The Real Nature of Thomas Edison’s Genius
A piece suggesting Edison’s great skill was not so much in invention as in optimisation and a structured approach to research and development.
Jon Krakauer on the Incredible Career of Mountaineer Fred Beckey
This profile of one of the world’s great climbers, who has since died, is really a study of a lifetime’s obsessive dedication to a single aim.
Nokia’s collapse turned a sleepy town in Finland into an internet wonderland
A look at the town of Oulu in Finland, a boomtown at the time of Nokia’s zenith, but arguably all the better since the company’s fortunes faded from its position as the preeminent mobile telecommunications company.
The Wild Ones
The story of a groundbreaking research expedition down the Colorado River in 1938, undertaken by two female botanists out to prove people wrong. It’s a story at once personal and symbolic, with a narrative arc spanning over half a century.
A Trip to the Pro-Russian Pseudo-State of Luhansk
A journalist is granted rare access to Luhansk, a self-proclaimed statelet in Eastern Ukraine, an unrecognised territory with “1.5 million residents, 17 ministries and a Soviet star in its coat of arms” that has “17 ministries but no cash machines”.
How Trump Reshaped the Presidency in Over 11,000 Tweets
An epic narrative and data visualisation of the President’s social media activity, and how it has played an outsized role in his administration.
I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
A journalist has a bad experience on Airbnb – the rental is changed last minute to a far worse property than the glossy one advertised and a full refund proves hard to come by. On examining the experience further, she spots a pattern.
A Cybersecurity Firm’s Sharp Rise and Stunning Collapse
A start up that began in the early stages of of peer to peer sharing by spotting compromising files that were accidentally being shared on LimeWire, and ended up in internal recriminations, and an FBI raid on their headquarters.
Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery
Delving into the supply chain of a commodity product on Amazon finds a surprisingly complex supply chain.
“This Should Be a Wake-up Call to the Whole World”: Inside the Hong Kong Protests
A look at both how the NBA became embroiled in the Hong Kong protest movement, and the chaotic and complex stories surrounding the protests themselves.