America’s astronomer laureate Neil deGrasse Tyson on the relationship between astrophysics and the military while eating soup in the back of a limo.

Books about whistleblowers, sneaks, truth-tellers, spies, rats, and tattletales.

Digital Privacy 101 from Kevin Mitnick, “the world’s most famous hacker.”

A leading Roman scholar compares the (then upcoming) 2016 election to the politics of the ancient world. Plenty of irony within.

Many are saying these are the essential items to make your administration amazing, just really unbelievable. [Written before the 2016 election.]

Geoff Manaugh’s A Burglar’s Guide to the City will change the way you look at architecture.

Journalist Bruce Barcott journeyed into the underworld of growers, sellers, and smokers. He returned with these seven mysterious relics.

Jon Ronson on social media and the Age of Shame.

Paul Fischer’s guide to the essential cinema of North Korea’s super-producer, Kim Jong-Il.

The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot author Blaine Harden’s primer on the essential, terrifying nuttiness of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Peter Pomerantsev — author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia — saw it all coming.