Dispatches from the Rap Wars
A sociologist spent 18 months living with gangs in Chicago fighting bitterly violent local turf wars, and simultaneously trying to make it big with rap tracks and on social media.
The Neo-Nazi Murder Trial Revealing Germany’s Darkest Secrets
A spate of linked murders has revealed worryingly active far right movements in Germany. Even more alarming is the strange role in the affair played by the German intelligence services.
After the Fall
John Lanchester analyses the impact of the financial crisis a decade on. A potent mix of fine writing, economic analysis, and a concern to place the narrative in a political and social context that helps the reader to make sense of what happened.
He Had His Reasons
A piece looking at how murder and domestic violence is reported in the press, recounting a terrible recent case in County Cavan, Ireland.
The Age of Outrage
Private Eye editor Ian Hislop is the author of this essay on ‘the death of debate’ and what it is doing to our society.
A Kingdom for a Horse
A look at the history, culture and future of Kazakhstan anchored in an account of one of its national sports – kokpar – where teams of mounted riders compete to score goals with a goat carcass.
The Future of Online Dating Is Unsexy and Brutally Effective
An engineer and data scientist (formerly at OK Cupid) goes deep in this engaging piece covering how AI, machine learning and ever greater troves of data from social platforms will impact dating.
4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump
A message board allowing users to post anonymously has played a significant role in the recent history of internet culture (think – the birthplace of the meme), the development of new extreme right movements sometimes called the ‘alt-right’, and the series of events that put Trump in the White House.
Through the Outback
A piece interspersed with evocative images, describing the photographer-author’s 12,000-mile, three-month journey through Australia’s Outback.