A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths
If you can recognize their signature move, then forewarned is forearmed.
A Trip Into Alaska’s Copper River Valley in 1902
At the end of the 19th century, an estimated 100,000 people joined the Klondike Gold Rush, seeking their fortunes in the interior of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory. Many gold seekers who chose the arduous path inland from Alaska’s port of Valdez also discovered rich copper deposits along the way. The U.S. Army soon started work on the Valdez Trail, which would become the main route between the mining fields and Valdez. Several competing businesses rushed to build a railroad along the route. In 1902, one of those groups sent a team of photographers, the Miles Brothers, to document the town, the growing trail, the landscape, its newly arrived residents, and Alaska Natives. Prints of these photographs were collected into an album I was able to digitize recently at the U.S. National Archives, giving us a remarkable glimpse into daily life along a rough trail into the Alaskan interior, nearly 125 years ago.
History Will Judge the Complicit
Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?
The Great Cousin Decline
Families are shrinking. But the weirdest family role is a vital one.
The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind
A century-old book foresaw Trump’s most basic strategy.
Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber
A series of purposely brutalizing psychological experiments may have confirmed Theodore Kaczynski’s still-forming belief in the evil of science while he was in college.
We’ve Been Thinking About Love All Wrong
What illness taught me about true friendship
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
It’s not just a phase.
We’re Back to the Actually Internet
Fact-checking is out, “Community Notes” are in.
‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’
The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
I Should Have Seen This Coming
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.
Six Books You’ll Want to Read Outdoors
Reading has been unfairly maligned as an indoor activity for far too long.
What Parents of Boys Should Know
Daughters tend to receive higher levels of affection and patience at home than sons. But the sons might need it more.
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