Some people are better at being themselves than others are. They're the ones at home instantly in any untried environment, the way a cloud looks just right no matter where it is in the sky. They seem to keep slightly better rhythm with the beat of the universe than other people—noticing things…

Amazon ran a commercial on this year’s Super Bowl that pretended its digital assistant Alexa had temporarily lost her voice. It featured celebrities like Rebel Wilson, Cardi B and even the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos. While the ad riffed on what Alexa can say to users, the more intriguing…

For Anthony Harris, 35, walking to the corner store to buy a soda in his hometown, Compton, Calif., often comes with the risk of being stopped and searched by the police. But when Mr. Harris and other members of a group of horse riders known as the “Compton Cowboys” choose to ride their horses to…

The promise of self-driving cars can be alluring — imagine taking a nap or watching a movie in a comfortable armchair while being shuttled safely home after a long day at work. But like many optimistic images of the future, it is also a bit of an illusion. Automated cars may indeed make commuting…

The men fled; the women stayed. That’s the story of Easter weekend in the New Testament. Most of Jesus’ male disciples vanished when the trouble started, leaving his mother and Mary Magdalene and other women to watch by the cross, prepare his body for his burial, and then (with the men still…

He told me he wanted to marry me in an old city by the sea. All day we had bicycled the cobbled streets of St. Augustine, Fla., a town once invaded by conquistadors. Now the Spanish buildings stood crumbling but beautiful along the water. We had been drinking, which gave him courage. He said he…

T he first time I encountered a digital toilet seat was at the central London headquarters of Monocle, the self-consciously chic monthly magazine and 24-hour digital radio station for those who enjoy their geopolitics served with a side of artisanal Swiss sunglasses . The futuristic commode offered…

A child genius raised in poverty, she wanted to change the world. Then a horrific act of violence nearly destroyed her. For Georgia Smith, home was a beat-up red Plymouth Voyager minivan with a bad engine block. A Greek immigrant in her early forties, she had been evicted from her San Francisco…

Richard Allen Davis (L) in court with attorney Barry Collins (R). Photo by Scott Manchester/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images S amantha Spiegel was 19 years old when she started writing letters to some of America’s most notorious murderers. A pretty art student with corkscrew curls and…

“I have tried filming this video so many times, but I just don’t know what to say.” Fifteen-year-old Sophia Gall has cancer, but from her hairless head and the title of the video, “My Cancer Is Worse Than Ever,” we already knew that. The problem is that there’s nothing left that can be done. Gall…

Tech is more important than ever, deeply affecting culture, politics and society. Given all the time we spend with our gadgets and apps, it’s essential to understand the principles that determine how tech affects our lives. Understanding technology today Technology isn’t an industry , it’s a method…

J eff Rosenthal is standing near the top of his snow-covered mountain wearing a fluffy jacket, fingerless gloves and ripped jeans. “It’s surreal, man!” he says, shivering as he surveys the landscape of newly laid roads and half-built homes. “That’s Ken Howery’s house, the co-founder of PayPal .…

Like all of us in the throes of #MeToo, I have been taking rigorous inventory of my sexual history, rolling back the tape on past highs and lows: the disturbing teenage experiences no longer chalked up to miscommunication, those times I gave in because it was easier, some unwanted advance…

At the ‘Levenseindekliniek’, End of Life Clinic, at The Hague. The clinic is a ‘last resort’ for those who have been refused euthanasia elsewhere.Photograph: Judith Jockel for the Guardian A t 2pm on 26 January, Aurelia Brouwers lay down on her bed to die. Clutching a toy pink dinosaur and listening…

Judith McGowan: ‘I’m of the generation that was taught to be canny with money.’Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian I t always fascinates me when I talk to other retired people that they don’t seem to know what their income is. I always know exactly what my earnings and outgoings are and,…

LOS ANGELES — On a strip of Wilshire Boulevard, not far from where the rapper Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in a drive-by shooting some 20 years ago, a black plastic pool had been placed on the sidewalk outside the El Rey Theater. It was a balmy December afternoon, and the theater had been…

This Is How To Be Your Best Self: 3 Secrets Backed By Research *** Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my first book become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. To check it out, click here . *** How should we treat other people? Well, if you look at ancient…

Out of nearly 700 performances at the Tiny Desk, this is simply the most exhilarating one I've experienced. The instrumentation is unusual, with pulsing bass sounds produced by a wonderful combination of cello, tuba and electronics. It's all rhythmically propelled by an astonishing drummer and…

The Atlantic Selects The 'Most Elusive' Man in North America Mar 14, 2018 | 611 videos Somewhere in the mountains of Vernon, British Columbia lives a 76-year-old man by the name of Dag Aabye. He has no cell phone or email address. Revered by locals for having escaped from the shackles of modern…

FORT WORTH — Charmaine Pruitt wrote the names of 12 churches on a sheet of paper, tore the paper into 12 strips, and dropped them into a Ziploc bag. It was Sunday morning and time to pick which church to attend. This time of the week two years earlier, there would have been no question. Ms. Pruitt,…

Poverty is cyclical. If your earnings fall below a certain level, the cost of living can make rising to stable financial footing next to impossible. To break this cycle there needs to be intervention or systems change, and that starts with gaining empathy and understanding into why and how it is…

Illustration: Sébastien Thibault I t came, as these things often do, like a gunshot on a quiet street: shocking and disorienting. In early December, my urine turned brown. The following day I felt feverish and found it hard to pee. I soon realised I had a urinary tract infection. It was unpleasant,…

Maddy Savage Are, with a population of just 5,000, has become a Swedish start-up hub Sweden is one of the most innovative countries in the world, yet has a business culture that discourages bragging about its success. So is this humility a help or a hindrance when it comes to start-ups? From…

It’s often hard not to feel envious of them – as they ascend the stage to collect another prize, float their start-up company, are promoted a decade ahead of their peers or dominate the music charts or bestseller lists. Over-achievers torment us rather a lot. © Flickr/IndieCade But we should, more…

“Wrestling,” by photographer Nicole Rosenthal, of her sons. How to Raise a Boy is a weeklong series centered around this urgent question in the era of Parkland, President Trump, and #MeToo. Carlos, 16, sat down one Saturday night to talk about teenage life with his brother Liam, 14. They live in a…

I once downloaded a speed-reading app that would flash individual words across my phone. I aggressively set the rate to 400 words per minute and braced for the onslaught. I used this system to parse essays, primers, and long-form interviews, all in the name of advancing my career. Yet, all I had to…

Nutritional Media: Part Two of The Media Pyramid Media Pyramid 1.5 — thanks for feedback and comments so far! PART ONE: YOU ARE THE MEDIA YOU EAT PART THREE: WHY WE LIKE THINGS THAT ARE BAD FOR US We Hunger for Ideas A defining aspect of humanity is that we are driven, fed and led by ideas as well…

Here is an anecdote about a very small and seemingly irrelevant occurrence that happened way back in like, 2009. It doesn’t involve anyone you’ve ever heard of and it’s honestly not that interesting. But trust me, once you make it to the end of this thing, it’ll all make total sense, and you’ll feel…

If two examples constitute a trend, then a movement is afoot among editors to encourage short writing. It began at The Washington Post, where an editor argued that many stories could be tighter. Before you could say “Strunk and White,” an editor at The Wall Street Journal made the same case. What…

In an Amsterdam supermarket, a new “plastic-free” aisle is a microcosm of the entire store. It’s possible to buy around 700 items–meat, sauces, produce, yogurt, snacks, cereal, drinks, enough for a week’s worth of groceries–but nothing is packaged in conventional plastic. Any package that looks like…

I first got news of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., via an alert on my watch. Even though I had turned off news notifications months ago, the biggest news still somehow finds a way to slip through. But for much of the next 24 hours after that alert, I heard almost nothing about the shooting.…

The end of an era: Marc Maron in the garage where he began the “WTF” podcast. Credit Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times By Photographs by Elizabeth Weinberg LOS ANGELES — By the end of March, one of the most famous rooms in comedy will close its doors when Marc Maron leaves the garage where…

Erik Hagerman heads out for his morning ritual, a 30-minute drive into town for coffee and a scone at his favorite coffee shop in Athens, Ohio. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times GLOUSTER, Ohio — At first, the experiment didn’t have a name. Right after the election, Erik Hagerman decided he’d…

Chapter 1 Gerald Selbee broke the code of the American breakfast cereal industry because he was bored at work one day, because it was a fun mental challenge, because most things at his job were not fun and because he could —because he happened to be the kind of person who saw puzzles all around him,…

Artwork by Raul Soria . In design, “white space” is negative space. It’s not blank space because it has a purpose. It is balancing the rest of the design by throwing what is on the page (or the screen) into relief. The white space helps focus your visual attention. Now let’s expand this concept of…

Illustration by La Boca . Do you leave your front door open, allowing anyone who chooses to walk in and command your attention? I highly doubt it. And yet this is exactly how our email inboxes function. Your email is the front door for access to your work identity. And anyone who has access to the…

Heavy specialty blankets have been used for decades as therapeutic aids. Now they’re going mainstream. Illustration by Pepa Prieto Puy Late one night last October, I was practicing what I like to callanti-self-care—lying under the covers, scrolling compulsively on myphone, and vaguely hoping that…

For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present. Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that. The first two years Two years in, I loved Google. When the annual employee survey asked…