Fallen Monuments, Then and Now
The USSR’s fallen monuments and failed reckoning offer lessons for our own near future.
Connections: The Sherut Driver
Jerusalem, 1988: A sherut driver’s heroic act of honesty saved this young traveler from a ruined trip.
The Year in Mysteries: What I Read in 2019
Highlights of my year of great crime reads. (The takeaway: Go get DISAPPEARING EARTH right now.)
Her Story All Year Long
Why do all these “little-known histories” of women leading outsized, daring lives in war and espionage slow to a trickle after Women’s History Month is over?
Why We Travel: Long Live the King, the Durian, and Cambodia’s National Beer
Annals of Memorable Meals: Angkor Beer, rice porridge, durian, and faith in a Kampong Thom town
Writing Other People’s Stories, Part III: Getting Out of the Way
Why telling a story in someone else’s voice is perhaps the biggest challenge of all—and the utmost (terrifying) privilege
Writing Other People’s Stories, Part II: All Great Features Are Profiles
When writing a profile, you’ll need to upend your assumptions and tour someone’s inner and outer life with radical openness.
Writing Other People’s Stories, Part I: Empathy in First Person
Writing about other people’s lives is an exercise in trust, empathy, self-awareness and humility. We don’t always get it right, but it’s our job to keep trying.
Why We Travel: Serendipitous Lunches
That time a Kazakh human-rights attorney invited us to a lunch of Russian dumplings at a Kampot, Cambodia roadside stand
