The same “Stephen Hawking voice” is used by little girls, old men, and people of every racial and ethnic background. Inside the quest to give people a voice of their own.

When a call center gig turns out to be something else.

Last year, the U.S. state department said it had uncovered a fake embassy in Accra that had been issuing a stream of forged visas. The story went viral. It was wrong.

The story of a national obsession.

On Graham Greene, the master of “ethical ambivalence.”

The role of a writer in 2017.

Davon Mayer was a smalltime dealer in west Baltimore who made an illicit deal with local police. Then they turned on him.

On the new art of interrogation.

“When he’s judged I’m judged.”

A teenager in a dreary suburb of Paris live-streams her own suicide—and acquires a morbid kind of digital celebrity.

On Princess Diana of Wales.

Apples, plastic bags, teeth. The author’s letter to his unborn child.

Survivors of the 2011 Japanese tsunami in a small town on the north-east coast are haunted by a split second decision at a local school.

“The true impact of activism may not be felt for a generation. That alone is reason to fight.”

On coming to see your home country the way the rest of the world does.

When Isis rounded up Yazidi women and girls in Iraq to use as slaves, the captives drew on their collective memory of past oppressions – and a powerful will to survive.

Life in Nucla, Colorado.

Inside the economics of scientific publishing, an industry that’s somehow nearly as profitable as film and has changed the course of science in the process.

A profile of philosopher Timothy Morton, who wants humanity to give up some of its core beliefs.

Two days with a group of white nationalists in Kentucky.

“This is Britain in 2017. A Britain that increasingly looks like a “managed” democracy. Paid for by a US billionaire. Using military-style technology. Delivered by Facebook. And enabled by us.”

The life cycle of a drilling platform.

Harmony smiles, blinks and frowns. She can hold a conversation, tell jokes and quote Shakespeare. She’ll remember your birthday, McMullen told me, what you like to eat, and the names of your brothers and sisters. She can hold a conversation about music, movies and books. And of course, Harmony will have sex with you whenever you want.

During my first weeks in Rogers Park, I was surprised by how often I heard the word “pioneer”. I heard it first from the white owner of an antiques shop with signs in the windows that read: “Warning, you are being watched and recorded.” When I stopped off in his shop, he welcomed me to the neighbourhood warmly and delivered an introductory speech dense with code. This neighbourhood, he told me, needs “more people like you”. He and other “people like us” were gradually “lifting it up”.

Excerpted from Notes From No Man’s Land

The story of Lisa S. Davis and Lisa S. Davis.