Archive 2021 - The Atavist Magazine

Archive

2021

‘We Wish to Be Able to Sing’

For more than half a century, the people of Easter Island lived under an oppressive colonial regime. Then a schoolteacher sparked an unlikely revolution.

by Mike Damiano

A Feast for Lost Souls

In Sinaloa, Mexico, women are recovering the bodies of missing loved ones—and cooking to keep memories of the dead alive.

by Annelise Jolley and Zahara Gómez Lucini

The Butcher of Havana

How a drifter from Milwaukee became the chief executioner of the Cuban revolution and a test case for U.S. civil rights.

by Tony Perrottet

Searching for Mr. X

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

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.

by Nile Cappello

The Love Bomb

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.

by Daniel Kolitz

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.

by Ariel Ramchandani and Seyward Darby

The Snitch

In Scott Kimball, the FBI thought it had found a high-value informant who could help solve big cases. What it got instead were lies, betrayal, and murder.

by Jordan Michael Smith

Invisible Kid

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.

by Maddy Crowell

The Lives of Others

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.

by Lindsay Jones

Cat and Mouse

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.

by Phil Hoad

The Gilded Age

Gold mined in the jungles of Peru brought riches to three friends in Miami—but it also carried ruin.

by Scott Eden