The Atavist Magazine

“That’s Somebody’s Son”

When their sons began to suffer from profound mental illness, these Colorado women learned to lean on each other.

Fault Lines

A magnet program brought acclaim to a public high school in Los Angeles. But beneath the excellence lurked a culture of abuse.

“There Will Be No Mercy”

When Ethiopia’s government launched a brutal two-year war in Tigray, the region’s largest hospital was overrun with victims. The medical staff risked everything to treat the wounded—and believe the world ignored a genocide.

The Extremist in the Family

The Kerrs were devoted to one another and to their faith. But when one of their own rejected modern medicine in the name of God, they faced a dire question: What if her children ever needed a doctor to save their lives?

Toxic Lies: The Whistleblowers Who Exposed Decades of Nuclear Lies

In Paducah, Kentucky, workers at a revered uranium-enrichment plant were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Management assured them nothing was wrong. Then four friends risked everything to reveal the truth.

14,445 and Counting

Inside a Texas nurse’s quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America.

Sins of the Father

When Lesley Hu wanted to vaccinate her young son, her conspiracy-obsessed ex-husband went to unimaginable lengths to stop her.

A Crime Beyond Belief

A Harvard-trained lawyer was convicted of committing bizarre home invasions. Psychosis may have compelled him to do it. But in a case that became a public sensation, he wasn’t the only one who seemed to lose touch with reality.

“Your Honor, Can I Tell the Whole Story?”

A murder in New Orleans, a trial that lasted less than a day, and the lives they entangled for the next three decades.

The Desperado

In April 2018, a blind man with one foot robbed a bank in Austin, Texas. This is a heist story—but unlike any you’ve ever read.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia

For years, a mysterious figure preyed on gay men in Atlanta. People on the streets called him the Handcuff Man—but the police knew his real name.

The Truth Is Out There

A father’s disappearance, dark family secrets, and the hunt for Bigfoot.

Dead Reckoning

Fourteen U.S. destroyers barreled down the California coast in a dense fog—until a wrong turn led to the largest peacetime disaster in American naval history.

The Curious Case of Nebraska Man

A fossil tooth, a splashy debate, and a strange chapter in America’s long history of science denialism.

American Hippopotamus

A bracing and eccentric epic of espionage and hippos.

You Can Run

When their parents ripped two young sisters from their privileged lives, gave them fake names, and took them on the lam, they thought it was because their father was in trouble with the IRS. It would be years before they learned the truth about his life of crime.

American Hindenburg

In the early days of flight, airships were hailed as the future of war. Then disaster struck the USS Akron.

Crushed.

When Johna Ramirez’s son joined a wildly popular circle of tween YouTube influencers, it seemed like he was fulfilling his Hollywood dreams. But in the Squad, fame and fortune came at a cost.

The Buffalo Raiders

With thousands of soldiers dying in Vietnam, a group of friends in New York devised a plan to save lives.

A Hollywood Ending

We hear about the shootings that grab headlines, but what about those that don’t?