Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2019 is "they." Top contenders included "crawdad," "egregious," and "tergiversation."

For your final commutes of 2019: every top article from Longreads' weekly "Top 5" emails this year.

China imprisoned at least 48 journalists in 2019, more than any other country.

A Methodist church in California stages its Nativity scene in cages to criticize Trump's border separation policies.

Modernization and efficiency in big-scale farming means that even in booming Texas, rural communities are drying up.

A constitutional crisis in Florida was sparked when two women entered a stripclub without a man.

“It’s very much a change.” Consumer advocates are concerned that the FDA is approving new drugs at a record pace and volume.

This year's Economics Nobel Laureates are donating their prize money to fund more economics research.

The European Commission says it has a timeline for making the continent carbon neutral.

A revered mythic ice phenomenon in Japan is vanishing after nearly six centuries, thanks to the climate crisis.

Germany owns no nuclear weapons, but shares them with Italy, Turkey, and others—a practice now prompting alarm.

Over 400 law enforcement agencies in the US have paid for a mindreading tool with no reliable scientific backing.

A favorite daily thing: NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day."

Randomly generated Turing machines produce drawings on a canvas, as a form of generative art.

Performance artist Pope.L, who crawled Broadway and ate the Journal, gets a retrospective at MoMA.

Quiet moments and themes from daily life in East Asia, in recent paintings by Peter Chan.

The world’s best chess player may soon become the world’s best fantasy football player.

A brief history of how a pizza restaurant in Kentucky became the epicenter of East Coast rock climbing.