself as the savior of the struggling performer. But can the fledgeling start-up help artists get by? And can the company itself survive long enough to find out?

At a rally on Wednesday, local politicians and activists excoriated Governor Andrew Cuomo for offering Amazon massive subsidies that could have gone to schools.

From Liberland to Sealand, a partial tour of semi-autonomous, breakaway states.

Unlicensed dispensaries have been popping up throughout Los Angeles at a rapid clip, and now dwarf their licensed counterparts in number.

Alison Head, a co-author of a new report on the media habits of almost 6,000 college students, explains why news consumption has become an arduous task for younger generations.

Recent court challenges to politically motivated redistricting have yielded several decisions not to decide.

The Musical Works Modernization Act, which brings changes to digital music royalties and copyright privileges, was signed into law last week.

NOlympics LA, an effort led by members of the Democratic Socialists of America, says the city's bid to host the Olympics in 2028 will ultimately damage and displace its most vulnerable populations.

Pacific Standard writer Jack Denton speaks with a childhood friend about the daily realities of living without a home.

Despite a federal court ruling that reinforces the rights of the homeless, Skid Row residents live in fear of losing what little they have.

We spoke with John Vigna about the boycott that wasn't, social media headaches, and the post-2016 politicization of everything.

The non-theistic religious organization has challenged Christian dominance in governmental action across the nation for years.

A lone gunman burst into the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday, shooting and killing five newspaper employees and "gravely injuring" several more.

Stanford political scientist Bruce Cain offers his thoughts on redistricting commissions and Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement.

Arsenic was long a preservative in the taxidermic process, despite criticism of the method as unnecessarily dangerous. But at least one contemporary scholar has suggested that metabolized arsenic extended the lives of late 19th-century taxidermists by decades.

The National Park Service has approved plans for a "white civil rights rally" to be held across from the White House on the anniversary of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.

This temporary housing in a rural patch of West Texas will hold the seized immigrant children that cannot fit in existing shelters.