Table of Contents
January-February 2017
Features
The Making of an American Terrorist
Robert Dear shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic and killed three people. Did the right-wing media help turn a disturbed loner into a mass murderer?
The Great Abandonment
How decades of economic hardship and neglect have turned Nebraska's farming towns into Donald Trump country.
Columns
He’s Making a List
Trump is more paranoid and dangerous than Nixon.
The Left Are Now Strangers in Their Own Land
How Trump redeemed alienated conservatives and cast liberals into the political wilderness.
Up Front
Rodrigo Duterte’s Army of Online Trolls
How authoritarian regimes are winning the social media wars.
How to Stop For-Profit Colleges
Lawmakers are cracking down on them for shady business practices. But sociology professor Tressie McMillan Cottom says bigger forces are at play.
Why Is the Government Spying on Mosquitoes?
U.S. intelligence agencies are funding a new scientific partnership that combines James Bond spy-craft and Silicon Valley wizardry.
The Democrats’ Biggest Disaster
Forget Washington—the party is weaker at the state level than it’s been in nearly a century.
Trump’s Vanishing Base
Blue-collar whites put him over the top. Here’s why it won’t happen again.
Review
Ordinary Monsters
The twisted fairy tales of Ottessa Moshfegh.
Dead Center
Jonathan Chait's new book shows the failure of "grown up" liberalism.
A Trip of One’s Own
Now that microdosing has brought back LSD, is it time for women to finally enjoy mind-altering drugs?
Literary Agents
Rethinking the legacy of writers who worked with the CIA.
The Rise of the Telenovela
How soap operas remade TV in their own image.
Tied in Knots
The modern marriage is an elaborate feat of performance.