May/June 2015
For more from Pacific Standard on the science of society, and to support our work, subscribe to our bimonthly magazine, where these pieces originally appeared. Digital editions are available in the App Store (iPad) and on Zinio (Android, iPad, PC/MAC, iPhone, and Win8), Amazon, and Google Play (Android).
Contributors: Meet Some of the People Behind Our Latest Print Issue
More on Noam Scheiber, Peter C. Baker, Maia Szalavitz, Kevin Carey, and Charles C. Mann—and how they reported their latest Pacific Standard stories.
There's a Name for Why We So Often Don't Notice Long-Term—and Worrisome—Trends
And it's called shifting baseline syndrome.
Shelf Help: 'The Twilight of Human Rights Law'
Are our human rights initiatives too abstract and ineffective?
Who Funded That? The Names and Numbers Behind the Research in Our Latest Issue
This list includes studies cited in our pages that received funding from a source other than the researchers’ home institutions. Only principal or corresponding authors are listed.
Since We Last Spoke: Sunblock With Consequences
Updates to past Pacific Standard print stories.
Carrying a Big Stick: India's Gulabi Gang
In every issue, we fix our gaze on an everyday photograph and chase down facts about details in the frame.
Shelf Help: 'The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy'
Is oversimplification really the solution?
Social Networking: Letters and Other Responses to Our Last Print Issue
Join the conversation by writing letters@psmag.com. If you would like us to consider your letter—which will be edited—for publication, please include your name, city, and state.
Since We Last Spoke: Idiosyncratic Whale Songs
Updates to past Pacific Standard print stories.
Leave Those Kids Alone
The latest entry in a series of interviews about subculture in America.
What Was Famine?
The political economy of mass starvation, and why it is largely a thing of the past.
Wanted: Old Musician’s Brain
Musical training early in life may offset the decline in speech processing that comes decades later.
Forever Young
Billy Boy can't work a TV remote or read or dress himself, but he's irresistibly charming.
There's Beauty in the Jones for More
Fretting over your options is part of a life well lived.
Carpe FOMO
An early look at a Pacific Standard story that's currently only available to subscribers.
Are You Getting Paid What You're Worth?
American employment markets are getting better at paying everyone exactly what they're worth. And we're all paying the price.
The Moneyball Trap
An early look at a Pacific Standard story that's currently only available to subscribers.
How America Overdosed on Drug Courts
Hailed as the most compassionate way for the criminal justice system to deal with addicts, drug courts were designed to balance punishment with rehabilitation. But after 25 years, the verdict is in: Drug courts embolden judges to practice medicine without a license—and they put lives in danger.
American Judges Are Playing Doctor—and Doing Harm
An early look at a Pacific Standard story that's currently only available to subscribers.
Tuna Helper: How a Fish Statistician Got Famous and Changed a Country's Mind
Toshio Katsukawa is working to get the Japanese to eat only fish whose populations aren’t endangered.