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.

The Girl in the Picture

A sketch artist and a grieving mother set out to solve a cold case. The more they dug, the more terrifying the truth became.

“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?

Big Game

The San Luis Valley was a wildlife poacher’s paradise. Then George Morrison arrived.

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.

Damages

An ob-gyn in Virginia performed unnecessary surgeries on patients for decades. When his victims learned the truth, they fought back.

Who Killed the Fudge King?

How I (possibly) solved a cold case on my summer vacation.

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.

The Fugitive Next Door

Tim Brown seemed like a typical Florida retiree—he loved doting on his wife, fishing with friends, and flying his plane. But his life was built on a secret.

The Pretender

People in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, thought Lois Riess was a nice wife and grandmother. If she had a vice, it was playing the slots. Then she committed murder.

“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.

All That Glitters

His alleged victims say he bribed New York Police Department officials, stole millions in diamonds, and persuaded Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Kim Kardashian to shill for a scam cryptocurrency. So why is Jona Rechnitz still free?

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.