Showing results by narrator "Kevin Stillwell" in All Categories

What does it mean to be Chinese?

In 1900, in his “Address to the Nations of the World” at the first Pan-African Conference, in London, W. E. B. Du Bois proclaimed that the “problem of the 20th century” was “the problem of the color-line, the question as to how far differences of race - which show themselves chiefly in the color of the skin and the texture of the hair - will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization.”

When marriages, friendships, and families come undone, to what lengths do we go to keep it all together? That question lies at the heart of Brendan Mathews's buoyant and unforgettable debut collection of moving and darkly witty stories. From rock-star flameouts to church burnings to ordinary people trying not to fall out of love, these stories are packed with vivid detail, emotional precision, and deft, redemptive humor.

Trump’s rise has made Canadians more conscious of—and more full-throated defenders of—the pluralistic values that inform their society. Without meaning to, Trump has done much to give Canada the elevated international stature it has long craved.

During and after several long hospital stays for what should have been a simple knee replacement but turned into something much more exhausting, writer Robert Ungar reflects on his deep intrigue with the way hospitals are managed. In Hospital Impressions, Ungar delves into the roles of nurses and doctors, the day-to-day madness visited upon the patients, and his own personal history with the medical world.

The Russian millennials who will inherit Vladimir Putin's political system won't upend it. Drawing on hours of conversations with Russia's future leaders, Ellen Mickewicz explains why they will uphold the status quo.

Far from being a "First World problem", mental illness is a global scourge that affects people of all incomes and backgrounds. By 2030, mental disorders will cost the global economy around $6 trillion a year - more than heart disease.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, talks to Foreign Affairs about American competitiveness, creative disruption, and why he runs into the office every morning.

Since the early 1990s, a handful of oligarchs has dominated Greece’s economy and politics. So long as these elites have a vested interest in keeping things as they are, the country will never fully find its way out of crisis.

The United States must develop a modern nuclear arsenal, including low-yield warheads, lest it lose the ability to credibly defend its allies against potential attacks by rivals such as China and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in early 2014 was the most consequential decision of his 16 years in power. By annexing a neighboring country’s territory by force, Putin overturned in a single stroke the assumptions on which the post–Cold War European order had rested. The question of why Putin took this step is of more than historical interest.

Tank is a retired New York City cop coping with two teenage problems: One is his recently orphaned nephew, and the other is a girl whose decomposed body was found in a cooler off the Henry Hudson Parkway. Determined to bring the girl's killer to justice, Tank hits the streets of Upper Manhattan, chasing leads and searching for clues about her tragically short life.

Thirty-five years now. Through American invasions and wars, and famines and genocides, and tsunamis and earthquakes and volcanoes, George Waite’s red, white, and blue mail truck has lurched from mailbox to mailbox with the utter predictability of a brightly painted figure on a cuckoo clock.

The city of River’s Edge has been quarantined due to a rodent borne rabies outbreak. But it quickly becomes clear to the citizens that the infection is something much, much worse than rabies.... The townsfolk are attacked and fed upon by packs of the living dead. Labeling the infected residents “bees” for their tendency to travel in swarms, Gavin and Benny attempt to survive the chaos in River’s Edge while making their way north in search of sanctuary. No one knows what waits outside the quarantined zone....

A successful right-wing campaign in India to suppress the work of Wendi Doniger, a prominent scholar of Hinduism, suggests that conservative voices are gaining the upper hand in the country’s long struggle between secular liberalism and religious nationalism.

U.S. and European officials need to understand how Russia really thinks about foreign policy. To resolve the Ukraine crisis and prevent similar ones from occurring in the future, they need to get better at putting themselves in Moscow's shoes.

An end to Russia’s intrusions into Ukraine would bring some measure of respite to Kiev. However, that alone will not be enough to place the country on a truly new path. For that, Ukraine must overcome its self-inflicted problems, in particular rampant and pervasive corruption.

What's fascinating about Dani Shapiro's story "Supernova" is "its focus on the minor catastrophe that is Shenkman, a relatively prosperous man whose minor shortcomings feel, to him alone, monumental and impossible to overlook," writes Benjamin Samuel, co-editor of Electric Literature, in his introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading. "Despite rowing every day, obsessively racing against an old rival in a computerized simulation, nobody even knows Shenkman is still competing."

United States president Steve Wade believes his latest affair, with the beautiful Lucia Benoni, is a secret. When Lucia is murdered under mysterious circumstances, FBI agent Kelly Smith is called to investigate. As he dives deeper into the case, he uncovers links between Lucia, a hostile foreign power, a group of vicious white supremacists, and a shadowy high-placed Washington figure known only as “Fox.”

Contrary to Trump’s claim that trade agreements hurt the United States, the country remains the world’s leading user of non-tariff barriers to protect domestic producers.