The Third Person
A story looking at the professionals hired by wives in China to deal with their husbands’ mistresses.
Returning to Second Life
A piece revisiting the alternative virtual world Second Life, which is still surviving and even generating significant revenues, despite receding from popular consciousness in the last decade.
In Defectors From the North, Doctors in South Korea Find Hope and Data
A piece examining a project driven by hope – an in-depth study of the health of North Korean defectors that seeks to understand the long-term impact of living through the regime’s many hardships, with the goal of rendering a future reunification more straightforward.
In a Devastated Country, One City Is Thriving
Marib, a regional city in war-ravaged Yemen, lies “poised between horror and hope.”
China’s Camel-Milk Mogul
A look at the camel milk industry of China, thriving in a remote northwestern region bordering Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
The Girl Gangs of El Salvador
A look at the criminal networks spread across El Salvador and the impact they have on the lives of their many female members.
Touching Death: The Turbulent Life of One of America’s Last Snake-Handling Preachers
A look at the work of snake-handling preachers in Kentucky.
The Weekly Package
A look at the way in which many Cubans get access to the international culture that has historically been denied to them – a weekly delivery of films, TV and other content on a USB stick.
The last Nazi hunters
A look at the work of Germany’s Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.
The Lost Joys of the Screen Saver
This piece, an artistic appreciation of computer screen savers, doesn’t hesitate to use three long words where one short one would suffice, and cites sources from Borges to Escher. Alongside that it retains an infectious enthusiasm for these artefacts of an earlier age of the web.