The Patron Subjects

Who were the Wertheimers, the family that sat for a dozen of John Singer Sargent’s paintings?

A Giant of a Man

The legacy of Willie Mays and the Birmingham ballpark where he first made his mark

Adventures With Jean

Striking up a friendship with an older writer meant accepting the risk of getting hurt

Feels Like Coming Home
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The wonders of the coastal redwood

Free
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The knowledge of approaching death may allow some of us to experience time in new and liberating ways

Riding With Mr. Washington

How my great-grandfather invented himself at the end of Reconstruction

Bards Behind Bars

Reading Sartre aloud inside a maximum-security prison

Just When You Thought It Wasn’t Safe …

How Wilbert Longfellow turned America into a nation of swimmers

Corona Chasers

You never forget your first solar eclipse

For Whom Do We Create?

The conundrum facing so many American artists today

Downstream of Fukushima

The Japanese seafood industry has rebounded, but is anyone worried about irradiated water?

Bubble Girl

The kidnapping that once riveted the nation

Good Vibrations

One eccentric’s desert landmark allows visitors to bathe in sound

I So Wish That You Remembered

The gift of song from a daughter to her elderly mother

Lunching With Rabi

An afternoon spent in the company of an illustrious physicist

Sins of the Fathers and Mothers
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On war, settlement, and collective responsibility

Rip Tide

Trouble at a Spanish beach

Tunneling for Daylight

All hail the miraculous, tenacious carpenter bee

Black Cleopatra

How a recent Netflix series infuriated Egypt—and raised questions about color stratification and the social construct of race

Hey Siri, Call Webster

When it comes to learning new words, it’s not where you look them up that’s important

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