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Dwayne Pendergraph, a former plant worker, at his home in McMinnville, October 20, 2013. Photo By David M. Barreda

Losing Sparta

Last August, more than a year after the Philips lighting fixture plant in Sparta, Tennessee, closed its doors, Bo McCurry and Ricky Lack stepped out of Lack’s beat-up Ford Ranger and walked up the sloping, tree-lined drive to the plant’s padlocked gates. It was the first time either one had been back since the closure.

Esther Kaplan August 22, 2015
Rhinos

Will All African Rhinos be Dead in Twenty Years?

The flat bone had a bullet hole through it wide enough to fit the tip of a pinky finger, and was caked in a dried mix of Kruger National Park’s rusty clay earth, and blood. Two cracks had propagated outwards from where the

Russ Juskalian August 6, 2015
The Coachella Valley is located 130 miles east of Los Angeles in California. It is about 45 miles long and 15 miles wide extending southeast from Palm Springs to the northern shore the Salton Sea. The north side of the valley is comprised of a series of connected desert cities, south of that strip of cities is a vast expanse of land containing a huge variety of fruit and vegetable fields and a few small towns.

Immigration: The Pain and Reward

Imagine for a minute that you have to leave your home. Imagine there is a war going on around you and you fear for your life and that of your children. Maybe the potato crop, which your country is dependent on, has been ravaged by disease and hundreds of thousands of people have died of starvation.

Noé Montes June 11, 2015
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The Scientist Who Explored the Skies

MT. PALOMAR – Visiting the Palomar observatory in the forested mountains northeast of San Diego is a bit like finding oneself at the foot of one of the great pyramids of Egypt. The scale is so intimidating, so outsized compared to its surroundings,

John Johnson June 11, 2015
A bison's massive, furry head allows it to fight off predators, clear snow to find grass and stay warm in frigid prairie winters.

Saving the American Buffalo by Killing It

Jerry Blanks took careful aim through the powerful scope on his black hunting rifle as the buffalo surrounding the pick-up truck watched him quizzically. His eye was focused on the dark fur just behind the ear of a young bull that stood just slightly apart from the group.

David Hage and Josephine Marcotty February 15, 2015
Three elderly residents of Lemington Home for the Aged in the 1940s.

The Death of a Black Nursing Home

PITTSBURGH, Penn.–Elaine Carrington moved into the Lemington Home for the Aged in Pittsburgh in November 2004. She died three weeks later of a blood clot in her lungs. An investigation by the state found that the staff had failed to give Carrington any

Wallace Roberts February 15, 2015
Langwell at the hospital with her daughter. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Langwell

Reproductive Rights and the Criminal Justice System

This Mom Checked Her Newborn Out of the Hospital Early. The Next Day Her Baby Was Taken Away.

Tiffany Langwell was thrilled to find out she was pregnant again at the age of 38. She had two children from her first marriage —

Ada Calhoun December 3, 2014
White Bunny

The Hare’s Race: Can evolution save species from climate change?

Behind the wheel of his boxy red Ford F-250 truck, L. Scott Mills sipped his watery coffee and headed east. It was 18 degrees out on a dim and wintry Missoula morning. As the sun rose and the sky turned white, Mills followed Montana Route 200 along the lazy Blackfoot River, northeast toward the town of Seeley Lake.

Hillary Rosner November 9, 2014
Lone bison grazing

An Epic Experiment: Can America’s Great Plains Bison Recover?

The battered white pickup truck is bouncing across a pasture of sagebrush and alfalfa when Bronc Speak Thunder turns the steering wheel east and points to the far side of a creek bed. Scattered across a grassy slope are what appear to be a field of brown boulders —

David Hage and Josephine Marcotty November 9, 2014
Nurse

Americans Are Working So Hard, It’s Actually Killing People

Jessica Wheeler works the night shift as an oncology nurse at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in northeastern Pennsylvania—but her patients are usually wide awake. “When they have a new cancer diagnosis or they’re going to have a biopsy in the morning, they don’t sleep,”

Esther Kaplan October 28, 2014
When you eat a bowl of clam chowder in the U.S., you’re probably padding profits for British investors.

Corporate Fishing

What’s it take to buy a share of the ocean in America? For Lion Capital, the British private equity firm, the price is somewhere south of $980 million. That’s the sum the London-based firm paid three years ago when it bought Bumble Bee

Lee van der Voo September 20, 2014
Prison doors

Treating Humans Inhumanely in America’s Justice System

“While waiting for an officer to handcuff and escort me back to the cell that awaited me after showering, I sat on the floor holding a razor used for shaving,” W writes to me. “Today was the day I decided to end my

James Ridgeway August 2, 2014
The Hidden History of Same-Sex Marriage in Asia

The Hidden History of Same-Sex Marriage in Asia

October, 2013   Muern Sarun’s parents had turned down several offers of marriage when they asked a motorbike mechanic named Rous Savy to take their daughter’s hand. Rous had taken a liking to Muern after she parked in front of his house in

J. Lester Feder February 2, 2014
Rockhopper penguin by Dominque Filippi, Creative Commons.

Which Species Will Live?

The ashy storm-petrel, a tiny, dark-gray seabird, nests on 11 rocky, isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of California and Mexico. Weighing little more than a hefty greeting card and forced to contend with invasive rats, mice and cats, aggressive seagulls, oil spills and sea-level rise, it faces an outsize fight for survival.

Michelle Nijhuis January 4, 2014
A view of Cape Town. Image by J. Lester Feder/Buzzfeed

South Africa’s Same-Sex Marriages Don’t Always Have A Happy Ending

When the reigning Mr. Gay Namibia married his Botswanan partner in South Africa in April 2013, Zimbabwe’s ZimEye.org declared, “History [made] as Africa witnesses second gay wedding.” The first, said the website, happened a week earlier when two men married in a Zulu

J. Lester Feder August 22, 2013
Muhsin Hendricks. Image by Courtesy the office of Muhsin Hendricks

South Africa’s Gay Imam and His Disciples

On a rainy afternoon not long ago, South Africa’s only openly gay imam was wrapping up a sermon in a candlelit room in Cape Town. A devoted congregation of a nearly a dozen lesbian, gay, and transgendered Muslims, adorned in hijabs, embroidered fezzes,

Alexis Okeowo August 7, 2013