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Chocolate is selling at record highs. But for West African cocoa farmers, it’s not exactly a windfall. In a small town near the border of the Osun and Ondo states of Nigeria, Olasunkanmi Abdulwahab, known to everyone as Baba, watches cars zoom by on the road. When a lorry trudges past us, we can smell its contents: ...

The all-steel Lustron was supposed to be an elixir for many of the housing problems we still face today. The house looks like it’s from an era that never happened. Tucked on a side street of a tony Dallas neighborhood filled with McMansions — and around the corner from actual mansions that sell for more than $2m — i...

Retailers, casinos, and grocery stores use a trick called temporal distortion to make you forget about the real world. The week before Christmas last year, I went to a mall in my hometown. I wanted to buy a gift for my brother and browse through Barnes & Noble. Instead I purchased a smoothie from a vendor by the esc...

Jen Glantz sat in her Manhattan apartment on a Friday night with a bottle of two-buck chuck, a keyboard, and years’ worth of frustration. She’d just hung up with two friends. Were they friends? She wondered. Neither had been in touch for years, but they came to her with the same request: Would she be their bridesmai...

This story was originally published on July 11, 2020. Imagine this: An airline loses your checked bag. After an extensive search, customer support comes up empty-handed. They compensate you and life goes on. But life goes on for your suitcase, too. Written off as “unclaimed,” it sits in a musty collection depot for ...

On a foggy morning in February 2017, federal agents in an unmarked car pulled over a white Toyota Corolla in Orange County, California. Guns at the ready, they cautiously approached the vehicle. In the driver’s seat sat Shawn Lee, a 29-year-old clad in a black baseball cap. As the agents drew closer, they could see ...