SPOTLIGHT

Silvia’s Mother

By Clellan Coe Wednesday, June 24, 2026

SPOTLIGHT

Silvia’s Mother

By Clellan Coe Wednesday, June 24, 2026

An illustration of tiled smartphones showing a simplified person graphic and a giant red checkmark
Works in Progress

Counting Americans in the Digital Age

The census goes online

A group of people dressed in red and black hold protest signs beneath umbrellas. One reads "Sex work is work."
Article

Sex Workers of the World United

Last year’s SESTA/FOSTA legislation aimed to limit sex trafficking—but it’s just the latest in a long line of policies designed to criminalize the oldest profession

A brightly dressed woman and child, and further off, a man, walked on the beach in front of a backdrop of shiny new construction.
Letter From

Cambodia: Gambling on the Future

Sihanoukville is rapidly being remade into a modern playground for the rich, thanks to investment from China

A Border Patrol agent walks next to a man in handcuffs by the side of a patrol truck
Article

Rape Trees and Rosary Beads

Field notes of a Border Patrol agent

The sweeping white lines of the TWA terminal, as viewed from the parking lot
Arts

Flights of Fancy

The TWA Terminal at JFK, long dormant and then threatened with demolition, is reborn as a hotel

Article

The End of Driving

Yes, autonomous autos will make roads safer and more efficient, but what wonders will be lost?

Smarty Pants Podcast

Meat Made

How 19th-century beef created modern America

Read Me a Poem

“My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Asturias Days

Ourcar

Read Me a Poem

“Hope” by Lisel Mueller

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Francisco Moreno

Paintings made of paintings

Books Essay

On the Trail with an Arkansas Traveler

Charles Portis looked past our national mythology to portray the real America

Asturias Days

The Elderly Among Us

Read Me a Poem

“Days of 1964” by James Merrill

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Book Reviews

Blood—and Beauty—at the Root

Fifty years ago, Alex Haley’s landmark novel changed the way many Americans thought about race

Article

What Remains

We may know that nothing lasts forever, but this knowledge doesn’t alleviate the loneliness of grief

Smarty Pants Podcast

The Geek Squad

A. D. Jameson on how the nerds finally won

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A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite

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A meditation on entropy, obsolescence, and death

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The tangled terrain of untrammeled lands

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