Odd People Here
The United States is a huge country, much too big for the nightly news. Our series continues where one of our editors randomly calls people in small towns around America to find out what’s really going on.
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A collection of 66 issues
Smog of War
More than a decade after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan—now our longest war—most Americans still know next to nothing about the people who live there, and the liberties denied them. Lessons from a rapid education.
The Perfect Forecast
Predicting the weather is an incredibly complicated task. Stopping it altogether is even more difficult—but that doesn’t mean scientists aren’t trying. Obsession, cloud seeding, and very powerful storms.
Here You Know Pretty Much Everybody
Our series continues with more random phone calls around small-town USA to find out what’s really going on. This time our editor only makes his calls at night, to see what happens when America goes dark.
The Pleading of President Forty-Four
The White House has been lauded for its grassroots internet campaigns to raise money. But what happens when a man takes the president’s messages too personally?
People Here Drink a Lot
Our country is colossal, much too big for the nightly news. Our series continues where a TMN editor randomly calls people in towns around America to find out what’s really going on.
The Type We Do Here Is for Self-Defense
Continuing our series of randomly calling people around the U.S. to find out what's going on in their towns, this time we focus on the Olympics—how do folks who come from the same communities as America's Olympians feel about their star athletes?
Deplorable, Lousy, Godawful, and Required
People complain that politics are worse than ever. It happens to be true. But history contains as many examples of the contentious, weird, and wacky as the present—and those absurdities are actually vital to our democracy.
A Coalition of Dunces
Last week, the Pulitzer Prize board refused to give its prestigious award to any novel published in 2011. Something is clearly broken. We roused our commentators from the Tournament of Books, Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner, for their remarks.
Thomas Mallon Redux
The rise and fall of Richard Nixon has been the subject of many histories, but perhaps none so insightful as Thomas Mallon’s latest novel “Watergate.” A conversation about crime, ambition, booze, and Christopher Hitchens.