Readings

From Enlightment-era tools of torture to Marathon Man.

YA literature is often criticized for the thing that makes it essential: recognizing and validating the daily dramatic ebbs and flows that come with adolescence.

How traditionally tourist-free nations can make tourism work for rather than against them.

If the Republicans really want to show voters they're “ready to govern,” actually governing would be a good start.

Fun is many things: youthful rebellion, civic duty, blue wig. And thanks to its hazy definition, fun can feel like an obligation you're failing to meet. John Beckman's American Fun helps explain why fun has us so perplexed.

In this excerpt from Braking Bad, about disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong and the greatest doping conspiracy in sports history, we ask what kind of man is best fit to excel at the Tour de France?

From the rat’s nest of a Lower East Side studio of Stranger Than Paradise to the ... rat’s-nest of a crumbling Detroit mansion of Only Lovers Left Alive, Jarmusch’s work always feels vaguely familiar—and yet, not quite like anything else.