Disposable America
A history of modern capitalism from the perspective of the straw. Seriously.
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Projects
Metropolis Now
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Jack Taylor / Stringer / Getty Brexit Could Cripple Britain’s Ports
Technology has streamlined Dover, the busiest port in the United Kingdom. But nothing has prepared it for the Brexit transition.
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Daniel Becerril / Reuters The Tipping Point When Minority Views Take Over
A new study says that small groups can overturn established norms if they reach a critical mass of 25 percent.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters Will Uber and Lyft Become Different Things?
Ride-hailing companies are diversifying away from their core business, but right into more direct competition.
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Jon Nazca / Reuters People Are Changing the Way They Use Social Media
Posts are getting less personal—and privacy breaches like Cambridge Analytica could be partly to blame, an Atlantic survey finds
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Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo / Getty The Icelandic Families Tracking Climate Change With Measuring Tape
Volunteers who have been monitoring glaciers for generations are firsthand witnesses to a warming Arctic landscape.
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Seth Wenig / AP Gambling Channels Are the Latest Victims of YouTube's Arbitrary Moderation Process
"This is my full-time job. You spend so many years to build it up and they can just erase it with one button."
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Shu Zhang / Reuters How Bad Is Facebook’s New China Problem?
A Chinese tech giant with connections to the government appears to be among Facebook’s partners in a data-sharing program.
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David McNew / Getty A Defense of the Suburbs
An architect immerses himself in residential production housing to learn why people like it—and what it can teach Americans about the future of urban design.
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Bettmann / Getty How the Gas Oven Changed Humans’ Relationship With Fire
The ability to turn flames on and off at will was “one of the single greatest contributors to human happiness in the kitchen.”
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Andrea Morales The Unequal Geography of the Gig Economy
Solving rural poverty in Arkansas will take more than odd jobs from smartphone apps.
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RaksyBH / Shutterstock Satellite Images Can Harm the Poorest Citizens
In Ho Chi Minh City, computer analysis of orbital images overlooks some urban communities. To represent them, cities will have to put boots on the ground.
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self_maintaining / glowingstaars / selfcarehoneyb / Instagram / ... How Instagram Threads Became the WikiHow for Gen Z
How does a Google-averse generation figure out how to deal with acne, fake friends, and boy trouble? On Instagram, of course.
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Leah Millis / Reuters What We Know About Facebook’s Latest Data Scandal
A new report raises questions about just how much Facebook data phone manufacturers could access.
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Karen Kasmauski / Getty Why Do People Sign Yearbooks?
Commemorative class books evolved from practical notebooks into collections of hair clippings, rhyming couplets, and “have a great summer” wishes. An Object Lesson.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters / The Atlantic The Death of a Gig Worker
An SUV killed Pablo Avendano as he picked up jobs for the food-delivering app Caviar. Who is responsible?
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Joe Klamar / Getty / MarinaGrigorivna / Shutterstock ... Porn’s Uncanny Valley
The San Fernando Valley was once the bedroom community of the adult industry. Now technology hopes to disrupt traditional pornography—and the city it calls home.
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David Paul Morris / Bloomberg / Getty Unfortunately, the Electric Scooters Are Fantastic
But can they succeed despite their essential dorkiness?
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Shutterstock Memes Are Becoming Harder to Monetize
The online joke cycle moves too fast now for e-commerce businesses to keep up.
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Eric Thayer / Reuters Why No One Answers Their Phone Anymore
Telephone culture is disappearing.
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Jim Urquhart / Reuters When Did TV Watching Peak?
It’s probably later than you think, and long after the internet became widespread.
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Mike Blake / Reuters Fly On, My Sleek Electric Bird
A hard-boiled plea to prevent the killing of an enterprise that could ease traffic––maybe enough for Angelenos to move about as fast as they did in Raymond Chandler’s day.
