Can Shopify Compete With Amazon Without Becoming Amazon?
A profile of the online commerce platform.
To Understand This Chaotic Transition, Rewind to the Last One
A look at the Obama – Trump transition.
Who’s Making All Those Scam Calls?
A look at the raft of scam phone calls that plague consumers and the “multibillion-dollar criminal industry” behind them.
How the Virus Won
A stunning and sobering data visualisation, charting the spread of coronavirus in the United States.
There Are Many Man-Made Objects. The Rape Kit Is Not One of Them.
The story of Marty Goddard’s invention of the rape kit, work which was later incorrectly attributed to a police officer at his insistence. The piece examines the importance of the invention and the deeply troubled history of police and judicial responses to rape.
The C.D.C. Waited ‘Its Entire Existence for This Moment.’ What Went Wrong?
An account (disputed in some quarters) of the Center for Disease Control & Prevention’s response to the covid-19 pandemic that is none too complimentary.
William Barr’s State of Emergency
A profile of the United States Attorney General William Barr, in his second stint in the role, after first serving in George H.W. Bush’s administration in the early 1990s. His successor from his first incumbency had this to say on his influence in the Trump administration: “Those who think he’s a tool of Donald Trump are missing the point..If anything, it’s the other way around. Barr is vastly more intelligent than Donald Trump…Bill has longstanding views about how society should be organized, which can now be manifested and acted upon to a degree that they never could have before.”
‘I Could Solve Most of Your Problems’: Eric Schmidt’s Pentagon Offensive
A look at the former Google CEO’s engagement with the US military.
What Happened to Val Kilmer? He’s Just Starting to Figure It Out.
Yes, this is a profile of Val Kilmer, but it’s also something more far reaching, reflecting on the world in lockdown, religious belief and serious illness, Mark Twain, and the perverse impact that fame can have (“God wants us to walk, but the devil sends a limo.”).
How Coronavirus Mutates and Spreads
A visual essay diving into the genetic mutations that are being observed in the coronavirus.