David Herman

Last summer, home deliveries of unsolicited Chinese seeds sent Americans into a panic. Writer Chris Heath has discovered an explanation that many, including the USDA, don’t believe.

The Columbia professor Carl Hart believes that we can use drugs safely, and that doing so is our American right.

On an intimate journey for her own sexual pleasure, Katharine Smyth found herself navigating  a female-orgasm industrial complex long defined by myths about women’s bodies.

Christian rapper Lecrae found his faith in a culture where evangelicalism and politics were tightly tied. When he couldn’t live with that anymore, the consequences were devastating.

White evangelicals have become the most powerful voting bloc in America, one church mailing list at a time. But is the cost of political victory too high?

What does a guilty-pleasure reality show teach us about immigration and democracy in America?

A widely criticized legal principle disproportionately puts youth of color and women behind bars. But is it the only way to hold police accountable when they kill?

The story of our national parks, sometimes called “America’s best idea,” leaves out a very big group of people. The Ojibwe writer David Treuer is trying to change that.

Jeffrey Young’s patients say he helped them like nobody else could, but prosecutors indicted him following a huge painkiller bust. His case offers a unique look at the opioid crisis.

Where do our rights over our own bodies end and our duties to others begin? An answer lies in the story of a 1905 Supreme Court case about government-mandated vaccines.

Yusuf Ahmed Nur volunteered to counsel a man on death row. He never intended to witness the execution.

How did a hugely diverse group of people in the United States get lumped together? The answer involves Chicanos, the census, and Celia Cruz.

What does it take to overcome one of the oldest disinformation campaigns in American history?

Filipinos make up 4 percent of nurses in the U.S. Why do they account for a third of the nurses who have died from COVID-19 in America?

What a polarizing garment says about America

American democracy is younger, and more fragile, than we’ve been taught. One woman lived through the whole thing. 

Inside Yellowstone National Park, there’s a glitch in the U.S. Constitution.

Stories from an unfinished country. A new series from The Atlantic and WNYC Studios.