A Different Sort of Superhero

Black Panther reminds us of comic book protagonists outside the mainstream

The Gray Edges of Blackness

Emily Bernard’s essays explore her own experience of race in America

Postcolonial Punchlines

Alain Mabanckou on what a joke can do

Heroin’s Long History

What our historical fascination with opium can tell us about the present

Searching for the Spirit of Acid House

Has electronic dance music lost its soul?

The Microscopic House Guest

Coming to terms with the abundance of life in our homes

Opera 101

A crash course in how to love one of the most elusive art forms

Through a Lens Darkly

A photographer on how we represent conflict

Too Much Future

How East German punks tore down the Berlin Wall

Bad Blood

Why the 17th-century vampire still haunts us today

The Extreme Path

Andrew Rankin on Japan’s infamous underworld

Call It Macaroni

Susan Stryker on her new book, Changing Gender

Blades of Grass

Christopher Kondrich on his poems of climatic catastrophe

The Translator Stuck

Amanda L. Andrei on her relationship with the Romanian language and her Romanian father

Riot Girls

Jessica Hopper shines a spotlight on the too-often-overlooked women of rock history

To the Manor Born

Adrian Tinniswood dissects the myth of the deteriorating British estate

The Industrial Revolution of Bees

Jennie Durant on the vicious cycle involving beekeepers and almond farms

The Geek Squad

A. D. Jameson on how the nerds finally won

Weather Kids and Panther Cubs

Zayd Ayers Dohrn on growing up on the run and in his parents’ revolutionary shadow

For Better or for Wurst

Jamie Loftus on the wild American world of hot dogs

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