Culture

Soledad O’Brien likes to tell a story: Eleven years ago, a senior employee at CNN — “my boss’s boss’s boss” — called her into his office to upbraid her about a comment she had made while promoting her multipart series Black in America. At a panel, O’Brien had said she …

When the body of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin was found in August 1986, her death instantly became tabloid fodder. She was young, attractive, and ran with a rich Manhattan crowd — not the kind of person who usually turned up dead in Central Park. Yet when it was discovered that she …

Rodney Reed is scheduled to be executed for the rape and murder of a Texas woman on November 20th — but a new podcast hopes to save his life. The first episode of the ninth season of Wrongful Conviction With Jason Flom focuses on Reed’s crimes, which new evidence suggests …

Pro-Trump meme-maker Carpe Donktum, a.k.a. Logan Cook, was suspended from Twitter on Monday following controversy over a video originating from a contributor to his website, Meme World. Following outcry from the right, however, Cook was quickly reinstated on the platform, prompting questions about censorship and Twitter’s response to allegations of …

Every six months or so, there’s a movie that everyone has formed a strong opinion about long before it’s actually released in theaters. This fall, it’sJoker,the Warner Bros. film starring Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic Batman villain.Jokerdoesn’t officially come out until October 7th, meaning most of the people talking about …

Vape pens are increasingly the go-to choice for cannabis consumers, both in states with legal cannabis, and on the still-thriving black market. Even in places where you can purchase weed legally, some people are still buying black-market vapes to avoid the steep taxes that come with retail pot. However, as …

Listen to an audio version of this story below: A FEW YEARS AGO, a retired police officer named Mike Fox found himself badly in need of money. The Vietnam veteran, overweight and ailing, was nearly 70 years old, and his wife, Diane, wasn’t much younger, but they had recently taken …

After a weeks-long manhunt, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has found the bodies of two teenage boys wanted for the murder of three people in northern British Columbia, Canada. The bodies of Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, were found on the shores of the Nelson River, a river …

After a tragic mass shooting event, many struggle to make sense of the bloodshed and unnecessary violence. Unfortunately, this often results in the spread of inaccurate information intended to mislead or confuse readers, and the response to the deadly El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shootings over the weekend were …

Listen to an audio version of this story below: It was April 2018, and Judy Gelein was seated behind the survivors in Courtroom 61 at the Sacramento County Jail, awaiting the entrance of a man accused of being one of the most elusive serial killers/rapists in history. A suspect believed …