Readings

‘Indian Guides’ and White Spiritualists

In the 19th century, Spiritualists invoked “Indian guides” at their séances. White mediums rendered these ghosts about as sensitively as one might expect, but their words are more surprising.

|| Image by Julia Dickens
Nature’s Most Perfect Killing Machine

Ebola is nightmare fuel: a biological doomsday device conspiring with our bodies to murder us in uniquely gruesome fashion. It’s also killed fewer than 2,000 people. How has a virus with such a modest body count so fiercely captured the darkest corners of our imagination?

|| Illustration by Lola Landekic
The Melancholy Hustle

Colson Whitehead was miserable when he entered the World Series of Poker. But poker is a perfect game for the miserable—and for a writer.