Articles
Where’s the art?
Ruangrupa, an Indonesian group of collaborators, turns social experiences into art. How will they leave their mark on Documenta, which unfolds over 100 days?
The politics of Eurovision
The Eurovision contest began in 1956, but Russia and Ukraine began to compete after the end of the Cold War. Over the past decade and a half, their fraught relationship has seeped into Eurovision.
The lost Jews of Nigeria
Until the 1990s, there were almost no Jews in Nigeria. Now thousands of Igbo are taking up the faith, building synagogues in southern Nigeria.
Disney’s magic fiefdom
In a part of Floriday, Disney can draft construction codes, manage a fire department, run utilities, and even erect a nuclear plant. How did Disney get its own district?
The man from the future
John von Neumann, the Hungarian mathematician, helped develop the atom bomb. His devotion to logic and game theory led him to believe that he could calculate when to use the bomb.
The agave apocalypse
To meet the skyrocketing demand for mezcal, producers in Oaxaca and elsewhere are over-harvesting wild agaves. Entire ecosystems could collapse. But Mexico has been here before, with tequila.
The supply chain detectives
Founded in 2008, in New Zealand, Oritain is a forensic detective agency– a supply-chain CSI. Its work, taking us into the heart of modern commerce, relies on a basic truth about our planet: its geological diversity.
Tech support at the Paralympics
Ottobock, a 102-year-old German manufacturer of prosthetics, has also set up a workshop at every Paralympics since 1988 save one, offering to repair or replace any athlete’s prosthetic if it acts up or breaks down.
Opening the Arctic
The Christophe de Margerie’s journey through the Arctic, in January 2021, was unprecedented. The changing climate has both prolonged the sailing season and shrunk the ice cover in the deepest part of winter.