When a man’s head has been blown off with a shotgun, you’d expect there to be more of a mess. But a 12-gauge to the temple, at close range, can be surgically precise. I was a third-year law student, still in my 20s, when I learned that. Our clinic director…

The true story of a tragic club fire that never happened — “Stumpy’s gonna breathe fire.” “Do what?” “Yeah, Stumpy’s gonna breathe fire. On stage.” A long pause. We stare at the road. “What the fuck are you talking about?” “Well, we don’t exactly know how he’s gonna do it yet, but there’s that middle part in ‘Godzilla’ where it’s just drums…

Last month The Atlantic ran a piece called “How to Save Democracy.” This was just one of hundreds of similar articles from the past two years, all of them variations on one central question: How do we make things “normal” again? To the extent that these pieces are prescriptive at…

Congratulations are in order for workers at Heine Bros. Coffee for their recent success in forming the second largest baristas’ union in the country. …

What can last century’s war on alcohol teach us about the current war on reproductive rights? — The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization means that abortion services — used by at least 25 percent of all Americans who may become pregnant — have been criminalized in about half the country, or soon will be. …

Entrepreneurs: Are you looking for a way to start a business that helps marginalized people, thereby lending direction to your purposeless, empty life? I have a billion-dollar[1] idea that you can have for free. First, some background. If you’re familiar with criminal justice problems in the region or if you’re…

On July 4, 1902, Teddy Roosevelt issued a general proclamation of amnesty to “the Filipinos who have been in rebellion” against American troops, so long as they would “recognize and accept the supreme authority of the United States in the Philippine Islands[.]” At the end of the Spanish-American War, Spain…

In 2014, a Phoenix cop killed 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon. Police got a tip that Brisbon was selling drugs, so they went to find him. When Brisbon tried to pull what officers said they thought was a gun from his pocket, they opened fire. …

I missed you in bed last night. If you had been there I would have shifted as I always do, so that your head could fit on my lap as I type, situating the weight of my arm along the back of your neck so that you know I am…