My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward
We met at 18. We wed at 24. At 27, I checked my wife into a psych ward—for the first time. How mental illness re-shapes a marriage.
Magazine Feature Story
Bees, Inc.: Save the Honeybee, Sterilize the Earth
A decade ago, people started panicking about the collapse of the honeybee population and the crash of our food supply. But today there are more honeybees than there were then. We have engineered our way to a frenzied and precarious new normal.
The End of Gangs: Cleaning Up Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles gave America the modern street gang. Groups like the Crips and MS-13 have spread from coast to coast, and even abroad. But on Southern California's streets they have been vanishing. Has L.A. figured out how to stop the epidemic it set loose on the world?
The Rise of Extreme Daycare
More Americans are working late-night and early-morning hours. Who's looking after their kids?
The Most Dangerous Idea in Mental Health
The belief that hidden memories can be "recovered" in therapy should have been exorcised years ago, when a rash of false memories dominated the airwaves, tore families apart, and put people on the stand for crimes they didn't commit. But the mental health establishment does not always learn from its mistakes—and families are still paying the price.
We Are All Confident Idiots
The trouble with ignorance is that it feels so much like expertise. A leading researcher on the psychology of human wrongness sets us straight.
How America Can Finally Learn to Deal With Its Impulses
The ability to delay gratification has been held up as the one character trait to rule them all—the key to academic success, financial security, and social well-being. But willpower isn't the answer. The new, emotional science of self-regulation.
The Grandparent Scam
Every day, phones are ringing in homes across the country. Maybe yours. On the line: organized teams of con artists trying to bilk you out of thousands of dollars by impersonating your loved ones. One especially lucrative scam targets the supposedly vulnerable demographic of grandparents. A journalist and grandmother sets out to discover who's calling—and the real reason why the "grandparent scam" works so damn well.
The Rise of Biblical Counseling
For millions of Christians, biblical counselors have replaced psychologists. Some think it's time to reverse course.
Is the Quest to Build a Kinder, Gentler Surgeon Misguided?
Surgery is a fundamentally messy and stressful activity. When being a few millimeters off target can be life-changing, a surgeon needs to possess fierce concentration, unrelenting perfectionism, and, above all, staunch self-assurance.
The Organ Detective: Hidden Global Market in Human Flesh
Tracking the organ trade, anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes visited African and South American dialysis units, organ banks, police morgues, and hospitals. She interviewed surgeons, patient's rights activists, pathologists, nephrologists, and nurses. So why aren't more people listening to her?
How Botox Can Solve the Depression Epidemic
One in 10 American adults struggles with depression, and women are twice as susceptible as men. Is facial paralysis the answer?
The Man Who Wants to Fix the Climate. Can Anyone Stop Him?
Most scientists oppose Russ George's efforts to fix the world's climate. But who's going to do something about it?
Does the Science of Human Behavior Only Show Us What We Want to See?
An intellectual crisis in the age of TED talks and Freakonomics.
The Secret History of Life-Hacking of the Cult of Self-Optimization
How the cult of self-optimization was born on the factory floor—with a manager's stopwatch in hand.
The Secret World of Fast Fashion
From 1960s Korea, through Brazil, to today's Los Angeles: Inside the world that brought you Forever 21—and those skinny jeans in your closet.
What Dreams Still Come: An Old-Fashioned Explorer in Modern Times
How to be an old-fashioned explorer—intrepid, obsessive, khaki-clad—without conquering anything. The secret life of Keith Muscutt.
The Germ Theory of Democracy, Dictatorship, and Your Cherished Beliefs
Is culture just a side effect of the struggle to avoid disease?
Inconclusive Results: Obama's Not-So-Big Data
After the last presidential election, wide-eyed pundits hailed a brave new era of political campaigning, crediting Obama's victory to his team's wizardry with data. The hype was premature. Here's what the story of 2012 really means for the future of politics.
How Did Toast Become the Latest Artisanal Food Craze?
How did toast become the latest artisanal food craze? Ask a trivial question, get a profound, heartbreaking answer.
The Next Civil Rights Issue: Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet
"Ignore the barrage of violent threats and harassing messages that confront you online every day." That's what women are told. But these relentless messages are an assault on women's careers, their psychological bandwidth, and their freedom to live online. We have been thinking about Internet harassment all wrong.
The Most Senseless Environmental Crime of the 20th Century
Fifty years ago 180,000 whales disappeared from the oceans without a trace, and researchers are still trying to make sense of why. Inside the most irrational environmental crime of the century.
Death at the Summit: How the Feds Killed a Market Oracle
As CEO of Intrade, John Delaney harnessed the wisdom of the crowds, with often freakishly prescient results. Technocratic dreamers were ecstatic about the company's ability to predict the future, and maybe even reshape society. Today Delaney's company has collapsed and his body is entombed atop Mount Everest. A tale of bravado, bluster, and efficient markets.
The Prophet: Meet Dave Ramsey, America's Personal Finance Guru
Meet Dave Ramsey, the most important personal finance guru in America. Millions of people follow his biblically inspired advice. It goes like this: 1. Purge yourself of debt; 2. Live on cash; 3. Pretend economic trends don't affect you; 4. Blame yourself when they do.