JUNE/JULY 2018
PS Picks: Hulu's 'Harlots,' a Show That Foregrounds the Concerns of Women Above All Else
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.
Since We Last Spoke: The Stubborn Gender Gap
Updates to stories from the Pacific Standard archive.
PS Picks: German Playwright Friedrich Schiller's 'Love and Intrigue'
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.
Why Our Families Can't Afford America
A portrait of the stressed and shrinking American middle class.
The Shifting Demographics of Domestic Violence
New research shows that current boyfriends or girlfriends are more likely than spouses to engage in certain types of violent behavior.
The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)
Ken Auletta's latest book explores the chaotic world of contemporary advertising.
Objects That Matter: Taxidermy
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.
Since We Last Spoke: The End of Locker-Room Talk as We Know It
Updates to stories from the Pacific Standard archive.
PS Picks: Porochista Khakpour's Unflinchingly Honest New Memoir
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 Morgantown, West Virginia: On the Ground at Bernie Sanders' Rally of the Sick
Even though a majority of West Virginians see government health care as fundamentally un-American, even evil, they know the Affordable Care Act is saving lives every day.
A Brief History of Gene Editing
In just over 40 years, we've gone from simple modifications to the development of a gene drive that could eradicate an entire species.
Deleting a Species
We are on the brink of being able to genetically engineer an extinction. Should we?
A Cure for White Fragility
A new book argues that we can't overcome racism unless white people are willing to be a little uncomfortable.
Letter From Minneapolis, Minnesota: Investing in the Muslim Community With Microloans
The city prides itself on working with those who are "un-bankable," and on evaluating loans based on individual stories instead of automated credit scores.
Tracks in the Sand
Around the world, camels are disappearing, along with the cultures and traditions of the people who have kept them.
Field Notes: Practicing Self-Defense Outside an Ultra-Conservative Stronghold
Orania, South Africa: Niklas Kirsten, a former paratrooper in the South African Army, instructs Erik Du Pree on handgun self-defense in the fields outside an ultra-conservative, all-Afrikaner stronghold known as Orania.
Marvel Screenwriter Nicole Perlman Shatters the Glass Ceiling for Women in Sci-Fi
We spoke to Nicole Perlman about what she recommends reading, watching, and listening to.
Since We Last Spoke: Fewer 'Get Out of Jail Free' Cards to Go Around
Updates to stories from the Pacific Standard archive.
PS Picks: The New 'Under One Roof' Exhibit at New York's Tenement Museum
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.
Awakening the Grizzly
Inside the effort to reintroduce grizzlies to California.
Field Notes: The Rusting Remains of a Famous Labor Dispute Site
Rankin, Pennsylvania: Built in the 19th century as part of the Homestead Steel Works complex, the Carrie Furnaces produced up to 1,250 tons of iron per day at their peak in the 1950s and '60s.
Instruments of Fate
Caleb Byerly works with indigenous communities to rediscover—and rebuild—their people's lost instruments.
The Endling: Watching a Species Vanish in Real Time
On the frontlines of extinction in the Gulf of California, where the vaquita faces its final days.
These Two Museums in Georgia Offer Sharply Different Accounts of Stalin's Legacy
The question of how one society could arrive at such diametrically opposed visions of its own history is one that vexes not just Georgia.