Stanford dismantled its famously spontaneous campus life. The cost may be what made it great: cultivating free, independent agency in its students.

In 2009, a disastrous project on Sepulveda Pass revealed the roadblocks that stop the U.S. from being able to build.

From obesity and microbiome decline to autoimmune disorders, the modern industrial diet has become a species-level biosecurity threat.

In 1945, Kishi Nobosuke was a Manchukuo boss charged with war crimes. 12 years later he led postwar Japan, embodying an imperial ideology whose influence long outlasted its empire.

In the 1960s, Buddhism found a new spiritual homeland in California. It was the last step in a transformation that began generations before.

The consequences of fire suppression in California have challenged man’s relationship to the land. But the Golden State’s landscapes have always been intertwined with human vision—not separate from it.

Years of development under President Erdogan are changing the face of Istanbul. Instead of a rejuvenated capital, it has become a microcosm of Turkey’s wider conflicts.

Catalonia’s nationalist politicians made their careers on symbolic separatism. In 2017, a successful referendum for independence called their bluff.

When societies enter periods of chaos, the contingencies of history can change the world. These are the times of heroes.

China’s imperial elites have made a comeback after decades of Maoist persecution. When it comes to elite persistence, are they the exception or the rule?

Only a powerful modernizing force could overcome the tribal loyalties that divided Afghanistan’s fragile state. That force was the Taliban.

To some, civilization’s collapse promises a social and economic reset. But historical disasters show us that society is surprisingly resilient.

To survive the century, we need a new religious operating system that is the opposite of the metaverse. Palladium is pivoting to build a new temple OS.

Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle is the home of criminal militias and corrupt politicians. With quiet Chinese support, one man has made it his empire.

I arrived in Kharkiv as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Here’s what I saw.

With war underway in Ukraine, Russia and Europe are once again divided. Their ultimate dependency on China and the U.S. sounds the death knell for a multipolar world.

El Salvador, Russia, and Afghanistan have become unlikely hubs of crypto use. Instead of evading state power, digital currencies are reinforcing it.