Lifestyle
What Happens to Recycling, and What Actually Gets Recycled
The national rate everyone quotes is 32.1%. The rate for plastic is 8.7%, almost all of it two kinds of bottle. The gap between those numbers is the whole story.
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Sports
Who Pays for Stadiums, and Why the Rules Backfired
A federal rule written to end stadium subsidies guaranteed them instead. To keep the tax break, at least 90% of the debt must be repaid from something other than the stadium.
Travel
How Airline Overbooking Works, and Who Gets Bumped
The gate auction is not a courtesy — it is a legal requirement, and it exists so the airline never has to pay the regulated amount. What the rules actually owe you.
Health
How Clinical Trials Work, and Why Most Drugs Fail
Roughly six in every hundred drugs that enter human testing come out the far end. The phases, the arithmetic between them, and what to check when a trial makes the news.
Business
How Inflation Is Measured, and Why It Feels Wrong
A quarter of the most-watched economic statistic in the world is an estimate of rent that homeowners never pay. How the index is built, and why it lags what households feel.
World
How Export Controls Work, and Where They Leak
A licence refused is how one government blocks a sale between two other countries. The mechanism behind export controls, and the two ways it leaks.
Technology
What Happens When an Undersea Cable Breaks
Roughly 200 submarine cable faults happen every year, and almost none of them make the news. What actually breaks, who fixes it, and why the repair fleet is the part worth worrying about.
World
All World
World
How Export Controls Work, and Where They Leak
A licence refused is how one government blocks a sale between two other countries. The mechanism behind export controls, and the two ways it leaks.
Business
All Business
Business
How Does FDIC Insurance Work, and Who Pays for It
The limit everyone quotes has a third clause almost nobody reads, and the fund behind it comes from the banks rather than the federal budget.
Technology
All Technology
Technology
How Does GPS Work, and Why It Cannot Track You
Your phone sends nothing to the satellites. What the fourth satellite is actually for, why orbital clocks run 38 microseconds fast a day, and where tracking really comes from.
Sports
All Sports
Sports
The International 2026 Playoff Schedule and Results
Sixteen teams became eight in Shanghai. The full group stage standings, the five who survived the elimination round, and the bracket from 20 to 23 August.
Travel
All Travel
Travel
How Airline Overbooking Works, and Who Gets Bumped
The gate auction is not a courtesy — it is a legal requirement, and it exists so the airline never has to pay the regulated amount. What the rules actually owe you.
Health
All Health
Health
How Clinical Trials Work, and Why Most Drugs Fail
Roughly six in every hundred drugs that enter human testing come out the far end. The phases, the arithmetic between them, and what to check when a trial makes the news.
Lifestyle
All Lifestyle
Lifestyle
Why Clothing Sizes Are Inconsistent
A 32-inch bust was a size 14 in 1937, a size 8 in 1967 and a size 0 in 2011. The standard everyone assumes was lost never actually bound anybody.
Entertainment
All Entertainment
Entertainment
When Does Copyright Expire, and Why It Paused for 20 Years
Between 1999 and 2018 nothing entered the American public domain at all. The three separate clocks that govern copyright, and why most old work expired early.
