Life

Before the days of personal computers and search engines, Evelyn Wood promised that her speed-reading method could teach users to read thousands of words per minute, without loss of comprehension.

Anthopologist Don Kulick—author of “A Death in the Rainforest”—on his effort to learn and document Tayap while living in a remote, backwater swamp in violence-ridden Papua New Guinea.

Farzan Dehmoubed and Jennifer Duvall, husband and wife co-founders of Lotus Trolley Bags, aim to reduce plastic bag waste with the Lotus Trolley Bag, a set of four reusable bags that spread out accordion-style along the top of a grocery store shopping cart.

Lois Durso of Stop Underrides on side underride accidents—which are frequently fatal for motorists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists—and what can be done to make them less dangerous.

Marianne Karth—founder of annaleahmary.com and advocate for the Stop Underrides Act—on how we can prevent truck underride and make side and rear underride accidents more survivable.

What parents and communities can learn from the tiny town of Norwich, Vermont, which has placed an athlete on every U.S. Winter Olympics team but one since 1984.

Everyone has heard about fracking and its impact on communities where drilling takes place. Few have considered the impact of industrial-scale sand mining, even though so-called frac sand is a key ingredient in the hydraulic fracturing process.

Aussie academic Nick Hopwood on his Wall of Rejection, and how his “failures” help others keep rejection in perspective.

“Had we known the museum was going to be this successful we would have planned completely differently,” says Museum of Failure curator Samuel West.

The Museum of Failure, curated by Samuel West, exhibits a variety of failed consumer products.

Curator Samuel West opens Museum of Failure in Helsingborg, Sweden, where “learning is the only way to turn failure into success.”

Adrift for 438 days, Salvador Alvarenga's resilience, ingenuity, and determination allowed him to stay alive, with a huge assist from ordinary household garbage.

Stanford University sociologist Marianne Cooper on the anxiety generated by hard times.

The future looks bright (thanks to light pollution).

A critically-acclaimed “trash truck ballet” illustrates how workers in unenviable low-income jobs have something more to offer—given the opportunity to rise above the drudgery of their daily routines.

How epic amounts of waste are dragging us down—and what we can do about it.

Chicago speech pathologist Sarah Wu revolts against unhealthy school lunches and becomes an unlikely part of the school lunch reform movement.

Nudist camps have long had a hard time attracting the under-35 crowd. But thanks to social media and the rise of high-end resorts, young people are at last showing the lifestyle some love.

Private investigator Sam Brower says it’s going to take the resources of the federal government to control crime in Short Creek and other FLDS communities, because “[FLDS] have millions of dollars and they’re in it for life.”

“I would definitely like to win a Darwin Award on my grand exit,” acknowledges Northcutt, who once survived an incident that might have earned her that dubious honor.