One blockbuster longform story per month, with the most elegant writing, engaging video, and innovat
An nine-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards, The Atavist Magazine was the first digital-only publication to win for feature writing in 2015. We've also been nominated for two Emmys, and over a dozen of our stories have been optioned for Hollywood film and TV projects, with the likes of Todd Phillips, Miles Teller, and Edward Norton.
A romance scammer conned my mother, so I went to Nigeria to find him.
Issue no. 140 takes readers inside the world of "Yahoo boys," who pretend to be other people online to seduce foreigners into giving them money.
A writer's quest to find the con artist in Nigeria who duped his mother.
Gary Settle has helped dozens of federal prisoners get compassionate release. Will it ever be his turn to go home?
Issue no. 139.
Gary Settle has helped dozens of federal prisoners get compassionate release. Will it ever be his turn to go home?
"Not long before Herman departed on the trip to Seattle, a fortune-teller arrived at their doorstep, knelt, and laid out what the Seattle Daily Times later called “ancient grease-covered cards.” The fortune-teller predicted that Herman would soon be shipwrecked, leaving Mrs. Aberg a widow. Herman laughed. Mrs. Aberg begged him not to go on the journey, but Herman went anyway.
Mrs. Aberg would describe the unheeded premonition later, when Herman did not return to Powell Street, meeting his end in the cold, cruel ocean hundreds of miles from home. It would prove just one haunting detail in a story full of them."
Issue no. 138 is here!
A tale of disaster, survival, and ghosts.
Lesley Hu wanted to vaccinate her young son. Her conspiracy-obsessed ex-husband would do anything to stop her.
A story about family, disinformation, Trumpism, gun violence, domestic abuse, and more. Issue no. 137 by Eric Pape.
When Lesley Hu wanted to vaccinate her young son, her conspiracy-obsessed ex-husband went to unimaginable lengths to stop her.
Issue no. 133: Why were three Afghan women brutally murdered at the edge of Europe? A journey from Mazar-i-Sharif to Istanbul to Athens in search of answers.
Why were three Afghan women brutally murdered at the edge of Europe? A journey from Mazar-i-Sharif to Istanbul to Athens in search of answers.
A pioneering humanities program shaped a generation of students and brought acclaim to a public high school in Los Angeles. But beneath the excellence lurked a culture of abuse. “They put the magnet program’s reputation over a student’s well-being," said one of the Jane Does who recently filed suit against the school, claiming she was groomed and abused as a student. "That hurts, you know? At the end of the day, it was almost like they didn’t care.”
Issue no. 130.
A magnet program brought acclaim to a public high school in Los Angeles. But beneath the excellence lurked a culture of abuse.
There are no adequate words to thank Jackson Women’s Health Organization, aka The Pink House, for all the lives they’ve saved.
Jackson Women’s Health Organization was the last abortion clinic in Mississippi for years, and it was also the clinic leading the recent SCOTUS fight to save Roe.
We’re honored to have documented their lifesaving work over the years.
In 2013, Maisie Crow and EHRP's Alissa Quart followed the providers and patients of The Pink House as they worked tirelessly to stay open while caring for patients. Watch THE LAST CLINIC and read the accompanying article in The Atavist Magazine: https://t.co/jBzQlIluOz
In 2016, Maisie Crow and EHRP continued to document their critical work in the feature documentary, JACKSON. You can see the incredible fight that the clinic was forced to wage in the trailer: https://youtu.be/C5mNgKqYf-k
Our hearts are broken and filled with rage, but we are so grateful for the Pink House. And we know their fight to provide abortion care will continue. Thank you to all the doctors, workers, and clinic defenders who kept doors open for as long as they could.
In the waning days of the Cold War, Rainer Sonntag helped fuel a neo-N**i movement that still plagues Germany today. He was also a Communist spy—and he worked for Vladimir Putin.
Issue no. 128, by Sean Williams and Leigh Baldwin, published in partnership with Source Material
In the waning days of the Cold War, Rainer Sonntag helped fuel a neo-N**i movement that still plagues Germany today. He was also a Communist spy—and worked for Vladimir Putin.
"For the previous 35 years, Tim Brown had been living a carefully constructed lie. He wasn’t just an aging retiree with a passion for aviation. In fact, he wasn’t Tim Brown at all."
"The Fugitive Next Door" is issue no. 127!
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.
2022 Dart Award Winners Announced May 5, 2022 The 2022 Dart Awards went to the Atavist for "A Feast for Lost Souls" and to the Los Angeles Times for "Disease, Inequity and Resilience in South L.A." Honorable mentions went to NPR, The Outlaw Ocean Project and Vanity Fair. Francine Orr / Los Angeles T...
Issue no. 126: 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 definitive story about the "real-life Gone Girl" case, by Katia Savchuk.
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.
Issue no. 125: An imprisoned artist, the couple who saved his life, and the extraordinary gift he gave in return.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-caregivers-prison-art-michigan-love-dementia/
An imprisoned artist, the couple who saved his life, and the extraordinary gift he gave in return.
Congrats to Annelise Jolley and Zahara Gomez Lucini for winning the 2022 Madeline Dane Ross Award from the Overseas Press Club of America! This award honors the best international reporting showing concern for the human condition. Annelise and Zahara's win marks the first time The Atavist has earned an OPC award. We're honored!
In Sinaloa, Mexico, women are recovering the bodies of missing loved ones—and cooking to keep memories of the dead alive.
Valeri Minakov’s parents were dead, starved on their own Ukrainian soil by occupying forces. His wife was gone. There was nothing left for Valeri or for his young son, Oleg, in Russia. And just past the horizon, America beckoned. So in June 1945, Valeri and Oleg set out in a homemade kayak to cross the Bering Strait, hoping to defect West by going East. They were the first—and only—Soviet citizens on record to make the perilous voyage. But making landfall wasn't the end of their journey. In issue no. 124, Bill Donahue tells their incredible story.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-voyagers-russia-bering-strait-stalin-alaska-ukraine/
In 1945, a father and his young son set out across the Bering Strait, fleeing Soviet Russia for a better life in America. Neither knew how perilous their journey would become.
We're excited to announce that we're a double nominee for the 2022 National Magazine Awards! Honored to receive nods in the Profile Writing and Video categories. Winners will be announced in April. Stay tuned!
https://asme.memberclicks.net/american-society-of-magazine-editors-announces-finalists-for-2022-national-magazine-awards
NEW YORK (February 24, 2022)—The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) today announced via Twittercast the finalists for the 2022 National Magazine Awards. The 57th annual awards honor magazines and websites for editorial excellence in categories ranging from Reporting and Photography to Pod...
Issue no. 122: For more than half a century, the people of Easter Island lived under an oppressive colonial regime. Then a schoolteacher sparked an unlikely revolution.
https://magazine.atavist.com/we-wish-to-be-able-to-sing-easter-island-chile-revolution/
For more than half a century, the people of Easter Island lived under an oppressive colonial regime. Then a schoolteacher sparked an unlikely revolution.
Eight years ago, we published a short documentary about the last abortion clinic in Mississippi—the one now at the center of efforts to overturn Roe v Wade. The film was nominated for an Emmy.
Watch it here, and read the accompanying essay.
Film by Maisie Crow
Essay by Alissa Quart
An Emmy-nominated portrait of the last abortion clinic in Mississippi.
Issue no. 121: Meet the women in Sinaloa, Mexico, who feed the dead.
A special multimedia project, from writer Annelise Jolley and photographer-videographer Zahara Gomez Lucini.
In Sinaloa, Mexico, women are recovering the bodies of missing loved ones—and cooking to keep memories of the dead alive.
Issue no. 120: How a drifter from Milwaukee became the chief executioner of the Cuban Revolution—and a test case for U.S. civil rights.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-butcher-of-havana-cuba-che-castro-aclu/
How a drifter from Milwaukee became the chief executioner of the Cuban revolution and a test case for U.S. civil rights.
Issue no. 119: For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?
By Laura Todd Carns
With illustrations by Ben Jones
https://magazine.atavist.com/searching-for-mr-x-amnesia-mississippi-radio-mystery/
For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?
Issue no. 118: Remember the Soul Asylum video for "Runaway Train"? Our new story is about one of the kids featured in it: Aundria Bowman. Her parents said she'd run away from home, but that wasn't true—and one of them knew it. Three decades later, when two amateur sleuths set out to learn what happened to the Aundria, they thought they were trying to crack one cold case. But the deeper they dug, the more horrifying the truth became.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-girl-in-the-picture-aundria-bowman-dennis-murder-michigan-cold-case/
A sketch artist and a grieving mother set out to solve a cold case. The more they dug, the more terrifying the truth became.
Issue no. 117: For 50 years, Enthusiastic Sobriety programs have promised to help teenagers kick drug and alcohol addiction. But former followers say ES doesn’t save lives—it destroys them.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-love-bomb-enthusiastic-sobriety-bob-meehan-abuse-cult-drugs-rehab/
For 50 years, Enthusiastic Sobriety programs have promised to help teenagers kick drug and alcohol addiction. But former followers say ES doesn’t save lives—it destroys them.
"They were supposed to be silver—silver slippers on a golden road. That’s how Dorothy’s shoes are described in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But in the film version, the color changed. A screenwriter hastily crossed out 'silver.' Technicolor was about thinking brighter. The shoes would be ruby instead."
Issue no. 116, our first-ever narrative podcast, has arrived!
Listen here: https://magazine.atavist.com/no-place-like-home-wizard.../
and/or
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../no-place-like.../id1570685298
In 2005, a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz was stolen from a small town in Minnesota. Who took them, and where did they go? In an eight-part narrative podcast, two journalists search for answers.
We made a podcast! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen to shows. The first episode drops tomorrow.
https://deadline.com/2021/06/no-place-like-home-seyward-darby-ariel-ramchandani-podcast-heist-of-dorothy-iconic-ruby-slippers-1234774042/
EXCLUSIVE: The wild story behind the heist of Dorothy’s iconic ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz is the subject of a new podcast series hosted by Seyward Darby and Ariel Ramchandani. No Place…
Congrats to Max Blau on being a finalist for a Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma for his phenomenal Atavist story, "Revive" (March 2020).
A fatal overdose, a stunning coincidence, and a mother’s long quest to heal.
Issue no. 114: Sentenced to life in prison at 16, Adolfo Davis hoped a Supreme Court ruling would give him a chance at a new beginning. But nothing about freedom turned out as he expected.
Story by Maddy Crowell
Photos by Akilah Townsend
https://magazine.atavist.com/invisible-kid-adolfo-davis-chicago-prison-justice-juvenile-life-parole/
Sentenced to life in prison at 16, Adolfo Davis hoped a Supreme Court ruling would give him a chance at a new beginning. But nothing about freedom turned out as he expected
Big news: We've redesigned the website, and migrated to WordPress.com! Check out the gorgeous new magazine via our latest story, issue no. 113, which has already been viewed more than 250,000 times because it's just that good.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-lives-of-others-newfoundland-come-by-chance-cottage-hospitals-nurse-tiger-babies/
Two women gave birth on the same day in a place called Come By Chance. They didn’t know each other, and never would. Half a century later, their children made a shocking discovery.
Issue no. 112 is here! With dozens of felines turning up dead around London, a pair of pet detectives set out to prove it was the work of a serial killer. Writer Phil Hoad follows them on the trail of the Croydon Cat Killer, aka UK Animal Killer, aka Jack the Rippurr, aka Pooboy.
https://magazine.atavist.com/cat-and-mouse-london-serial-killer-snarl-slain-pets
With dozens of felines turning up dead around London, a pair of pet detectives set out to prove it was the work of a serial killer.
We are 10 years old! That's right, we've been telling awesome stories for a whole decade. And here's our latest: So they were buying illegal gold from a known criminal and lying about it—what could go wrong? A tale of greed, grift, and murder from award-winning reporter Scott Eden.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-gilded-age-peru-gold-ntr-elemetal-illegal-mining-ferrari
Gold mined in the jungles of Peru brought riches to three friends in Miami—but it also carried ruin.
Issue no. 110: Could shrunken heads from the Amazon hold the key to curing cancer? One man thought so—and spent a lifetime trying to prove it. "The Secret Formula," by Steven Lance.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-secret-formula-wilburn-ferguson-cancer-peru-amazon-medicine
Could shrunken heads from the Amazon hold the key to curing cancer? One man thought so—and spent a lifetime trying to prove it.
Issue no. 109! While renovating a house in San Francisco, a couple discovered a diary that had been hidden away for more than a century. It held a love story—and a mystery.
By Christina Lalanne
With illustrations by Jacqueline Tam
https://magazine.atavist.com/castles-in-the-sky-san-francisco-denmark-diary-love-mystery
While renovating a house in San Francisco, a couple discovered a diary that had been hidden away for more than a century. It held a love story, and a mystery.
Issue no. 108! Inside the Epoch Times: How an aspiring poet in Brooklyn became a tool in a right-wing propaganda blitz linked to Falun Gong.
By Oscar Schwartz
With illustrations by Jonno Rattman
https://magazine.atavist.com/stranger-than-fiction-epoch-times-falun-gong-trump-election-2020
Inside the Epoch Times: How an aspiring poet in Brooklyn became a tool in a right-wing propaganda blitz linked to Falun Gong.
Issue no. 107: 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.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-pretender-lois-reiss-minnesota-florida-gambling-murder
A shocking crime spree, a surprising culprit: How a Minnesota grandmother became a killer.
Issue no. 104: The recent protests have been going on for five weeks. 66 years ago, a group of Black mothers marched every school day for EIGHTEEN MONTHS, demanding justice for their children. The school district in Hillsboro, Ohio had told them to wait patiently for integration; they refused. Their protest became the basis for the first test case of Brown v. Board north of the Mason-Dixon.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-long-walk-civil-rights-hillsboro-ohio-segregation-black-lives-matter
When a group of Black mothers in Ohio were told to wait for school integration, they started marching every day in protest. They kept going for nearly 18 months.
Issue no 103, which somehow never got posted here -- our apologies!
A butterfly named Flamingo, an epic migration, and the crusade to save one of America’s most iconic species.
https://magazine.atavist.com/long-may-they-reign-monarch-butterfly-climate-change-california-migration
A butterfly named Flamingo, an epic migration, and the crusade to save one of America’s most iconic species.
Issue no. 103 is coming this weekend! Here's a sneak peek: on the trail of monarch butterflies' epic migration.
Issue 102 is here!
When he was a boy, a freak accident and a circus hypnotist helped Aleksander Kulisiewicz develop a remarkable power of memory. He could write words on the "blank page" of his mind, retain them, and call them forth whenever he wished, like pulling a book from a shelf. At 21, imprisoned in a N**i concentration camp, he began mentally archiving the music he heard men singing—music they had written at the camp, to document life as they experienced it. But to save the songs of the Holocaust, Kulisiewicz first had to save himself.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-bard-holocaust-music-nazis-jewish-survivors-poland
One man's quest to save the music of the Holocaust.
Issue 101 is here!
Joy Fishman's son died of an overdose. A decade later, she learned that there was a vial in her bathroom cabinet that could have saved him.
https://magazine.atavist.com/revive-naloxone-narcan-harm-reduction-opioid-crisis-miami-florida
A fatal drug overdose, a stunning coincidence, and a mother’s quest to heal.
A special update on issue number 69, “Not Fuzz": When The Atavist stood up to legal threats and demands that we take this story down, the magazine became an apparent target of deceit and fraud. Here's what happened.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-con-continues-not-fuzz-update-steve-farzam
A special update on issue number 69, “Not Fuzz.”
Our 100th issue has landed! A telekinetic teenager became a convicted child killer. Can a group of strangers prove that Christina Boyer is really a victim of injustice? By award-winning writer Lauren Markham, this is , "Deliverance."
https://magazine.atavist.com/deliverance-christina-boyer-georgia-murder-justice-telekinesis
A telekinetic teenager became a convicted killer. Can a group of strangers prove that Christina Boyer is really a victim of injustice?
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Issue no. 103 is coming this weekend! Here's a sneak peek: on the trail of monarch butterflies' epic migration.
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