FEB 2018
The Death Penalty in America: A Lethal History
In colonial Virginia, authorities could hang settlers for a crime as small as stealing grapes or killing a neighbor's chicken. The penal code in America's first colony was, in fact, so harsh its governor eventually reduced the number of capital offenses out of fear that settlers would refuse to live there. Since then, the number and severity of crimes punishable by death in the United States have fluctuated; today, the death penalty is still legal in 31 states. Here are some of the critical turning points in the history of capital punishment in America.
Bryan Stevenson's Quest for Justice
From growing up in rural Delaware to opening the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
Since We Last Spoke: Honey From Global Bee Populations Is Contaminated With Pesticides
Updates to stories from the Pacific Standard archive.
The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages
Historian Annelise Orleck traveled to Mexico, Cambodia, and Bangladesh, plus all across America, to interview low-wage workers fighting for better conditions and pay.
PS Picks: Katie Watson's 'Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion'
PS Picks is a selection of the best things that the magazine's staff and contributors are reading, watching, or otherwise paying attention to in the worlds of art, politics, and culture.
Artist Maria Qamar Blends South Asian Sensibilities With Pop Art
We spoke to Maria Qamar about what she recommends reading, watching, and listening to.
Since We Last Spoke: California Bans Mandatory Life Sentences Without the Possibility of Parole for Juvenile
Updates to stories from the Pacific Standard archive.
Since We Last Spoke: A Petition to Recognize the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as an Official Nation
Updates to stories from the Pacific Standard archive.
PS Picks: The 'Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today' Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art
PS Picks is a selection of the best things that the magazine's staff and contributors are reading, watching, or otherwise paying attention to in the worlds of art, politics, and culture.
Letter From Qaanaaq, Greenland: The Man Who Listens for Nuclear Tests Above the Arctic
Svend Erik had not intended to spend the last 37-odd years of his life permanently in Qaanaaq, stewarding critical data through decades of changes in computing and communications technologies, but he had fallen in love.
Field Notes: Inside a Ravaged Building in Northern Iraq
Haji Ali, Iraq: A view of the village—which has been ravaged by battles against ISIS—through one of its destroyed buildings.
Sarah Jones' Theater of Resistance
The playwright and actress' one-woman shows are deeply political—but she isn't here to preach.
PS Picks: The Conversation Around the Gun-Toting Christian Extremists of Ubisoft's 'Far Cry 5'
PS Picks is a selection of the best things that the magazine's staff and contributors are reading, watching, or otherwise paying attention to in the worlds of art, politics, and culture.
Save American Poetry, Read a Cowboy
At the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, readers and writers celebrate the lyrical beauty of rural existence.
Letter From Stone Mountain, Georgia: Reclaiming Stone Mountain From the Alt-Right
How Stone Mountain—the world's largest and most immovable Confederate monument—could become a battlefield where neo-Confederates from across the country make their last stand.
PS Picks: Black Panther's Hollywood Breakout
PS Picks is a selection of the best things that the magazine's staff and contributors are reading, watching, or otherwise paying attention to in the worlds of art, politics, and culture.
What Demolition Derby Reveals About Small-Town Politics and the Trump Apocalypse
There is no single storyline to demolition derby. Unlike a football game, there is no ground to take, no points to score. There is only mayhem and survival.
Field Notes: Morning at the Buriganga River in Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Momin Mohammad, a leather worker, brushes his teeth by a canal near his home in the city's polluted Hazaribagh neighborhood. Each day, tanneries dump 22,000 liters of toxic waste into the Buriganga, the capital city's main river and key water supply.
Teaching the Art of Reading in the Digital Era
As the art of close reading has declined, a cohort of experts has emerged to reverse the trend and encourage stronger reading habits.
When Talking of Future Financial Success, Do Fraternities Offer a Leg Up for Male Students?
Researchers found fraternity membership lowers a student's grade-point average by 0.25 points (on a four-point scale), but increases future income by 36.2 percent.
Commercialization and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany
Sociologist Cynthia Miller-Idriss argues how brands sneak past German laws against Nazi symbols while building a community among customers.
Objects That Matter: Biodegradable Bullets
The Pentagon has paid more than $42 billion to clean up contaminated sites—mostly to private contractors—with little evidence of improvements, a ProPublica investigation found.
Could Managed Consumption Be a Better Form of Treatment for Alcoholism?
Managed alcohol programs, which provide homeless alcoholics with housing and small amounts of booze, may seem counterintuitive, but they fit squarely within a philosophy of addiction treatment known as harm reduction—and they're working.
How America Uses Digital Tools to Punish Its Poor
A new book argues that America uses digital tools to sequester and punish its poorest citizens. But can we really blame technology?