Articles
Dismantling Sellafield
At Sellafield, a nuclear power plant, nothing is produced anymore. But making safe what is left behind is an almost unimaginably complex task that requires us to think not on a human timescale, but a planetary one.
Bollywood under Modi
Mumbai’s film industry was a much-vaunted bastion of India’s secular ideals. Since the rise of the BJP, it’s been flooded with stock Hindu heroes and Muslim villains, and shows and movies are being killed off.
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.